An Evaluation of the benefits of intelligent speed adaptation

Abstract

Paper presented at the 26th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 9 - 12 July 2007 "The challenges of implementing policy?", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT:Road accidents claim between 13,000 and 14,000 lives annually in South Africa. The estimated costs due to Road safety problems is currently R38 billion. Speeding is one of the major contributors to the substantial number of road accident fatalities and injuries. In Europe, the potential contribution of technology to the reduction of speed related fatalities and injuries have been researched over the past decade. Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is one of the systems investigated. The potential benefits of ISA for the South African situation was quantified and costed by calculating the costs associated with speeding in terms of road accidents, vehicle operating costs, environmental costs, infrastructural and enforcement costs. The maximum savings that can be achieved by implementing ISA in South Africa was calculated as being between R18.7 billion and R51.2 billion annually. For both the minimum and maximum cost scenarios the additional vehicle operating costs as a result of speeding and the cost of road accidents are the greatest contributors to the total potential savings ISA could offer.