Noteworthy Practice Booklet – Speed Management

NHTSA · 2020 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration

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Summary

This Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) booklet presents case studies of noteworthy speed management practices implemented by various U.S. and international agencies. The document addresses the persistent safety challenge of speeding, which is a leading contributor to fatal and serious injury crashes, particularly involving vulnerable road users. It highlights strategies that move beyond traditional enforcement to include engineering, education, and data-driven policy changes. The City of Austin, Texas, adopted a comprehensive speed management program aligned with its Vision Zero goals. Austin identified a High Injury Network and utilized the USLIMITS2 tool to set context-appropriate speed limits on collector and arterial streets, prioritizing safety over the traditional 85th percentile method. The program integrates engineering countermeasures, such as bulb-outs and traffic circles, with data-driven enforcement and community engagement. Austin established specific metrics, aiming for a 40% reduction in serious injuries and fatalities at locations with major capital improvements over five years. The City of Golden, Colorado, demonstrated the efficacy of self-enforcing roadways by redesigning South Golden Road. Facing speeding and safety issues on a wide arterial corridor, the city replaced traffic signals with four roundabouts and narrowed lanes using center medians. This engineering approach reduced the 85th percentile speed from 48 mph to 33 mph and decreased total crashes by 36% and injuries by 97%. The design also improved pedestrian and bicycle safety and had a positive impact on local businesses. New Hampshire DOT focused on setting credible speed limits to address legacy limits that were often too low for roadway conditions, leading to non-compliance. By conducting engineering and traffic investigations, the DOT increased speed limits on certain segments to align with the 85th percentile speed and roadway character. This collaboration with local law enforcement improved enforceability and driver compliance, emphasizing that credible limits are respected as maximums rather than minimums. The City of Oro Valley, Arizona, implemented a High Visibility Enforcement (HiVE) program targeting high-crash intersections. By deploying motorcycle officers and advertising deployments in advance through media partnerships, the program emphasized education over punishment. Over three years, HiVE resulted in a 27% reduction in crashes at targeted intersections, with only one in five drivers receiving a citation. New York City successfully adopted safety cameras in school zones through a data-driven approach, strong advocacy, and a comprehensive strategy. Cameras were placed in zones with high injury rates, resulting in a 63% decrease in speed and a 55% reduction in fatalities in those areas. The program was part of a broader Vision Zero initiative that included engineering improvements and public outreach, helping to overcome legislative and public resistance.

Key finding

Targeted interventions such as self-enforcing roadway designs, high-visibility enforcement, and automated speed cameras resulted in substantial reductions in vehicle speeds, crash frequencies, and fatalities across the studied jurisdictions.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Topics

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• speed management
• traffic safety culture
• perceptual countermeasures
• automated enforcement cameras
• speed choice

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence