This report was realized within the European Union (EU) MASTER (MAnaging Speeds of Traffic on European Roads) project. The report reflects a review of experiences with speed reducing measures. The aim was to find out to what extent literature reviews as performed within the MASTER project do reflect all knowledge on speed reducing measures that has been acquired in practice. To this end, road owners in different EU countries were asked to provide with information on explicitly evaluated countermeasures to reduce driving speed. The majority of data comes from the United Kingdom (UK). Results showed that the different types of measures generally did have an effect on driving speed. Combined measures, especially when the image of an entire road section is changed (for example 30 km/h zone), had the largest effects. From individual measures direct, physical measures such as humps and chicanes result in the largest speed reductions. Roundabouts have primarily a positive safety effect. Non-physical measures such as delineation or road surface colour, if not combined with other measures, did not seem to have any effect. On these types of measures not many data were available. It is encouraging to compare the results of the present review with the conclusions in the literature review. Generally conclusions are completely in line. The study did not yield any speed reducing measures that were not addressed in the literature review.
Abstract