SPEED MANAGEMENT 

ACTION PLAN 

Implementation 

The Oregon Experience 

30% 

TOTAL TRAFFIC 

FATALITIES 

OUTREACH AND 

EDUCATION TO LOCAL 

AGENCIES AND OTHER 

SAFETY PARTNERS 

Oregon has increased 

its level of interaction 

with its transit partners 

in Portland and is 

collaborating with the 

agency to locate transit 

stops near crosswalks to 

help address speedingrelated crashes involving 

pedestrians. 

States across the Nation are experiencing increases in speeding-related fatalities.1

 In 2014, 

Oregon reported 105 speeding-related fatalities, which accounted for nearly 30 percent 

of total trafc fatalities in the State.2

 In an efort to take a broad look at their speedingrelated policies, safety plans, and programs, the Oregon Department of Transportation 

(ODOT), with assistance from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), developed 

a Speed Management Action Plan (SMAP).

3 The plan integrates opportunities for speed 

management statewide, suggests guidance for setting efective and appropriate speed 

limits, and promotes strategies and countermeasures to reduce speeding-related crashes. 

Finalized in summer of 2016, ODOT promoted the SMAP to stakeholders by making 

presentations to: 

 Regional metropolitan planning organizations 

 Leadership teams within ODOT 

 State safety committees 

 Other teams within the agency 

The presentations encouraged stakeholders to read the plan and to ask questions as a 

means of fostering involvement and collaboration. ODOT is currently working with several 

of these stakeholders to implement the plan’s strategies and action steps, discussed below. 

Incorporating SMAP into Other Safety Plans 

Speeding is a cross-cutting issue that efects all areas of safety. Having a SMAP enables 

other safety plan developers to pull language, ideas, and examples from the SMAP and 

incorporate it into their plan quickly and efciently. During development of ODOT’s 

Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, the developers 

recognized that appropriate vehicle speed is pivotal to improving safety outcomes among 

both motorized and non-motorized road users. Rather than developing new speedingrelated strategies, ODOT was able to reuse recommendations and action items from the 

SMAP. The SMAP’s strategies for improving practices for setting speed limits, designing 

for trafc calming, and increasing safety for non-motorized users was readily adopted in 

these two documents. This made ODOT’s safety vision more cohesive and consistent with 

other agency and modal plans and ensured that speed management strategies geared 

towards specifc focus groups were housed where they would be most useful. 

1 National Highway Trafc Safety Administration. (2018). “Trafc Safety Facts: Speeding – 2016 Data (March 2018 

revised).” Report No. DOT HS 812 480. Washington, DC. 2 National Highway Trafc Safety Administration. (2016). “Trafc Safety Facts: Speeding – 2014 Data.” Report No. 

DOT HS 812 265. Washington, DC. 3 Federal Highway Administration, Speed Management Action Plan - Oregon Department of Transportation, FHWASA-15-017 (Washington, DC: FHWA, 2016), https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/docs/oregon_speedmgt_ 

plan.pdf. 
IMPLEM EN T ING A SPEED M ANAGEM EN T PL AN • T he O re g on E xp erie nce 

 

Portland’s Context-based Approach to Setting 

Speed Limits 

Referenced in ODOT’s SMAP is Portland’s innovative 

pilot approach to setting speed limits. Prior to the 

formal development of the SMAP, the City of Portland, in 

conjunction with ODOT, began working to identify a new 

approach for recommending speed zones on city-owned 

collector streets based on their usage characteristics. 

In late 2016, after receiving the required approval to 

proceed from ODOT, the city began piloting an alternative 

approach to setting speed limits, commonly referred to 

as the “Portland Alternative.” Using this approach, the 

city considers the context of the surrounding area when 

setting speed limits, including: 

 Roadway usage patterns 

Portland’s alternative  Number of pedestrians approach to setting and bicyclists speed limits considers  Existing facilities for non- the context of the motorized users 

surrounding area.  Volume on roadways 

 Crash rates and types 

 Vehicle speeds 

Once the 4-year pilot is complete, the city will assess the 

overall safety impacts of the Portland Alternative. ODOT 

plans to assess the results, collaborate with the City of 

Portland on any potential changes, and work with other 

cities that may be interested in applying this approach. 

Notably, the Portland Alternative pilot was 

selected by the National Cooperative Highway 

Research Program project NCHRP 17-76, 

“Guidance for the Setting of Speed Limits,” which 

will identify and describe factors that influence

operating speed and provide guidance to help 

agencies make informed decisions related to 

establishing speed limits on roadways. 

Balancing User Needs 

Oregon is a major west coast shipping hub, which causes 

State highways to experience a signifcant amount of 

commercial vehicle trafc. In urban areas, these highways 

pass through the hearts of cities where large commercial 

vehicles must share the road with non-motorized users. 

ODOT recognizes that this mix of road users is a safety 

concern and is developing a new urban design chapter to 

add to the State’s Roadway Design Manual. The chapter will 

focus on using design principles to achieve target speeds 

consistent with safety goals, context, users, and land use. 

The new chapter will provide guidance on how diferent 

treatments impact and infuence speeds and the 

appropriate use of treatments and design criteria for 

diferent contexts. It will also include pedestrian crossing 

spacing guidance, bicycle facility selection criteria, and 

design approaches for achieving desired operating speeds. 

ODOT hopes the new chapter will help staf respond to 

speed limit adjustment requests from cities and help make 

Oregon’s urban roads more pedestrian and bicycle friendly 

and safer for all users. 

Improving Data 

Oregon’s SMAP contains a strategy to improve its 

collaboration and information sharing with law 

enforcement. Through its Trafc Records Coordinating 

Committee, Oregon funded a citation database that will 

provide speed citation data to help the agency identify 

locations likely to have speeding-related safety issues. 

This new database will complement the State’s crash 

data; combined, they can be used to pinpoint locations 

where greater enforcement is needed and where safety 

countermeasures may be most efective. 

The plan also includes a strategy to improve ODOT’s 

roadway characteristic database by developing a database 

that links roadway IDs to speed limits. ODOT is working 

toward implementing this strategy by expanding its 

inventory of posted speed limits from State-owned 

highways only to all local agency-owned roads. An 

inventory of posted speed limits for every road in Oregon 

will improve ODOT’s data analysis eforts and speedmanagement decision making. 

In addition, ODOT is purchasing third-party vehicle speed 

data. This will allow them to monitor actual speeds on 

most of their roadway system, providing a larger coverage 

area over current automatic trafc recorders. ODOT plans 

to examine this data to help evaluate the impact of raising 

speed limits on crash frequency. 

2 
- -

£safe Roads for a Safer future ~ lnuestment In roadway safety saues 1/ues 

IMPLEMENTING A SPEED MANAGEMENT PLAN • The Oregon Experience 

Focusing on Countermeasures 

The SMAP includes several speed management countermeasures that have been proven to calm trafc and improve 

safety. Since the plan’s development, ODOT has been expanding the use of these countermeasures. 

Variable Speed Limit (VSL) Systems. 

ODOT uses VSL to manage speeds in 

both rural and urban locations. These 

systems are used on urban arterials 

for access control during congested 

periods. The City of Portland uses 

VSL systems on several segments 

to control trafc, including on I-5 

and I-405. On rural roads, VSLs are 

used to reduce speeds during severe 

weather. ODOT has proposed several 

new installations in mountainous 

rural areas and expects to see them 

installed within the next 2-3 years. 

VSL Systems can Reduce 

Crashes by 29 percent 

Source: CMF Clearinghouse, CMF ID 8730 

Speed Warning Systems. ODOT has 

expanded its use of speed warning 

systems, which provide information to 

motorists who are traveling at unsafe 

speeds for upcoming curves. These 

systems detect the speeds of vehicles 

as well as current weather conditions. 

During slippery conditions, the 

systems advise drivers to slow down if 

they are driving too fast for conditions. 

Source: Getty Images 

Roundabouts & Road Diets. ODOT is 

expanding statewide acceptance and 

use of roundabouts and road diets, 

both of which have proven to reduce 

speeds and improve safety for both 

motorized and non-motorized road 

users. The agency is working closely 

with freight stakeholders to address 

concerns about commercial vehicle 

drivers’ ability to navigate these 

confgurations comfortably and safely. 

As part of the efort to add an urban 

design chapter in the State’s Roadway 

Design Manual, ODOT is reviewing 

existing roundabout and road diet 

design guidance to determine if 

additional information regarding 

freight movement accommodations 

needs to be included. 

Summary 

Speed management is a multi-faceted issue that cuts across 

every area of safety. Oregon’s SMAP includes strategies 

to improve their speed management guidance and 

policies as well as to identify locations for countermeasure 

implementation. ODOT is executing its strategies by: 

 Evaluating and implementing a context-based approach 

to setting speed limits statewide 

 Adding an urban design chapter to their State’s Roadway 

Design Manual 

 Developing a speed citation database 

 Expanding its inventory of posted speed limits 

 Using third-party data to better monitor driver speeds 

 Expanding their use of proven trafc calming 

countermeasures 

Over the next several years, ODOT will continue to execute 

these steps as well as start on others. They will also use their 

SMAP as a basis for driving speed management strategies 

and action steps into other safety plans. 

Additional Resources 

If your agency is interested in learning more about 

Speed Management Action Plans, visit the FHWA’s 

Speed Management webpage (https://safety.fhwa.dot. 

gov/speedmgt/), which contains a variety of resources 

including a SMAP template,

4 ODOT’s SMAP,5

 examples 

of SMAPs, noteworthy practices, speed management 

countermeasures, and much more. 

For additional information on Oregon’s efforts to reduce 

speeding-related crashes, please contact: 

Douglas W. Bish, PE 

Traffic-Roadway Section 

(503) 986-3594 

Douglas.W.Bish@odot.state.or.us 

4 FHWA. (2015). Speed Management Action Plan Template, FHWA-SA-15-017, 

Washington, DC. Available at: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_ 

mats/docs/fhwa_speedmanagactionplantemplate_fnal.pdf. 

5 Federal Highway Administration, Speed Management Action Plan - Oregon 

Department of Transportation, FHWA-SA-15-017 (Washington, DC: FHWA, 

2016), https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/docs/oregon_ 

speedmgt_plan.pdf. 

FHWA SA 19-022