The aim of the present study is to report the changes between the years 2013 and 2014 concerning driver speed levels and speed limit compliance on the main municipality streets. The year 2012 was the starting year for the measurement series, and in 2014, a second follow-up was performed. In conclusion, the lack of speed compliance remains a problem. Primarily, the speed limit compliance on roads with lower speed limits must be improved in order to reach the goal of 80 per cent compliance by 2020. As regards, space-mean-speeds in urban areas they are below the legal speed limit. The results show that with respect to the proportion of violations, overall, a total of 37 per cent of the traffic drove over the speed limit in 2014; that is, 63 per cent of drivers obeyed the speed limit. The lowest speed limit compliance was found on roads with a speed limit of 40 km/h, where only 54 per cent of the traffic obeyed the speed limit; 61 per cent obeyed the speed limit on 50 km/h roads, 68 per cent on 60 km/h roads, and 77 per cent on 70 km/h roads. The space-mean-speed for all vehicles on the main municipality roads was 49 km/h in 2014. When broken down by speed limit, the average space-mean speed was 39 km/h for the 40 km/h speed limit, 46 km/h for the 50 km/h, and 55 km/h for the 60 km/h, and 62 km/h for the 70 km/h. No significant changes in travel speed occurred in comparison with 2013. When broken down by time of day, travel speeds in both 2013 and 2014 were roughly about one km/h lower during the day (6am–8pm) than at night (8pm–6am). This pattern of somewhat higher travel speeds at night was consistent at all speed limits. There was also large differences between the speed levels for the various points within each speed limit; this can be expected in urban areas, as there are many other factors in addition to the posted speed limit that will affect drivers' speed choices, such as intersection frequency road width, and the presence of street parking and pavements. The measurements were made using radar during the month of September in 23 different municipalities. Speeds were measured at three different points in each municipality, giving a total of 69 different points, with speeds measured at each point for one week. Only the main municipality streets with speed limits between 40 km/h and 70 km/h were included. (Author/publisher)
Abstract