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Blind haste: As light decreases, speeding increases

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  • Emanuel de Bellis
  • Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck
  • Wernher Brucks
  • Andreas Herrmann
  • Ralph Hertwig

Abstract

Worldwide, more than one million people die on the roads each year. A third of these fatal accidents are attributed to speeding, with properties of the individual driver and the environment regarded as key contributing factors. We examine real-world speeding behavior and its interaction with illuminance, an environmental property defined as the luminous flux incident on a surface. Drawing on an analysis of 1.2 million vehicle movements, we show that reduced illuminance levels are associated with increased speeding. This relationship persists when we control for factors known to influence speeding (e.g., fluctuations in traffic volume) and consider proxies of illuminance (e.g., sight distance). Our findings add to a long-standing debate about how the quality of visual conditions affects drivers’ speed perception and driving speed. Policy makers can intervene by educating drivers about the inverse illuminance‒speeding relationship and by testing how improved vehicle headlights and smart road lighting can attenuate speeding.

Suggested Citation

  • Emanuel de Bellis & Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck & Wernher Brucks & Andreas Herrmann & Ralph Hertwig, 2018. "Blind haste: As light decreases, speeding increases," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0188951
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188951
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Robert J. Snowden & Nicola Stimpson & Roy A. Ruddle, 1998. "Speed perception fogs up as visibility drops," Nature, Nature, vol. 392(6675), pages 450-450, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tobias Schlager & Emanuel de Bellis & JoAndrea Hoegg, 2020. "How and when weather boosts consumer product valuation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 695-711, July.
    2. Alicja Barbara Sołowczuk & Dominik Kacprzak, 2021. "Identification of the Determinants of the Effectiveness of On-Road Chicanes in the Village Transition Zones Subject to a 50 km/h Speed Limit," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, July.
    3. Haiyue Liu & Chuanyun Fu & Chaozhe Jiang & Yue Zhou & Chengyuan Mao & Jining Zhang, 2020. "Bayesian hierarchical spatial count modeling of taxi speeding events based on GPS trajectory data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, November.

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