Francesca La Torre1, Monica Meocci2, Alessandro Nocentini3. 1. Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.latorre@unifi.it. 2. Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Florence, Via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: monica.meocci@unifi.it. 3. Spea Engineering, S.p.A., via G. Vida, 11, 20127 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: alessandro.nocentini@speaengineering.it.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Automated Section Speed Control (ASSC) has been identified as an effective countermeasure to reduce speeds and improve speed limit compliance. METHOD: An Empirical Bayes (EB) before-and-after study was performed in this research in order to evaluate the impact of the ASSC system on the expected crash frequency. The study was carried out on a sample of 125 ASSC sites of the Italian motorway network covering 1252 km, where a total of 21,721 crashes were recorded during a 10-year analysis period from 2004 to 2013. RESULTS: Overall, the EB analysis estimated a significant 22% reduction in the expected crash frequency due to the implementation of the ASSC system. The analysis indicated that the effect is slightly larger on property damage only (PDO) crashes (-23%) than on fatal injury (FI) crashes (-18%) and that the highest reductions in crash frequency are expected for multi-vehicle FI crashes (-25%) and multi-vehicle PDO crashes (-31%). Furthermore, the results indicated that the ASSC system is more effective in reducing crash rates when traffic volume increases and it is therefore strongly recommended as a countermeasure to improve safety on high-traffic-volume motorway sections.
INTRODUCTION: Automated Section Speed Control (ASSC) has been identified as an effective countermeasure to reduce speeds and improve speed limit compliance. METHOD: An Empirical Bayes (EB) before-and-after study was performed in this research in order to evaluate the impact of the ASSC system on the expected crash frequency. The study was carried out on a sample of 125 ASSC sites of the Italian motorway network covering 1252 km, where a total of 21,721 crashes were recorded during a 10-year analysis period from 2004 to 2013. RESULTS: Overall, the EB analysis estimated a significant 22% reduction in the expected crash frequency due to the implementation of the ASSC system. The analysis indicated that the effect is slightly larger on property damage only (PDO) crashes (-23%) than on fatal injury (FI) crashes (-18%) and that the highest reductions in crash frequency are expected for multi-vehicle FI crashes (-25%) and multi-vehicle PDO crashes (-31%). Furthermore, the results indicated that the ASSC system is more effective in reducing crash rates when traffic volume increases and it is therefore strongly recommended as a countermeasure to improve safety on high-traffic-volume motorway sections.