A multipronged anti-speeding effort succeeds in slowing traffic

(These five soundbites are from David Harkey, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s president. For more about the study, visit iihs.org.) “Road-deaths have been climbing—and more than a quarter of them are connected to speeding. As this study shows, combining enforcement, engineering, and education can successfully slow drivers down. However, the results suggest that these efforts need to be sustained—in order to be truly successful over the long term.” (:19) “The project took place last summer, and involved a rural, two-lane road that’s popular with beachgoers—on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, near the border with Delaware. To help slow traffic, the lanes were narrowed by widening the painted edge- and center-lines. Speed-feedback signs—which display vehicle-speeds dynamically to drivers as they pass—were also installed. Plus, Maryland highway-officials conducted public outreach about both the lane-narrowing and their planned speed-enforcement; this included flyers, signs, ads, and social-media messages.” (:37) “During the campaign, average speeds fell by nine-percent. There was also a 78-percent reduction in the odds that a vehicle exceeded the speed-limit by any amount—and an 80-percent reduction in the odds of speeding by more than 10 miles-per-hour. Broad public-awareness of the campaign likely played a big role in slowing these drivers down.” (:22) “About a month after the campaign started, both the publicity and the high-visibility enforcement ended; soon after that, the speed-feedback signs were removed, and the corridor was again marked with regular-width lane-lines, following a planned repaving. Unfortunately, average speeds afterwards were just two-percent lower than before the program began. These findings underscore the importance of a sustained, long-term effort to combat speeding.” (:29) “Speeding is one of our biggest ongoing safety-problems—and it grew worse, during the pandemic. Slowing drivers down can prevent crashes—and reduce the severity of any crashes that do occur. Enforcement, road-design elements, and public outreach are all important tools [that] communities can use, to reduce the number of people that are killed or injured in crashes.” (:24)