m Speed is an important transportation

consideration ² relates to safety,

time, convenience & economics.
m Spot Speed Study - Average speed
of vehicles passing a point, or the
time mean speed.
m Conducted to estimate the
distribution of speeds of vehicles in a
stream of traffic at a particular
location on a highway.
m Speed Limit Studies

m Establishing Speed Trends

m Specific Design Applications

m Specific Control Applications

m Investigations of High Accidents

Locations.
m janual
î Stopwatch
m Automatic
î oad Detectors
î Doppler-Principle jeters
î Electronic-Principle Detectors
m Stopwatch method is a
quick and inexpensive
method for collecting
speed data.
m Spot speeds may be
estimated by manually
measuring the time it takes
a vehicle to travel between
two defined points on the
roadway.
m As the front wheels of a vehicle cross a
mark at the beginning of the
predetermined study length, the
observer starts the stopwatch.
m The watch is stopped when the vehicle·s
front wheels pass a reference line in front
of the observer
adar jeter
m Commonly used device for directly
measuring speeds in spot speed studies.
m jay be hand-held, mounted in a
vehicle, or mounted on a tripod.
Pneumatic oad Tubes
m Used for longer data collection time
periods than those of either the
stopwatch or radar meter method.
m Using this method, pneumatic tubes are
placed in the travel lanes and are
connected to recorders located at the
side of the road.
m The collected data are downloaded
from the recorder to a laptop computer
or portable disk drive in the field.
Spot Speed Study Data Collection Form
m The speed data can be presented by
Frequency Distribution Table
 Class Frequency Percentage of
Cumulative
Speed Class Class jid (No. of observation in class
fi ui percentage of all fi (ui -ū)
(m/sec) Value, (ui) observation in
observation (%)
class) fi (%)

34 35.9 35 2 70 2.3 2.30 420.50

36 37.9 37 3 111 3.5 5.80 468.75
38 39.9 39 2 78 2.3 8.10 220.30
40 41.9 41 5 205 5.8 13.90 361.25
42 43.9 43 3 129 3.5 17.40 126.75
44 45.9 45 11 495 12.8 30.20 222.75
46 47.9 47 4 188 4.7 34.90 25.00
48 49.9 49 18 882 21 55.90 9.00
50 51.9 51 7 357 8.1 64.00 15.75
52 53.9 53 8 424 9.3 73.30 98.00
54 55.9 55 11 605 12.8 86.10 332.75
56 57.9 57 5 285 5.8 91.90 281.25
58 59.9 59 2 118 2.3 94.20 180.50
60 61.9 61 2 122 2.3 96.50 264.50
62 63.9 63 2 126 2.3 98.80 364.50
64 65.9 65 1 65 1.2 100.00 240.25
Total 86 4260 3631.8
m Spot Speed Study is considered
important to be carried out which is
useful in making many speed-related
decisions such as determining
appropriate speed limits, establishing
speed trends, etc.
m Thank You!