Interaction between Speed Choice and Road Environment

Funding Organisation: Department for Transport

The project aims to identify the most effective speed reducing measures for a selection of urban and rural environments. This will be achieved by furthering our understanding as to how drivers choose their speed (consciously or not) and what sensory cues we might use to alter this. The focus of the project is on low-cost engineering solutions. Potential treatments will then be designed, for both rural and urban environments. Expert assessment will be carried out to identify candidate treatments, which are most likely to be effective and persistent, to be tested in the new University of Leeds Driving Simulator. The most successful treatments identified in the review will be assessed for both their effectiveness and persistence. Approximately 20-25 treatments across both rural and urban environments will be tested including: Urban arterials (high standard): treatments for general speeding on congested and inner-city roads Rural arterials: treatments to cover straighter sections, dangerous locations (bends and junctions) and village entry Rural lanes (low standard): treatments to reduce speed in general The best performing two or three treatments for each problem from the simulator trials will, for the persistence study, be located at three or four locations in a long-duration experimental drive. Information on speed choice over the repeating sections will permit the identification of treatments that are durable.