Heed the Speed was selected as the slogan for the 

program and a logo was designed. Educational materials were developed for 

the program including 

street and lawn signs (see 

left) that displayed the slogan and logo, print materials for homeowners, parents and drivers (including 

high school drivers), press releases for the two cities, 

inputs for homeowner’s association newsletters, and 

radio spots. Earned media included write-ups in local 

papers and participation in local television programs. 

The police increased enforcement patrols and tickets 

for speeding violations. They also added numerous 

“warning stops” for motorists who exceeded the speed 

limit but drove below the range at which a stop would 

normally have been made. Enforcement activities also 

included training citizens to conduct neighborhood 

speed watches and deployment of speed trailers and 

photo speed enforcement vans.

Roadway treatments included installation of speed 

humps and tables in two of the neighborhoods. Two 

types of innovative roadway visual treatments were 

also tried– 3-D Pavement Markings that created the 

illusion of raised objects in the roadway and TyregripTM 

coating that simulated a speed table (see below).

Number 316 August 2006

Traffic Safety Facts

Traffic Tech – Technology Transfer Series

Pilot Test of Heed The Speed, a Program to 

Reduce Speeds in Residential Neighborhoods

U.S. Department of Transportation 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

There is abundant evidence that higher speeds are 

associated with more severe pedestrian injuries and 

increased death. Surveys show that drivers believe 

that speeding is more dangerous for pedestrians on 

residential roads than on other roadways. 

There has been significant work on engineering 

approaches to traffic calming as a means of reducing 

neighborhood speeds. There have, however, been few 

attempts to combine public information, enforcement, 

and innovative marking techniques with engineering 

changes as a means of achieving greater speed 

reductions. NHTSA therefore funded the current 

study whose objective was to develop and test a 

behavior-based program to reduce motorist speed in 

residential areas by adding education and enforcement 

to engineering. 

Some communities have used traffic calming on 

selected streets in a neighborhood but left others 

untouched because of objections voiced by emergency 

services. This creates streets within a defined calmed 

neighborhood where motorists continue to exceed 

prudent speeds–or at least exceed the speeds on 

adjacent calmed streets. The focus of this study 

was therefore to examine whether enforcement and 

education techniques could achieve a meaningful 

speed reduction on untreated streets adjacent to 

streets that have received traditional traffic calming 

treatments. 

Dunlap and Associates, Inc. conducted the field study 

in two adjacent cities: Phoenix (six road segments) 

and Peoria (four road segments), Arizona. Three 

neighborhoods were selected in each city based on 

the expressed desires of the residents to moderate 

vehicle speeds and/or a history of excessive speeding. 

Multiple roads were part of the study in some of the 

six areas.

3-D Pavement Marking TyregripTM Coating
The program was evaluated by a pre/post mailed 

survey, by police data forms completed at each stop, 

and by multiple waves of speed measurements using 

on-road traffic counters. The survey showed a strong 

increase in knowledge of the program, awareness of 

enforcement efforts, and acceptance of the need to 

moderate speeds. Respondents also expressed a strong 

belief that speeds in their neighborhood had decreased 

since the Heed the Speed program was implemented.

The police stop records showed that most violators 

lived in or within a mile of the neighborhood in which 

they were stopped. Most traveled on the road on 

which they were stopped at least once a week.

Speed measurements showed significant reductions in 

all six neighborhoods and on all 10 test road segments 

within the neighborhoods except one low-volume 

street in which speed humps had been installed prior 

to the start of the program, and 87 percent of the 

motorists were already at or below the speed limit. 

On all other treated roads, there was a significant 

increase in drivers complying with the speed limit 

and significant reductions both in mean speed and 

in the percentage of vehicles traveling 7 mph or more 

above the speed limit. Compliance increases from 

the beginning to the end of the program ranged from 

about 17 percent to over 117 percent across the 10 test 

segments (see graph below). 

Compliance Increase (% at or Under Speed Limit)

TRAFFIC TECH is a publication to disseminate information about traffic safety programs, including evaluations, 

innovative programs, and new publications. Feel free to 

copy it as you wish. If you would like to receive a copy, 

contact Melissa Cheung, MPH, Editor, fax 202-366-7096, 

e-mail: melissa.cheung@dot.gov. 

400 Seventh Street SW., NTI-130

Washington, DC 20590

140

Peoria

Test Road Segments

Phoenix

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

Percent Increase

The percentage of speeding drivers converted to 

compliance with the speed limit ranged from 5 percent 

to 48 percent (see graph below). 

Conversion Percent (% Speeders Brought Into 

Compliance)

Mean speed reductions ranged from approximately 

0.5 mph to over 3.5 mph. The drop in the percentage 

of drivers exceeding the speed limit by 7 mph or more 

ranged from about 14 percent to over 71 percent. The 

extent of the speed reduction involving thousands of 

vehicles per day suggests that Heed the Speed programs 

could be effective in reducing crashes to pedestrians 

and in limiting the injury severity when a crash does 

occur.

In addition to the results of the study, a guide for 

designing Heed the Speed programs, sample public 

information & education materials, and examples of 

data collection forms for evaluation are included in 

appendices to the report.

How to Order 

To download a copy of the report, Pilot Test of Heed 

the Speed: A Program to Reduce Speeds in Residential Neighborhoods, go to www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

people/injury/research/HeedSpeedWeb/index.html. 

For more information about the study, write to the 

Office of Behavioral Safety Research, NHTSA, NTI130, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20590, 

send a fax to 202-366-7096, or contact Dr. Marvin M. 

Levy, 202-366-5597; e-mail: mlevy@nhtsa.dot.gov.

Peoria

Test Road Segments

Phoenix

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Percent Conversion