Greek Guidelines for Setting Speed Limits

Establishing reliable speed limits aims to address public interest by protecting drivers operating within the legal speeds and restricting unreasonably high speeds. The aim of this paper is to present the main points (technical information, rules, and data) that were used to develop guidelines for setting speed limits in the Greek National Road Network in order to address road safety problems for both rural and urban roads. The guidelines emphasize the concept that is necessary to set a speed limit when it is considered or realized that even when drivers with increased attention are not capable to safely navigate a road section with a certain speed. The establishment of local speed limit is acceptable only if the responsible services have exhausted or excluded all possible engineering solutions for a given roadway section. The 85th percentile speed is the characteristic traffic parameter that is related better with that speed limit which is considered reasonable and safe. In any case the study of determination speed limits is a complicated and complex process.