1 Background and introduction............................................................................1
1.1 Background....................................................................................................1
1.2 Recent reviews of speed and accidents..........................................................2
1.3 Research problems addressed in this report...................................................3
2 The Power Model ................................................................................................4
2.1 The Power Model as presented by Göran Nilsson.........................................4
2.2 The algebra of Powers ...................................................................................6
3 Theoretical perspectives on speed and accidents.............................................7
3.1 An elementary model of the relationship between speed and accidents........7
3.2 The relationship between speed and injury severity......................................9
3.3 The relationship between speed variance and road safety...........................11
3.4 Speed in context: the role of confounding factors .......................................14
4 Threats to validity in studies of the impacts of speed on road safety...........17
4.1 Types of validity and threats to validity ......................................................17
4.2 Threats to validity in studies evaluating the relationship between speed and
road safety..........................................................................................................19
4.2.1 Errors and bias in speed data........................................................................... 19
4.2.2 Incomplete accident reporting and changes in the level of accident reporting 20
4.2.3 Regression-to-the-mean................................................................................... 20
4.2.4 Long term trends in accident rates................................................................... 22
4.2.5 Major changes in traffic volume ..................................................................... 22
4.2.6 Inadequate control of risk factors influencing accident occurrence................ 23
4.3 Control for threats to validity in various study designs...............................26
4.3.1 Commonly employed study designs................................................................ 26
4.3.2 Ways of introducing speed-influencing measures........................................... 27
5 Study retrieval, data extraction and study quality assessment ....................29
5.1 Literature search ..........................................................................................29
5.2 Study inclusion criteria ................................................................................29
5.3 Data extracted and coded for meta-analysis ................................................30
5.4 Case illustrations of data extraction.............................................................32
5.4.1 Case 1: Upchurch 1989 ................................................................................... 32
5.4.2 Case 2: Nilsson 2004A.................................................................................... 33
5.5 Study quality assessment .............................................................................34
5.5.1 Control for regression-to-the-mean ................................................................. 35
5.5.2 Long term trends in accident rates................................................................... 35
5.5.3 Changes in traffic volume ............................................................................... 36
5.5.4 Other risk factors influencing accident occurrence or injury severity............. 36 6 Meta-analysis.....................................................................................................38
6.1 Studies included in meta-analysis................................................................38
6.2 Studies not providing information for inclusion in meta-analysis...............41
6.3 Studies that have been excluded from meta-analysis ..................................44
6.4 Overview of evidence from studies included in meta-analysis ...................45
6.5 Exploratory meta-analysis ...........................................................................47
6.5.1 Two ways of representing data concerning speed and road safety.................. 47
6.5.2 The consistency of the relationship between speed and road safety ............... 48
6.5.3 Analysis of funnel plots................................................................................... 50
6.5.4 Testing for publication bias............................................................................. 54
6.6 Main analysis ...............................................................................................55
6.6.1 Statistical weighting of estimates of effect...................................................... 55
6.6.2 Models estimated............................................................................................. 57
6.6.3 Results of conventional analyses..................................................................... 58
6.6.4 Results of meta-regression analyses................................................................ 60
6.6.5 Assessing the consistency of the findings with the Power Model................... 61
6.7 Sensitivity analysis ......................................................................................62
6.7.1 The cumulative and non-cumulative formulations of the Power Model ......... 63
6.7.2 Choosing the best estimates of the exponents ................................................. 67
6.7.3 The effects of contextual variables.................................................................. 72
6.7.4 Other analytic choices ..................................................................................... 72
7 Discussion of findings .......................................................................................74
7.1 A general note on the interpretation of the results of research....................74
7.2 Limitations of the analyses ..........................................................................74
7.2.1 The possibility of study inclusion bias............................................................ 75
7.2.2 Effects of other road safety measures – residual confounding........................ 76
7.2.3 Effects of speed on various types of accident or groups of road users............ 77
7.2.4 The reliability of speed data ............................................................................ 78
7.2.5 Alternative models of the relationship between speed and road safety........... 78
7.2.6 Statistical dependency between multiple results of the same study ................ 81
7.3 Criteria of causality in non-experimental research......................................82
7.3.1 Presence, strength and consistency of statistical relationship ......................... 83
7.3.2 Direction of causality ...................................................................................... 83
7.3.3 Control for confounding factors...................................................................... 84
7.3.4 Dose-response relationship.............................................................................. 84
7.3.5 Specificity of effects........................................................................................ 84
7.3.6 Causal mechanisms ......................................................................................... 85
7.3.7 Consistency with theory .................................................................................. 86
8 Practical implications .......................................................................................87
8.1 The importance of speed as a risk factor .....................................................87
8.2 The need for regulating speed......................................................................90
8.3 The controllability of speed by means of road safety measures..................93
8.4 Principles for setting speed limits................................................................94
8.5 The enforcement of speed limits..................................................................97
9 Main conclusions...............................................................................................98
10 References......................................................................................................100
Appendix 1: Data Recorded For Each Study..................................................117
Appendix 2: Residual Plots ...............................................................................128 T