HIGHWAY SPEED LIMITS

Impacts of Policies like Speed Limit, Seat Belts, etc. on Fatal Rate on US Highways

Impacts of Policies like Speed Limit, Seat Belts, etc. on Fatal Rate on US Highways

Introduction

This is an economics research paper based on the data analysis to find the impacts of various policies like speed limit, seat belts, airbags, etc on fatal rate on US highways.

Highways are built by society for the use of society. Although they do not provide transport, they are an immovable good which provide services to the vehicles which do provide transport. One of the main constraints on this service is the posted speed limit. This research paper analyzes speed data from Ontario highways using the statistical techniques to find the impact of various polices such as speed limit most importantly on fatal rate on US highways.

Methodology

What are the impacts of policies on speed limits, seat belts, airbags, etc on fatal rate on US highways? The unit of analysis for the research is random time series data of major highway's speed limit in States of America. My dependant variable is variable is “Fatal (accident) rate” and independent variables are speed limit (Most important), seat belts, airbags, etc (safety device, road conditions and maintenance).

According to research I expect “fatal rate” have no correlation with Speed limit. I also expect that seat belts and air bags will have no correlation with fatal rate. However I do expect that safety devices and other related factors will correlate with fatal rate.

Model

Fatal rate = f (speed limit, seat belts, airbags, etc.)

Data

A background of the equipment used to collect the speed data as well as a discussion of the agency that collects the data is presented below to familiarize the reader with these aspects of the provincial transportation agency.

Fatal Highway Data

Year

Interstate

Primary

1994

41

70

1995

33

72

1996

39

75

1997

51

91

1998

31

82

1999

30

72

The following ...