Once offenders are caught, their penalties

should be dealt with swiftly and effi ciently.

• Using selective enforcement strategies to target
particular risk behaviours and choosing
specifi c locations both improve the effectiveness
of enforcement.
• Of all the methods of enforcement, automated
means – such as cameras – are the most costeffective.
• Publicity supporting enforcement measures
increases their effectiveness; used on its own,
publicity has a negligible effect on road user
behaviour.
A study in Canada found that the enforcement
of traffi c rules reduced the frequency of fatal motor
vehicle crashes in highly-motorized countries. At the
same time, inadequate or inconsistent enforcement
could contribute to thousands of deaths worldwide
every year (127). It has been estimated that if all current
cost-effective traffi c law enforcement strategies
were rigorously applied by European Union countries,
then as many as 50% of deaths and serious
injuries in these countries might be prevented (128).
Setting and enforcing speed limits
Setting road speed limits is closely associated
with road function and road design, as already
mentioned. Physical measures related to the road
and the vehicle, as well as law enforcement by the
police, all contribute to ensuring compliance with
maximum posted speed limits and to the choice of
an appropriate speed for the existing conditions.
Much research and international experience
point to the effectiveness of setting and enforcing
speed limits in reducing the frequency and
severity of road crashes (16, 129). Some examples
of the impacts of changes in speed limits are given
in Table 4.4. In addition, the use of variable speed
limits – where different speed limits are imposed
at different times on the same stretch of road – can
be effective in managing speed (128, 130).
Speed enforcement on rural roads
A meta-analysis of speed enforcement on rural roads,
either by means of radar or instruments which measure
mean vehicle speed between two fi xed points, or
by stationary speed enforcement – where uniformed
police offi cers and police cars attend vehicle stopping
points – found that the two strategies combined
reduced fatal crashes by 14% and injury crashes by
6%. Stationary speed enforcement alone reduced
fatal and injury crashes by 6% (16).
Leggett described a long-term, low-intensity
speed enforcement strategy in Tasmania, Australia,
that involved the visible use of single, stationary
police vehicles on three high-risk stretches of rural
road (131). This enforcement strategy resulted in
an observed reduction in speeding behaviour and
a signifi cant decrease in the overall average speed
of 3.6 km/h. A fall of 58% in serious casualty
crashes – fatal crashes and those involving hospital
admission – was also reported. The two-year
enforcement programme produced an estimated
cost–benefi t ratio of 1:4 (131).