Geographic determinants of goods vehicle speeding in British cities.

Abstract

Vehicular speeding remains a major challenge in urban and transportation planning, influenced by numerous underlying factors. Yet the influence of urban context in determining driving speed is less well understood. In this paper we undertake a large-scale, comprehensive analysis of speeding behaviour across 13 British cities, using trajectory data from goods vehicles across 3.2 million journeys. Unlike prior studies, we assess determinants of speeding across multiple scales-from engineering interventions to regional measures of road network configuration. The results indicate that road geometry and network connectivity have a casual association with speeding, similar to the effect of engineering interventions. These findings have two clear implications for urban and transportation planning. First, the credibility of speed reduction efforts can be enhanced through considering road network context, alongside engineering interventions. Second, analyses of local spatial behaviours should incorporate measures of urban context, reflecting the nature of human spatial perception.