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The safety impact of the 65 mph speed limit: A case study using Alabama accident records |
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| Authors: | David B. Brown Saeed Maghsoodloo Mary E. McArdle |
| Affiliation: | 1 David B. Brown, PhD, is professor and interim head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Auburn University, Alabama, USA 2 Saeed Maghsoodloo, PhD, is a professor of industrial engineering at Auburn University, USA 3 Mary E. McArdle is a graduate student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Auburn University, USA |
| Abstract: | On August 1, 1987, a change in Alabama laws went into effect raising the speed limit on the rural interstates to 65 mph. Two accident data sets (one year before and one year after the law change) were compared to assess the impact of the 65 mph speed limit on severity and frequency of accidents. Although accident severity appeared to remain the same from before to after time periods, the frequency of accidents on the rural interstates increased significantly, by 18.88%. However, the significant increase on the rural interstates was accompanied by a nonsignificant decrease of 456 accidents in the entire state of Alabama. This confounding result made it difficult to isolate the cause of various significant changes, but the overall evidence is not favorable to the recent increases in driving speeds. |
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