ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF AUTOMATIC SECTION SPEED CONTROL ON A SAMPLE GROUP OF COMMUTER DRIVERS IN AN EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS

Automatic Section Speed Control that is one of the speed enforcement systems applied for solving high speed problem causing accidents in traffic is a new and advanced intelligent transportation system application that is gaining popularity all over the world in countries with high levels of motorization. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of this system installed as mobile at sections in a university campus with low speed limits on the before/after periods speeds and opinions of commuter drivers. A total of 729 driver surveys were accepted as valid. According to meticulous evaluations; it was determined that only 32 of the survey participants were among those for which average speeds were detected at least 8 times by the system during each of the before/after periods. Whereas the speed average during the before period was 38.73 km/h, the speeds decreased down to 35.13 km/h during the after period. When the opinions of the drivers regarding the speed limits enforced in the campus were asked, it was determined that 3.3% think that the speed limits are high, 56.7% think that they are low, whereas 36.7% think that they are sufficient. Independent Sample t test was used to determine the average speed differences for the before/after periods according to the “gender, age, duty, number of accidents, opinions on speed limit” variables of the drivers who participated in the survey and for whom the average speeds were detected, whereas Univariate Anova test was applied in order to determine the average speed differences for the “education level, years of driving experience, tendency to overtake other vehicles” variables during the before/after periods. The differences were not determined to be statistically significant according to the analyses. There was a statistically significant decrease in average speeds without any legal enforcement; however, a greater abidance by the speed limits may be attained via an enforcement. No statistically significant difference was observed between the accident histories of the drivers and the decreases in their average speeds.