Author(s)

H. Katteler & R. van der Heijden

Abstract

This paper discusses a way to drastically cope with speeding in the urban area. Pilots with Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) in Europe applied in passenger cars support the perspective of creating an urban environment with a guaranteed maximum speed level for car drivers. Therefore, the perspective for improvement of the traffic related quality of the urban environment is quite positive. However, the ISA concept runs the risk of failure considering the imminent lack of acceptance by the general public in general and car drivers in particular. ISA systems differ in how intervening or permissive they are varying from producing warning signals to systems that take mandatory control over the gas supply. Social acceptance of automatically enforced maximum speed levels was studied in a real life environment. This paper describes the results of a Dutch pilot with 120 test drivers and 3 reference groups of drivers. The study shows a prevailing positive attitude towards automatically enforced speed adaptation. Practise with ISA appears not to induce a lower level of acceptance. However, the basis for acceptance is frequently not embedded in the understanding of a speeding problem. This weakens the permanence of the support in society. The results of the compulsory ISA system will be compared to the results of experiences with ISA systems used in various European countries. Keywords: acceptance, intelligent speed adaptation, ISA, AVG, speeding, traffic calming; car users, urban area. 1 Quality of life and speeding The quality of the urban living environment is served, among others, by a policy capable reducing the usual negative impacts of the traffic system on citizens. A

Keywords

acceptance, intelligent speed adaptation, ISA, AVG, speeding, traffic calming; car users, urban area.