Higher Speed Limits May Increase Risk Of Accidents, Do Little To Hurry Traffic

The lure of the higher velocity bounds is hard to ignore, but it whitethorn beryllium a siren’s call, caller probe from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggests. It recovered that raising the bounds did small to velocity traffic, and could pb to much accidents successful definite cases.

The enactment looked at 12 roadways successful the U.S. crossed a assortment of roadworthy types and locations. Six of the sites had precocious had their velocity limits raised, portion the remaining six saw the velocity bounds decrease.

On 2 interstate highways, AAA recovered that raising velocity limits was associated with more crashes. Meanwhile, it recovered that successful galore of the cases it looked at, lowering the velocity bounds was associated with fewer crashes.

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While those results aren’t precisely surprising, what was astonishing is what researchers recovered astir question times. The instauration says that whether the velocity limits were raised oregon lowered, the changes to the magnitude of clip it took drivers to get done that conception of roadworthy were minor.

“The question successful statehouses to rise velocity limits is happening crossed the state successful astatine slightest 8 states this year,” said Jennifer Ryan, manager of authorities relations for AAA. “But the benefits are overrated, and the risks are understated. Increasing velocity limits does not ever output the affirmative results envisioned by postulation planners.”

One fig that did spike successful areas wherever the velocity bounds was lowered was velocity bounds violations. To combat that, the instauration recommends that proscription officials utilize amended nationalist consciousness and acquisition campaigns.

With this probe coming successful the discourse of historically precocious mishap rates and fatalities connected America’s roads, the request to see each aspects of automotive information has ne'er been clearer. While it admits that its probe does not connection a one-size-fits-all attack to roadworthy design, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s president, Dr. David Yang, says that it is “critical to see the information implications erstwhile section proscription authorities contemplate making changes with posted velocity limits.”