SPOT SPEED STUDY

INTRODUCTION

To analyse the speed and the amount of vehicles on a determined road. Spot speed is the
average speed of vehicles passing a point, or the time mean speed. Spot speed studies are
conducted to estimate the distribution of speeds of vehicles in a stream of traffic at a
particular location on a highway. Carried out by recording the speeds of a sample of vehicles
at a specified location. Spot speed studies are used to determine the speed distribution of a
traffic stream at a specific location. The data gathered in spot speed studies are used to
determine vehicle speed percentiles, which are useful in making many speed-related
decisions

THEORY

The distribution of speeds of vehicles in a traffic at a certain place on a road can be found
through spot speed studies. The speed of a vehicles is defined as the rate of movement of
the vehicle which be regarded in kilometres per hour (km/h). a spot speed study is carried
out by recording the speeds of a sample of vehicles at a specific location. However, speed
characteristics identified by such a study will be valid only for the traffic and environmental
conditions that exist at the time of the study. (Garber & Hoel, 2009)

Speed characteristic determined from a spot study may be used to :

1. Establish parameters for traffic operation and control such as speed zones, speed
limits (85th-percentile speed is commonly used as the speed limit on a road), and
passing restriction
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of traffic control devices such as variable message signs
at work zones
3. Monitor the effect of speed enforcement programs such as the drone radar and the
use of differential speed limits for passenger cars and trucks
4. Evaluate and determine the adequacy of highway geometric characteristics such as
radii of horizontal curves and lengths of vertical curves
5. Evaluate the effect of speed on highway safety through the analysis of crash data for
different speed characteristics
6. Determine speed trends and determine whether complaints about speeding are valid

For a spot speed study at a selected location, a sample size of at least 50 and preferably
100 vehicles is usually obtained (Ewing 1999). Traffic counts during a Monday morning or a
Friday peak period may show exceptionally high volumes and are not normally used in the
analysis therefore counts are usually conducted on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Spot speed data gathered using one of three methods: 1) stopwatch method, 2) radar meter
method, 3) pneumatic road tube method. These method are described in this order rom least
expensive to most expensive. The stopwatch method is the least expensive and least
accurate of the method. In this experiment method that we used for conducting spot speed
studies is radar speed-meter.
Application of spot speed:

1. Speed limit studies

2. Establishing speed trends
3. Specific design applications
4. Specific control application
5. Investigation of high accident location

OBJECTIVES

These observation are used to estimate the speed distribution of the entire traffic stream at
selected location under the conditions prevailing at the time of the study and to design speed
limit.

METHOD FOR CONDUCTING SPOOT SPEED STUDIES

In this experiment, we used radar speed-meter for conducting spot speed studies. This
device operates on Doppler principle that the speed of a moving target is proportional to the
change in frequency between the radio beam transmitted to the target and the reflected
radio beam. The equipment measures this difference and converts it to a N direct reading in
miles per hour. The accuracy of speed determinations is 2 miles per hour up to .100 miles
per hour
CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that the speed distribution of the vehicles along our study location have
been observed through spot speed study. For this experiment, the data were collected by
using radar speed-meter method. It was found that the highest speed tabulated was in the
range 50km/h to 54.9km/hr. moreover, it can also be observed that the road has highest
number of cars users which are 200 out 260 vehicles. Speed studies at the location show
some reduction in average speed at noon.

According to a study done by University of Study Floridas Centre for Urban Transportation
Research (CUTR) , a speed limit of 40km/hr was recommended for its campus area. (USF
Speed Limit Study,2013).

If this locations were to use this recommended limit, it can be seen that the mean speed
found in our study is not suitable. By implementing new speed limit. It can ensure more
safety especially for the pedestrians, bicycle users as well as motorcycle users.

RECOMMEMDATION

In addition, there are several factors that need to be well taken to ensure the accuracy of the
data such as the location for the study, period of the study and the minimum sample size
necessary for the limit of acceptable error.

The radar speed-meter should used to shoot the vehicles at 30 angle and should not be
obvious to the sight of the vehicles user.

Therefore, it can be suggested that our university should implement a safe speed limit to
increase safety and reduce the number of accidents in this location.