Infrastructure elements influencing the driving speed of road vehicle drivers in towns

Traffic engineers have long sought to understand what encourages drivers to drive fast and to design road infrastructure to induce drivers to behave in a desired way. But what leads drivers to select a particular speed while driving is principally a psychological question. This paper aims to expand the understanding of the factors affecting driving speed in built-up areas of towns and municipalities. We analysed nearly 700,000 vehicles - driving on roads of regional and supra-regional significance near the Bohemian Switzerland National Park - in 20 surveys at 17 locations. A broad set of infrastructure attributes was defined and measured at each site. The collected data were analysed using statistical methods to draw general conclusions about driver behaviour that can be used to improve traffic engineering. Several of the presumed attributes were confirmed to influence driver speed choice, and several new factors were discovered and proposed for implementation in traffic engineering and mathematical modelling tools.