Maryland and Virginia have received $100,000 to develop, implement and evaluate speed management pilot programs.
Funding is available through a partnership of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF), the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).
Once traffic patterns stabilize enough for IIHS experts to conduct a valid before-and-after evaluation, the programs will launch. Maryland’s will study a rural setting, while Virginia’s will be in an urban area.
Both programs aim to develop a template for effective speed reduction strategies that can be used nationwide.
“Speeding is one of the long-term problems in highway safety, and the pandemic has thrown it into stark relief,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Unfortunately, this problem won’t go away when the pandemic ends. By working with other road safety groups, we can use these initiatives to speak with one voice to keep the attention focused on one of the most common factors in serious crashes.”
Annually, more than 9,000 people die due to speeding-related crashes, and speeding is a leading factor in motor vehicle deaths.
The safe systems approach focuses on various factors that must work together to make roads safer for everyone. Reducing speeding is a central component.