Abstract
As roadway agencies consider allowing higher speed limits, they must consider if assumptions about human performance built into roadway design formulas hold true at higher operating speeds. This paper presents a study of 14 drivers who drove both an open-road section and a test track course. The open-road route presented a natural experiment because it contained a long Interstate Highway section split roughly equally between sections with posted speed limits of 70 mph and 80 mph. On the test track, drivers were asked to maintain speeds of 60 and 85 mph for each of three nine-mile laps in which various in-vehicle tasks and a car following task were introduced in order to assess the effect of vehicle speed on driving performance. Subjective workload estimates were used for the test track tasks in addition to driving performance data. The results showed no major differences in driving performance across the different speeds tested.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.