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Paper Title:
Estimation of the optimum
speed on urban residential streets
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Authors:
Max Cameron
Abstract:
The optimum speed is
defined as one which balances the social costs and benefits of increased
travel time with decreased road trauma, vehicle operating costs,
emissions, etc. Three different methods were considered to measure
the impact of travel speed on road trauma and/or crash costs. Relationships
between cruise speed and average (all) speed were extrapolated to
measure the impacts on travel time in residential streets for travel
speeds in the range 35 to 85 kmh. The relationship between vehicle
operating costs and travel speed was based on two Australian models.
Air pollution emission rates at each travel speed were based on
European relationships. The project focused on urban residential
streets with 60 kmh speed limits because of the availability of
a considerable amount of relevant basic data. When the “human
capital?valuations of road trauma costs were used, the analysis
suggested that the optimum speed on residential streets is 55 kmh.
When the analysis was repeated making use of road trauma costs valued
by the “willingness to pay?approach, the analysis suggested
that the optimum speed on residential streets is 50 kmh. The analysis
presumed that it is legitimate to adopt an economic rationalist
approach to choose the optimum speed in residential streets. If
the value of road trauma was five times the “human capital?costs,
a travel speed of 35 kmh would be the maximum speed which could
be economically justified. This is close to the maximum speed which
has been demanded by societies not wishing to compromise road safety
and aiming to prevent all deaths and serious injuries on residential
streets (30 kmh).
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