Evaluating the effectiveness of a smartphone speed limit advisory application: An on-road study in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The development of mobile phone applications that provide speed limit advice and warnings offers opportunities for use of the technology in the improvement of driver safety. This paper looks at the effect of an advisory Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) application on driver speeding behaviour. Twenty participants (all males within the age range of 35–60 years) completed a within-group experimental design. Participants drove in real traffic on a 46 km test route which incorporated three-speed limits zones (50 km/h, 60 km/h, and 80 km/h speed limits) and aggregated into 10 different segments. Compared with baseline levels, possible impacts of ISA system functionalities on driver behaviour were studied through appropriate metrics including cumulative speed distribution, mean speed, speed deviation, 85th percentile speed, percentage distanced travelled above the speed limit, and safety benefit estimation. Results indicated the use of the ISA application led to significant improvement in speed limit compliance particularly in the 60 km/h and 80 km/h zones where speeding was eliminated. There were no observed negative effects on driver speeding behaviour from the use of the system. In general, the findings suggest the use of the ISA system, resulted in the adoption of vehicle speeds that are likely to improve road safety.

Keywords

• Intelligent speed assistance
• Road safety
• Crashes
• Speeding
• Driver behaviour