141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

295246
Evaluation of an interval-based speed enforcement system for road safety in China


Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 11:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Kavi Bhalla, PhD, International Injury Research Unit, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Qingfeng Li, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Leilei Duan, MD, China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, China
Yuan Wang, MD, China Center for Disease Control, Beijing, China
Mei Dan, Dalian Center for Disease Control, Dalian, China
Zhao Deyu
David Bishai, MD MPH PhD, Department of Population Family and Reproductive Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Adnan A. Hyder, MD, MPH, PhD, International Health, and Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
     
BACKGROUND Road traffic crashes kill 1.3 million people annually. Enforcing compliance with highway design speeds is a primary road safety concern in most countries. We evaluated the performance of a new speed enforcement system introduced by the traffic police in Dalian, China.

METHODS Donglian is an urban, limited-access, 11.3 km long, elevated highway zone (speed limit 60 km/hr) in Dalian, China. An “interval-based” average speed enforcement system was installed and tested at Donglian from January to April 2012 and used for speed enforcement starting May 2012. The system uses 19 high-resolution cameras on exit/entry ramps to record license plate numbers. Speed limit violations are determined by comparing the duration that vehicles spend within the enforcement zone with the time required for a vehicle traveling at the speed limit. We conducted 7 rounds of speed measurements from May 2011-July 2012 at Donglian and at 5 other locations across Dalian. We evaluated the proportion of vehicles traveling at more than 10%, 20%, and 30% above speed limit.

RESULTS The prevalence of vehicles traveling at speeds >10% in Donglian declined from 49.5% to 2.7%, while proportions remained stable at other locations and did not show any secular trends. The proportions of vehicles traveling >20% and >30% above speed limit at Donglian and the other sites varied similarly.

CONCLUSIONS Interval-based speed enforcement systems can be effective in zone-wide speed reductions. Further research is needed to understand the barriers to the widespread deployment of such systems.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the importance of speed control to road safety Evaluate the success of average speed control technology in reducing vehicle speeds Describe the burden of road traffic injuries in low and middle income countries

Keyword(s): Motor Vehicles, Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where I do research on road safety interventions in low and middle income countries. I led the road traffic injury expert group of the GBD-2010 study.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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