IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v79y2022ics0038012121000987.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Road speed limit matters – Are politicians doing the right thing?

Author

Listed:
  • Alcaraz Carrillo de Albornoz, Vicente
  • Molina Millán, Juan
  • Lara Galera, Antonio
  • Muñoz Medina, Belén

Abstract

Public Authorities are responsible for setting speed limits on roads. It is obvious that the modification of speed limits affect travel time. Also, there are many academic studies highlighting the relationship between vehicle speed and other particular isolated social costs, such as speed and accidents, speed and pollution or speed and fuel consumption. However, there are very few comprehensive studies on the subject of optimum speed limits. Furthermore, when Public Authorities modify speed limits usually they justify the measure to achieve a particular goal. The aim of this paper is to develop a comprehensive methodology that relies on cost-benefit analyses to determine the optimum speed limit for a particular road. The methodology is then applied to two recent case studies in Spain. In the first one, the Authorities decreased speed limits on national highways from 120 to 110 km per hour to save fuel. In the second case, the Authorities also reduced speed limits on the M − 30 ring road from 90 to 70 km per hour on specific days to reduce pollution. It seems that the Authorities might not always perform a technical analysis of these measures before implementing these policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Alcaraz Carrillo de Albornoz, Vicente & Molina Millán, Juan & Lara Galera, Antonio & Muñoz Medina, Belén, 2022. "Road speed limit matters – Are politicians doing the right thing?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s0038012121000987
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2021.101106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012121000987
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2021.101106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), 2011. "A Handbook of Transport Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12679.
    2. ., 1994. "Cost-Benefit Analysis," Chapters, in: Geoffrey M. Hodgson & Warren J. Samuels & Marc R. Tool (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics, volume 0, chapter 19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Hu, Kejia & Chen, Yuche, 2016. "Technological growth of fuel efficiency in european automobile market 1975–2015," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 142-148.
    4. Dementyeva, Maria & Verhoef, Erik T., 2016. "Miles, speed, and technology: Traffic safety under oligopolistic insurance," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 147-162.
    5. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & Pedregal-Tercero, Diego J., 2014. "Temporary speed limit changes: An econometric estimation of the effects of the Spanish Energy Efficiency and Saving Plan," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 68-76.
    6. Verhoef, Erik, 1994. "External effects and social costs of road transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 273-287, July.
    7. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Robert Vickerman, 2011. "Handbook Of Transport Economics," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754912, HAL.
    8. Layard,Richard & Glaister,Stephen (ed.), 1994. "Cost-Benefit Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521466745, November.
    9. Hongli Xu & Hai Yang & Jing Zhou & Yafeng Yin, 2017. "A Route Choice Model with Context-Dependent Value of Time," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 536-548, May.
    10. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas, 2014. "Experiences from the Swedish Value of Time study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 144-158.
    11. Santos, Georgina & Behrendt, Hannah & Maconi, Laura & Shirvani, Tara & Teytelboym, Alexander, 2010. "Part I: Externalities and economic policies in road transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 2-45.
    12. Viscusi, W. Kip & Masterman, Clayton J., 2017. "Income Elasticities and Global Values of a Statistical Life," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 226-250, July.
    13. van Benthem, Arthur, 2015. "What is the optimal speed limit on freeways?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 44-62.
    14. Edward Calthrop & Stef Proost, 1998. "Road Transport Externalities," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(3), pages 335-348, April.
    15. Martine Mostert & Sabine Limbourg, 2016. "External Costs as Competitiveness Factors for Freight Transport — A State of the Art," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 692-712, November.
    16. Wardman, Mark & Chintakayala, V. Phani K. & de Jong, Gerard, 2016. "Values of travel time in Europe: Review and meta-analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 93-111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Filipi Nikol & Karlínová Bára & Krčál Ondřej, 2022. "The disutility of driving below the speed limit on highways," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 22(4), pages 267-277, December.
    2. Biondi, Beatrice & Mazzocchi, Mario, 2024. "An empirical analysis of the effect of economic activity and COVID-19 restrictions on road traffic accidents in Italy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tscharaktschiew, Stefan, 2020. "Why are highway speed limits really justified? An equilibrium speed choice analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 317-351.
    2. Stef Proost, 2011. "Theory of External Costs," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Filipi Nikol & Karlínová Bára & Krčál Ondřej, 2022. "The disutility of driving below the speed limit on highways," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 22(4), pages 267-277, December.
    4. Lu-Yi Qiu & Ling-Yun He, 2018. "Bike Sharing and the Economy, the Environment, and Health-Related Externalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-10, April.
    5. André de Palma & Alexandre Guimard, 2014. "Urbanism, an overview," Working Papers hal-00969574, HAL.
    6. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2011. "Price Discrimination," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. David Martimort & Flavio Menezes & Myrna Wooders & ELISABETTA IOSSA & DAVID MARTIMORT, 2015. "The Simple Microeconomics of Public-Private Partnerships," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 4-48, February.
    8. Giovanni Lombardo & Andrea Mazzocchetti & Irene Rapallo & Nader Tayser & Silvano Cincotti, 2019. "Assessment of the Economic and Social Impact Using SROI: An Application to Sport Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-21, July.
    9. Miren Lafourcade & Jacques-François Thisse, 2011. "New Economic Geography: The Role of Transport Costs," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Jota Ishikawa & Nori Tarui, 2015. "Backfiring with backhaul problems: Trade and Industrial Policies with Endogenous Transport Costs," Working Papers 201514, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    11. Timothy Besley & Thiemo Fetzer & Hannes Mueller, 2015. "The Welfare Cost Of Lawlessness: Evidence From Somali Piracy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 203-239, April.
    12. Thisse, Jacques-François & Proost, Stef, 2015. "Skilled Cities, Regional Disparities, and Efficient Transport: The state of the art and a research agenda," CEPR Discussion Papers 10790, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Henrik Andersson & James Hammitt & Gunnar Lindberg & Kristian Sundström, 2013. "Willingness to Pay and Sensitivity to Time Framing: A Theoretical Analysis and an Application on Car Safety," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 437-456, November.
    14. Kenneth Small, 2015. "The Bottleneck Model: An Assessment and Interpretation," Working Papers 141506, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    15. Kingsley Adjenughwure & Basil Papadopoulos, 2019. "Towards a Fair and More Transparent Rule-Based Valuation of Travel Time Savings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Lee, J.F. Jennifer & Kwok, Peter K. & Williams, Jeffrey, 2014. "Heterogeneity among motorists in traffic-congested areas in southern California," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 281-293.
    17. Mononen, Petri & Leviäkangas, Pekka & Haapasalo, Harri, 2017. "From internal efficiency to societal benefits – Multi modal transport safety agency's socio-economic impact analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 78-90.
    18. Platz, Trine Tornøe & Østerdal, Lars Peter, 2017. "The curse of the first-in–first-out queue discipline," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 165-176.
    19. Blom Västberg, Oskar & Karlström, Anders & Jonsson, Daniel & Sundberg, Marcus, 2016. "Including time in a travel demand model using dynamic discrete choice," MPRA Paper 75336, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Nov 2016.
    20. Graziano Abrate & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Davide Vannoni, 2014. "Cost function estimation of multi-service firms. Evidence from the passenger transport industry," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 380, Collegio Carlo Alberto.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:79:y:2022:i:c:s0038012121000987. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.