Managing speed - towards safe and sustainable road transport

Excessive speed increases both the risk of a crash and the severity of crash outcomes. Speed recurrently contributes to crashes when driving speeds are higher than speed limits or higher than circumstances allow such as rain, fog, high traffic volumes. The current concern over climate change has also put spotlight on the role of road transport in atmospheric pollution. The proportion of carbon dioxide emissions attributed to road transport has been rising unlike that of other sectors. Properly enforced national speed limits could provide an extremely efficient carbon-abatement policy. However, law enforcement is difficult as speeding remains the most widespread offence. It is estimated by the OECD that at any one moment 50% of drivers are exceeding legal speed limits. Unlike other safety violations, such as drink driving or non-use of safety belts, enforcing speed compliance requires the majority of drivers to change their behaviour. A policy mix of measures is considered necessary to tackle the problem of speeding effectively. Speed management can be achieved by taking action in all of the road safety pillars (vehicle, driver, and infrastructure), allowing for an effective 'policy mix'. In fact speed management is probably the only road safety area of work that offers such scope. This is an obvious asset but it can also be a handicap as adopting measures in isolation will not reduce excessive speed significantly. The full text of this publication may be found at: http://www.pacts.org.uk/docs/pdf-bank/Managing%20Speed.pdf