You asked for general information on Connecticut's participation in the federally-sponsored “rational speed limit project” including the results of the project and any recommendations that have come from it.

The project to which you refer is known as the “Speed Setting and Enforcement Demonstration Project. ” It was jointly sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration. Its purpose is to undertake and complete a systematic evaluation of the effects of establishing, publicizing, and enforcing rational speed limits in selected settings. The project's aim is to determine the extent to which rationally established, well-publicized, and rigorously enforced speed limits lead to higher compliance levels and improved safety.

In 2001, four states—Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Mississippi—were chosen as demonstration sites. The Connecticut Department of Public Safety (DPS) was the lead state agency involved in the demonstration. The Connecticut Department of Transportation initially helped by identifying potential sites in Connecticut for the demonstration. The Connecticut sites selected were Route 316 and East Street in Hebron and Andover. Since the initial test sites were selected, demonstrations have been started in three other states (Indiana, Michigan, and Virginia).

Following an evaluation of existing traffic characteristics, the speed limit is increased on the demonstration roads using the 85^th percentile speed as the target. In the case of the Connecticut roads, the existing speed limit of 35 miles per hour was raised to 45 miles per hour. In traffic control parlance, the 85^th percentile speed is the speed at which or below 85% of the traffic stream travels.

The increase in the speed limit was followed by a publicity campaign and a program of strict enforcement of the higher speed limit. Sgt. Timothy Kradas of DPS stated that the publicity campaign resulted in distribution of almost 1,000 brochures about rational speed limits. During the first two weeks of the campaign, police issued warnings and gave the motorists a copy of the brochure. The enforcement campaign resulted in issuance of 1,009 speeding tickets. This compared to only 16 tickets issued the previous year when the speed limit was 35 mph. The enforcement campaign ran from September 2004 through December 2005.

Sgt. Kradas reported that the average vehicle speed at the end of the enforcement campaign was almost 1 mph slower that the average speed before the speed limit was raised (from 44. 85 mph to 44. 0 mph). Average vehicle speeds during the third quarter of 2005 dropped to as low as 41. 64 mph. The proportion of drivers traveling at more than 50 mph decreased from 19% to 13. 2% and the proportion of drivers traveling above 55 mph decreased from 7% to 3. 8%.

Sgt. Kradas indicated that the project officially closed at the end of February 2006. There was supposed to be a final briefing at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to discuss the project's outcome, but this has yet to occur. He indicated that the project was considered a success in that it achieved its main goal of lowering speeds, but that it ended during a very strict enforcement campaign. One of DPS recommendations to federal authorities was to do a follow up to see if the average vehicle speeds had remained at the lower levels once rigorous enforcement had ended. However, they have received no response from the federal authorities as of this time.

Current information available from the Federal Highway Administration indicated that the anticipated completion date of the entire demonstration program is expected to be December 2006. There are yet to be any formal reports or recommendations made from the Federal Highway Administration with respect to this project.

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