EFFECTS OF RAISING SPEED LIMITS ON HIGH WAYS

Motorist believed that majority of the accidents on high ways are caused as a result of reckless driving regardless of the speed limit. With thousands of people commuting long distances for work, it is invariable important to increase the speed limit on our major high way as it will significantly shorten the duration of the commute and allow traffic to move freely.

According to the studies done in province of British Columbia and all other places in United States, it was clearly revealed that when speed limits are increased, the amount of collisions go down significantly. However, speed is not a major contributor to motor vehicle accidents, but that the main cause is driver negligence and/or driver error says majority of the road users.

According to the Government of Alberta Ministry of Transportation in 2013, following too closely, running off the road and left turn across path were the most frequently identified improper driver actions contributing to casualty collisions. And 17.5% of drivers involved in fatal collisions had consumed alcohol prior to the crash compared to 3.3% of drivers in injury collisions.

Somebody might ask. Could a higher speed limit increase the risk of accidents on high ways?

The reality is that Speed is not a major contributor to motor vehicle accidents; the main cause is driver negligence and/or driver error.

Although in pure physics, the force of a collision increases as the square of velocity. A collision at 100 km/h, for example, is not four times as bad as one at 25 km/h – it is 16 times as bad. But highway safety involves is far above theoretical calculation.

Researchers have learned that real-world safety can involve a mind-boggling set of variables. Setting an artificially low limit, for example, can actually make a road more dangerous by creating a greater speed differential between the slowest and fastest drivers.

According to the World Health Organization, for example, it is safer to drive in Germany, being the country of the fastest highways in the world, than it is in Canada: WHO data shows that Germany’s death rate is 6.9 per 100,000 cars. Canada’s rate is 13.

EFFECTS OF RAISING RURAL SPEED LIMITS FROM 90 TO 100 KM/H IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

The Ministry of Transportation has a proactive history of managing speed. During 1996 a

Phase I review of speed limits was undertaken on major highway corridors. As a result, speed limits were raised from 90 km/h to 100 km/h on approximately 2,000 kilometers of road. During1997, Phase II reviews were conducted. As a result, speed limits were raised from 90 km/h to 100 km/h on approximately 1,870 kilometers of Provincial highway. A before and after analysis conducted in 1999 suggested that average speeds increased by 3.2 km/h to 4 km/h on segments were speed limits were raised.

There was insufficient crash data to determine the effects of the speed limit change on accidents.

In order to examine the effects of speed limit changes on speeds and crashes, a review and assessment was made of the available information.

EFFECTS ON SPEED

A review was made of speed data collected at three Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) monitoring sites where speed limits were raised (test sites) and three sites where speed limits were not raised (control sites). It should be noted that the 85 percentile speeds are binned speeds. The speeds did increase at the Willow Flats and Clinton test sites for at least one of the years examined.

Surprisingly in the highway safety data, the states that raised their speed limits in 1996 or 1997 did not have a large increase in fatalities compared with the states that did not raise their speed limits.

States that raised their speed limits through the first half of 1996, total fatalities were up just 0.4 percent, the same increase as for the nation as a whole.

Despite the fact that 33 states raised their speed limits immediately after the repeal of the mandatory federal speed limit, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that “the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997.” Moreover, the average fatality rate even fell in the states that raised their speed limits.

According to autoinsurance.org, speeding tickets generate more than $5-billion in revenue for North American municipalities each year. They also generate $10.2-billion in extra revenue for insurance companies, who add an average of $300 in surcharges for each ticket.

All of the evidence thus far affirms that Americans have not responded to higher speed limits by converting the highways into stretches of the Indianapolis 500. Any loss of life has been very minimal—and at most a minute portion of what had been predicted by the safety lobby.

Meanwhile, Americans have saved some 200 million man hours in terms of less time spent on the road. The net economic benefit of raising the speed limit has been between $2 and $3 billion a year.

While extremely high speeds are dangerous, lowering speed limits well below the majority of traveler can also pose safety risks. Drivers become frustrated when speed limits do not reflect road characteristics, resulting in rash decisions and dangerous driving behavior. And when drivers’ speeds vary drastically, there are more instances of unsafe passing, rear-end collisions and weaving on multilane roads. It’s all about finding a balance.