The goal of this Speed Management Program Plan is to improve public health and safety by reducing speeding-related fatalities and injuries. Outcomes desired are: 1. Reduction in speeding-related fatalities 2. Reduction in speeding-related injuries 3. Improved safety experience for all road users, including motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The United States Department of Transportation’s highest priority is the improvement of safety throughout the transportation sector. To this end, DOT employees are committed to strengthen the safety culture through our work, and to inspire and support our partners, our stakeholders, and the public in our efforts to reduce transportation-related fatalities and injuries and promote a safe transportation system for all users. Much progress has been made in traffic safety. Over the last 40 years, there have been significant reductions in fatalities and injuries related to impaired driving and occupant protection. Recent efforts are raising public awareness on distracted driving and are making a positive difference for that traffic safety problem. However, improvements on speeding-related traffic crashes continue to pose many difficult challenges as the percentage of speeding-related fatal crashes has remained around 32% for more than a decade. DOT recognizes the ongoing challenges that States and communities face in trying to reduce speeding-related fatalities and injuries. Most people admit they speed at least some of the time when they are driving, but they often do not believe they are driving unsafely when they speed. At the same time, most people feel threatened by the speeding of others and want something to be done to reduce the speeding of others and improve driving safety. The relationship between drivers and speeding is complicated and often paradoxical in nature. As such, it requires nothing short of a major cultural shift with regard to the dangers and the acceptability of speeding by the public for significant reductions in speeding-related crashes to occur. Forty years ago, the public tolerated impaired driving and didn’t recognize the importance of seat belts in traffic safety. Through the concerted efforts of ordinary people and organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), assisted by DOT and other stakeholders, the culture changed. Impaired driving is no longer tolerated by the public and today, the vast majority of drivers use seat belts and child safety seats. Similar joint efforts are now changing the public’s acceptance of distracted driving. It is now time to address the issue of speeding and work to increase the public’s understanding of the dangers of speeding and the importance of complying with appropriately set posted speed limits. Changing public attitudes regarding speeding and speed management will require a comprehensive and concerted effort, involving a wide variety of strategies. This plan identifies six primary focus areas: A. Data and Data-Driven Approaches, B. Research and Evaluation, C. Technology, D. Enforcement and Adjudication, E. Engineering, and F. Education and Communications. Specific goals, objectives, and action items are identified for each focus area. The appendix also identifies priority areas that warrant immediate, more focused attention. These priority areas have the potential to create focal points for efforts intended to address the dangers of speeding, to create synergy involving the various partners and stakeholders who are interested in this issue, and to bring about meaningful change. It is expected that these priorities may evolve over time and they should be revisited when this program plan is next updated. This document is an update of the Speed Management Strategic Initiative (retitled Speed Management Program Plan), originally published in 2005 and was developed jointly by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Federal Highway Administration , and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to address speeding as a contributor to highway crashes and fatalities. The strategies contained in this initiative incorporate recommendations of the Transportation Research Board contained in Special Report 254, Managing Speed: Review of Current Practice for Setting and Enforcing Speed Limits and parallel elements from Volume 23, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 500: A Guide for Reducing Speeding Related Crashes. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting