Different factors that affect speed limits on the road s for vehicles. Speed limit is the maximum speed at which a vehicle can travel in a certain area. Usually they are indicated by signs next to the road. As you can see from the graph below, speed limits are extremely important. If speed limits wouldn’t be there, a lot more accidents would resolve into death.
Speed of the vehicle in miles/hour Percentage of chance of death
20 7
30 44
40 86
Those speed limits aren’t just chosen by people. Many things have to be considered while deciding about a speed limit. A lot of environmental and human factors affect those limits. Some of these are:
• The weather
• Traffic
• The driver
• The vehicle
• The road condition
• The type of environment
The weather can affect a lot of things that then affect speed limits. This we can notice by the temporarily change in speed limits when there are bad weather circumstances. For example when it is raining very heavily or there is snow, speed limits will be changed until it stops raining or the snow melts. These changes are usually indicated by electrical signs on the road. Even when it is not indicated, drivers should be responsible enough to slow down in these circumstances.
The traffic is also a very important factor. In areas where there is a lot of traffic, the speed limits will generally be set lower. Since in these areas a lot of cars come together at the same time accidents can easily happen. Those areas with a lot of traffic are usually where there are traffic lights or pedestrian crossings. The speed limit will be indicated by a road sign.
The driver is one of the most important factors. The bad thing about this factor is that the driver is very unpredictable and the drivers behavior is different all the time. Speed limits can obviously not be set according to every driver’s mood so generally they look at the other factors: weather, traffic,
Bibliography: onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/.../factors_affecting_safe_speed.htm www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html www.transport.qld.gov.au › ... › Safety › Road › Speeding www.wellington.govt.nz/projects/new/.../lowerspeed-facts.pdf www.conference.noehumanist.org/.../Proceedings-HUMANIST-S6.6.pd