The relevance of posting the 40 MPH minimum speed limit signs on rural Interstate freeways in Florida is analyzed by correlating safety and traffic operating characteristics. The operational data showed only that only 0.14 percent of vehicles had speeds below 40 mph while a 4-year data of reported crashes indicated that about 9 percent of vehicles involved in ctashes were estimated to be traveling with speeds below 40 mph. The modeling of crashes by Poisson regression showed that increase in the median speed significantly reduced the nunber of crashes while increase in the fariation between fast and slow moving traffic significantly increased the number of crashes. The preliminary recommendation that could be made based on the available data is for Florida to discard the practice of posting of minimum speed limit signs on rural Interstate freeways. This recommendation was partly influenced by the survey results which showed that 25 States do not post minimum speed limit signs on highways.
Quantify the Effects of Raising the Minimum Speed on Rural Freeways and the Effects of Restricting the Truck Lanes Only in the Daytime. Volume 1: Evaluating the Relevance of 40 MPH Posted Minimum Speed Limit on Rural Interstate Freeways in Florida
2004
169 pages
Report
No indication
English
Minimum speed limits on freeways
Engineering Index Backfile | 1968
|Minimum Speed Limits on Freeways
NTIS | 1966