This is Volume I of a three-volume report. It contains the results of a study that examined the speeding behavior of drivers in their own vehicles over the course of three to four weeks of naturalistic driving in urban (Seattle, Washington) and rural (College Station, Texas) settings. The purpose of this research was to (1) identify the reasons why drivers speed, (2) model the relative roles of situational, demographic, and personality factors in predicting travel speeds, (3) classify speeders, and (4) identify interventions, countermeasures, and strategies for reducing speeding behaviors. Data collected from 164 drivers included 1-Hz recordings of vehicle position and speed using a GPS receiver, responses to a battery of a personal inventory questionnaires, and daily driving logs that captured trip-specific situational factors. Vehicle speed and position data were combined with road network data containing validated posted speed information to identify speeding episodes. The descriptive analysis of speeding data provided evidence for different types of speeding behaviors among individual drivers including (1) infrequent or incidental speeding, which may be unintentional; (2) trip-specific situational speeding; (3) taking many trips with a small amount of speeding per trip (i.e., casual speeding); and (4) habitual or chronic speeding. Regression models were developed to identify predictors of “any” speeding (logistic regression) and amount of speeding (linear regressions). Significant predictors included demographic variables such as age and gender, situational factors such as time-of-day and day-of-week, and key personal inventory factors such as attitudes towards reckless driving. In addition, focus group discussions were conducted with a subset of study participants who were classified as “speeders” and “non-speeders” to identify key attitudes and beliefs towards speeding and the effectiveness of potential countermeasures. (Author/publisher)
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