Pilot Test of Heed the Speed, a Program to Reduce Speeds in Residential Neighborhoods
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DOT HS 810 648 August 2006 Pilot Test Of Heed The Speed, A Program To Reduce Speeds In Residential Neighborhoods This document is available to the public from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161 This publication is distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. If trade or manufacturers' names or products are mentioned, it is because they are considered essential to the object of the publication and should not be construed as an endorsement. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. DOT HS 810 648 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date August 2006 Pilot Test of Heed The Speed, a Program to Reduce Speeds 6. Performing Organization Code In Residential Neighborhoods 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No Richard D. Blomberg and Arlene M. Cleven 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Dunlap and Associates, Inc 110 Lenox Avenue Stamford, CT 06906. 11. Contract or Grant No. DTNH22-99-D-05099, Task Order 2 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Final Report U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 7/18/00 – 8/31/03 400 Seventh Street, SW 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Washington, DC 20590 15. Supplementary Notes Marvin M. Levy, Ph.D. was the Task Order Manager for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 16. Abstract There is abundant evidence that higher speeds are associated with more severe pedestrian injuries and increased death. Speeding is generally more dangerous for pedestrians on residential roads than on other roadways. There has been significant work on engineering approaches to traffic calming as a means of reducing neighborhood speeds. There have, however, been few attempts to combine public information, enforcement and innovative marking techniques with engineering changes as a means of achieving greater speed reductions. Some communities have used traffic calming on selected streets in a neighborhood but left others untouched because of objections voiced by emergency services. This has created streets within a defined calmed neighborhood where motorists continue to exceed prudent speeds – or at least exceed the speeds on adjacent calmed streets. The focus of the current study was therefore to determine whether enforcement and education techniques could achieve a meaningful speed reduction on untreated streets adjacent to streets that have received traffic calming treatments. Three neighborhoods each in two cities, Phoenix and Peoria, Arizona, were selected for a Heed the Speed program based on the expressed desire of the residents to moderate vehicle speeds and/or a history of excessive speeding. Multiple roads were part of the study in some of the 6 areas. Yard signs, pamphlets, and other education materials were distributed to area residents. The police increased enforcement patrols and tickets for speeding violations. They also added numerous “warning stops” for motorists exceeding the speed limit but below the range at which a stop would normally be made. Speed tables or speed humps were added in two of the neighborhoods in the middle of the 3-6 month campaign. Innovative pavement markings that created the illusion of impediments were tried in three of the neighborhoods. The program was evaluated by a pre/post mailed survey, by police data forms completed at each stop and by multiple waves of speed measurements using on-road traffic counters. The survey showed a strong increase in knowledge of the program, awareness of enforcement efforts and acceptance of the need to moderate speeds. Respondents also expressed a strong belief that speeds in their neighborhood had decreased since the Heed the Speed program was implemented. The police stop records showed that most violators were neighborhood residents. Speed measurements showed significant reductions in all 6 neighborhoods and on all test roads within the neighborhoods except one low volume street with pre-existing speed humps installed. The baseline speeds on this street were already well below the prevailing 25 mph speed limit and did not change significantly after the treatments. On all other treated roads, there was a significant increase in drivers complying with the speed limit and significant reductions in mean speed and in the percentage of vehicles doing 7 mph or more above the speed limit. Compliance increases ranged from 17% to over 117%. Mean speed reductions ranged from approximately 0.5 mph to over 3.5 mph. The drop in the percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit by 7 mph or more ranged from about 14% to over 70%. The extent of the speed reduction involving thousands of vehicles per day suggests that Heed the Speed programs could be effective in reducing crashes to pedestrians and in limiting the injury severity when a crash does occur. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Speed reduction Education Pedestrian safety Enforcement Document Is Available To The Public Through The National Technical Traffic calming Engineering Information Service, Springfield, Va 22161 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 231 Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) i This Page Intentionally Left Blank ii DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION TECHNICAL SUMMARY ===================================================================== Contractor Contract Dunlap and Associates, Inc. DTNH22-99-D-05099 _________________________________________________________________________Task Order 2_______ Report Title Report Date Pilot Test of Heed the Speed, a Program to Reduce Speeds August 2006 In Residential Neighborhoods ______________________________________________________________________________ Report Author(s) R.D. Blomberg and A.M. Cleven ______________________________________________________________________________ ===================================================================== There is abundant evidence that higher speeds are associated with more severe pedestrian injuries and death (Leaf and Preusser, 1999). One study has reported that 5 percent of pedestrians will die if struck by a vehicle traveling at 20 miles per hour, 45 percent will die if the striking vehicle is traveling at 30 miles per hour, 85 percent will die if the vehicle is traveling at 40 miles per hour, and almost all will die if the vehicle is traveling at 50 miles per hour (Department of Transport, 1997). In addition, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) national survey has revealed that drivers feel that speeding is more dangerous on residential roads than on other roadways, and that drivers believe that higher posted speeds will result in increased danger to neighborhood residents (Boyle, Dienstfrey, and Sothoron, 1998). There has been significant work on engineering approaches to traffic calming as a means to reduce neighborhood speeds (c.f., Ewing, 1999; Stuster, Coffman, and Warren, 1998). NHTSA has noted, however, that there have been few attempts to combine public information and enforcement techniques with engineering changes as a means of achieving greater speed reductions. NHTSA therefore funded the current study whose objective was to develop and test a behavior-based program to reduce motorist speed in residential areas by adding education and enforcement to engineering. It was determined that the study should focus on identifying the following types of neighborhoods/streets for this study: ● Neighborhoods/streets that have not been traffic calmed and where no traffic calming was planned – to permit a focus on the effects of education and enforcement alone on non-calmed streets. • Neighborhoods/streets in which traffic calming already existed – to permit study of the effects of adding education and enforcement to existing traffic calming measures. (Continued on additional pages) ===================================================================== “PREPARED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION UNDER CONTRACT NO.: DTNH22-99-D-05099, TASK ORDER 2. .THE OPINIONS, FINDINGS, AND CONCLUSIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION.” ===================================================================== HS Form 321 July 1974 iii ● Neighborhood streets that have not been traffic calmed but implementation of traffic calming measures was planned during the study period – to provide information on the effects of the concurrent implementation of education, enforcement, and engineering. The study was conducted in two neighboring Arizona cities – Phoenix and Peoria. Three neighborhoods were selected for study in each city. In Peoria, they were the Desert Harbor/91st Avenue neighborhood, the Bell Park neighborhood, and 95th Avenue. In Phoenix, they were Clarendon Avenue, Sweetwater Avenue, and the Moon Valley/Coral Gables neighborhood. Heed the Speed