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Speeding, Coordination, and the 55-MPH Limit: Comment

Recently, Lave (1985) presented evidence showing that the variance of speed rather than speed itself produces the higher probabilities of collision and increased fatalities on the highways. Testing Lave's finding using 1985 data for the 50 states, mean speed and speed variance are both correlat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review 1989-09, Vol.79 (4), p.913-915
Main Authors: Levy, David T., Asch, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Recently, Lave (1985) presented evidence showing that the variance of speed rather than speed itself produces the higher probabilities of collision and increased fatalities on the highways. Testing Lave's finding using 1985 data for the 50 states, mean speed and speed variance are both correlated and interactive. At higher speeds, driving is less coordinated, and the effect of coordination on fatality rates is greater, the higher is the mean speed. Using a more inclusive model than Lave's and aggregate data, effect of speed on fatalities is positive, significant, and non-fragile across a large set of reasonable alternative specifications after accounting for the effect of speed variance. Using panel data and fixed-effects model, the results confirm that average traffic speed is an important determinant of highway fatalities. All 3 comments, although believed to be an artifact of aggregating dissimilar highway types, strongly support the finding that speed variance is important. However, there is still debate over the importance of speed, per se.
ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981