IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Australia has recently undergone a change of urban speed limits in most of its jurisdictions. The political and social shift in attitudes required for this change is significant in a country that has a strong reliance on the use of the private motor vehicle. At present five states and one territory...

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Main Authors: J.E. WOOLLEY, R. ZITO, C.B. DYSON, B. STAZIC, M.A.P. TAYLOR
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2002-01-01
Series:IATSS Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0386111214600388
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spelling doaj-4b92e283d82c49b7ba8eadde1cb084982020-11-25T02:49:37ZengElsevierIATSS Research0386-11122002-01-0126261710.1016/S0386-1112(14)60038-8IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIAJ.E. WOOLLEYR. ZITOC.B. DYSONB. STAZICM.A.P. TAYLORAustralia has recently undergone a change of urban speed limits in most of its jurisdictions. The political and social shift in attitudes required for this change is significant in a country that has a strong reliance on the use of the private motor vehicle. At present five states and one territory have lowered the speed limit in urban areas from 60km/h to 50km/h. Of the remaining two states and territories, one has already implemented lower speed limits (40km/h) in small areas within cities. In the majority of cases, the only criterion for judging the success of such schemes is an observed reduction in both speeds and crash numbers. This paper reports on a more holistic assessment of such schemes taking into account factors in addition to speed and crashes including: traffic volume displacement, physical road network characteristics, environmental factors, community ownership and acceptance, enforcement effort and impact on travel times. The research work has included the analysis of extensive traffic data, community surveys and focus groups, the collection of environmental and travel time data from an instrumented probe vehicle and the computer modelling of road networks. The work reported is based on over 10 years of working with a 40km/h lower urban speed limit area in South Australia. The paper expands the notion of using speed and crash outcomes as the only criteria for measuring the success of lower speed limit schemes.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0386111214600388Speed limitsImpactsAmenityTraffic modellingEnvironment
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author J.E. WOOLLEY
R. ZITO
C.B. DYSON
B. STAZIC
M.A.P. TAYLOR
spellingShingle J.E. WOOLLEY
R. ZITO
C.B. DYSON
B. STAZIC
M.A.P. TAYLOR
IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
IATSS Research
Speed limits
Impacts
Amenity
Traffic modelling
Environment
author_facet J.E. WOOLLEY
R. ZITO
C.B. DYSON
B. STAZIC
M.A.P. TAYLOR
author_sort J.E. WOOLLEY
title IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
title_short IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
title_full IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
title_fullStr IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
title_full_unstemmed IMPACTS OF LOWER SPEED LIMITS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
title_sort impacts of lower speed limits in south australia
publisher Elsevier
series IATSS Research
issn 0386-1112
publishDate 2002-01-01
description Australia has recently undergone a change of urban speed limits in most of its jurisdictions. The political and social shift in attitudes required for this change is significant in a country that has a strong reliance on the use of the private motor vehicle. At present five states and one territory have lowered the speed limit in urban areas from 60km/h to 50km/h. Of the remaining two states and territories, one has already implemented lower speed limits (40km/h) in small areas within cities. In the majority of cases, the only criterion for judging the success of such schemes is an observed reduction in both speeds and crash numbers. This paper reports on a more holistic assessment of such schemes taking into account factors in addition to speed and crashes including: traffic volume displacement, physical road network characteristics, environmental factors, community ownership and acceptance, enforcement effort and impact on travel times. The research work has included the analysis of extensive traffic data, community surveys and focus groups, the collection of environmental and travel time data from an instrumented probe vehicle and the computer modelling of road networks. The work reported is based on over 10 years of working with a 40km/h lower urban speed limit area in South Australia. The paper expands the notion of using speed and crash outcomes as the only criteria for measuring the success of lower speed limit schemes.
topic Speed limits
Impacts
Amenity
Traffic modelling
Environment
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0386111214600388
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