Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement Pilot in Pennsylvania Reduced Speeding by 38 Percent and Excessive Speeding by 47 Percent.
State DOT Report Assessed the Effectiveness of an Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement Pilot Program deployed at 8,868 Work Sites Across Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania, United States
2023 Annual Report Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement
Summary Information
Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement (AWZSE) consisting of traffic enforcement cameras, photo enforcement programs, or speed cameras, are used to enforce speed limits in work zones. Pennsylvania’s AWZSE program has operated continuously since April 2020 with 2022 being the second full calendar year of operation. The objectives of this program were to reduce speeds in work zones, promote work zone safety, improve driver behavior, save worker and traveler lives, and complement existing speed enforcement operations conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police. This study reported the performance of the system by using the dataset from March 2020 through November 2022 collected from 8,868 deployments at work sites across Pennsylvania.
METHODOLOGY
AWZSE cameras were located just past the entrance to a work zone. Any driver detected in violation by a radar gun triggered the camera. The captured image was processed to send a speeding ticket. Some vehicles were unable to be processed for a variety of reasons including foreign or diplomatic plates, active emergency response, blurry or obstructed view, or no database response. The program was continually trying to improve by adjusting the camera location and building relationships with neighboring state Department of Motor Vehicles to better access their records. Of vehicles that were identified, second and third violations were also tracked.
FINDINGS
- During the peak construction season (April to October) AWZSE reduced the total percentage of vehicles speeding in work zones by 38 percent since the program was implemented in 2020.
- Within the same season, AWZSE reduced the total percentage of vehicles speeding excessively (i.e., 11 mi/h or more over the speed limit) in work zones by 47 percent.
- In July 2022, the program experienced the lowest percentage of traffic traveling over the posted speed limit in program history, at 15 percent. That same month also had the lowest percentage of traffic excessively speeding (in program history, at two percent).
- Speeds were observed to be twice as fast in barrier protected work zones than in unprotected (channelizer – barrels, cones, panels) work zones. This was believed to be due to drivers having a false sense of security in these work zones, giving the impression that speeds could be higher in these work zones.
- In 2022, the program issued 444,827 violations with 18.6 percent being repeat offenders.
- While crashes also decreased in work zones over the two years of available AWZSE program data (2020 and 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel patterns, complicating the assessment of AWZSE's specific impact on crashes.
- During the peak construction season in 2022 (April to October) speeding in AWZSE enforced work zones was reduced to 17.2 percent of all traffic, and excessive speeding was reduced to 2.6 percent.
