When speed limits on highways are raised, the result could be more crashes on nearby roads.
This "spillover effect" from driving at high speeds creates unintended safety hazards for local communities due to increased crash risk.
Those are the highlights of new research released on Thursday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a nonprofit research and education association.
“Increasing posted speed limits on freeways may improve traffic flow but could also lead to safety concerns in adjacent communities once speeding drivers proceed to neighboring roadways,” David Yang, president and executive director of the AAA Foundation, said in a statement. “Local streets around our homes are designed for slower speeds and diverse road users such as pedestrians and cyclists—not for speeding drivers.”
The report, “Uncovering the Spillover Effect from Posted Speed Limit Changes: A Tool to Examine Potential Safety Concerns,” examined whether changes to posted speed limits on interstate highways could cause drivers to adopt risky speeding behaviors on local streets. Crash data before and after speed limit increases on interstates in Georgia, Michigan, and Oregon were analyzed. “Hot spot” areas on roads within a 1-mile radius of interstates were assessed.
Researchers found many instances where speed-related crashes increased on nearby roads following the interstate speed limit change, according to the report, suggesting that drivers exiting the highway continued their tendency to drive fast.
The report is important, researchers said, as it brings attention to the fact that the speeding overflow creates inadvertent safety risks for local communities that might not be involved in the decision-making process to raise the posted speed limit on a nearby highway. More generally, speeding is a significant safety concern, contributing to almost one-third of road fatalities, the safety group said, quoting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
Key findings from the report:
AAA recommends a multi-pronged approach to combat speeding behavior that includes: public awareness campaigns focused on the riskiest drivers; automated speed enforcement and screening tools; and road design that incorporates narrow lanes, speed bumps, roadway landscaping, and curb extensions.
“This research has uncovered an unintended but potentially lethal consequence of raising highway speed limits,” Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety advocacy, said in a statement. “With the U.S. near a record-high traffic death toll, road authorities can use these findings and an effective tool to pinpoint lifesaving solutions to help ensure that we all get home safely each day.”.
For more information and to download the report, click here.
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