Abstract
Speeding on low-speed limit roads is a common traffic offense in China, which could be due to the mild traffic safety enforcement. The article aims to explicit the impact of traffic enforcement measures on the speeding behavior on low-speed limit roads. First, field data were collected to demonstrate the severity of speeding by investigating speed distribution; second, a virtual traffic enforcement was designed by considering three factors related to traffic enforcement, and a stated preference survey questionnaire including six scenarios was designed and implemented; finally, a series of generalized regret random minimization models were established to study the relationship of speeding behavior and traffic enforcement as well as drivers’ personal characteristics. From the stated preference survey analysis, the research figures out that other vehicles’ average speed is the most important reference to choose speed rather than traffic penalties, and the model estimation results show that speeding violation grows severe if traffic enforcements are lenient. Therefore, increasing the violation costs is a powerful means of lowering the probability of speeding for individual, thus proceeding the drop of vehicles’ average speed, and the fall of average speed will contribute to decrease speeding subsequently.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Advances in Mechanical Engineering |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Dec 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The study was carried out to explain the influence of traffic enforcement on speed choice. For this sake, field data were collected to demonstrate the magnitude of speeding on low-speed limit roads, and SP survey as well as model analysis were conducted to explore the mechanism of speed choice. The research comes to a conclusion that speeding violation grows severe on low-speed limit roads if traffic enforcements are lenient. The work of hypothetical speeding choice survey under the traffic penalties and surroundings reveals drivers’ psychological and behavior characteristics on low-speed limit roads. Statistical analysis of SP data found that the speed limit signs may constrain a third of vehicles from speeding, but whether setting traffic enforcement facilities or not, other vehicles’ average speed is the most important reference to choose speed. In other words, drivers intend to keep a desired speed but try to escape sanction even if they are fully aware of speeding. Therefore, it can be deduced that the positive effects of traffic monitors and signs are weakened by surroundings, and this is decided by drivers’ psychological risks. For drivers, mental activity toward speeding is complicated and incompatible, and the combination of different decision-making rules used to portray speed choice behavior is meaningful. Model analysis results show that utility maximization and regret minimization are equally important co-determinants of speed choice for the benefits and loss attributes, and drivers’ individual attributes affect speed choices. To sum up, speeding behavior is not easy to eliminate. An appropriate speed limit should be posted under the traffic law, if not, it would be ineffective for eliminating speeding. Simply increasing traffic signs cannot solve the problem of speeding on low-speed limit highways, and the density of traffic violation monitors should be increased to put an end to drivers’ fluke psychology. At the same time, it should be re-examined that the rationality of the clause “speeding below 50%, causing no serious consequences,” shall be warned. According to the model outcome, increasing the violation costs, point deduction and license revocation are powerful means to lower the probability of speeding for individual and proceed the drop of vehicles’ average speed. Subsequently, the fall of the average speed helps to decrease speeding. Beyond that, various means related to speeding violation punishment should be adopted and applied, point accumulation and heavier punishment for recidivist are innovative means, and temporary license suspension for a few days is also a creditable attempt. However, due to the limitations of the data collection method, a few choices in the virtual situations may be exaggerated; in addition, more new ideas and methods other than sanctions to deter speeding offense should be discussed and measured in the further analysis. Handling Editor: Hai Xiang Lin Declaration of conflicting interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The paper is supported by Public Security Theory and Soft Science Research Project of Public Security Ministry (2018LLYJGADX042), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (2019JKF226), and the project “Data Support, Application Demonstration and Test Evaluation of Road Traffic Risk Warning and Intelligent Control Decision System.” ORCID iD Dan Zhao https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9660-7872
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
Keywords
- generalized regret random minimization model
- speed limit
- Speeding
- traffic enforcement
- traffic safety
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Mechanical Engineering