Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.

7, 2009

Effectiveness of Speed Enforcement with Police Intervention

on a National Highway in Thailand
Sattrawut Ponboon Piyapong Jiwattanakulpaisarn
Research Associate Senior Engineer
Thailand Accident Research Center Department of Highways
Asian Institute of Technology Sri Ayutthaya, Rajtaevee,
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang Bangkok, Thailand
Pathumthani, Thailand E-mail: passport2joe@yahoo.co.uk
Fax: +662-5246419
E-mail: sattrawut_ponboon@ait.ac.th

Kunnawee Kanitpong Supattra Kachathong

Assistant Professor Research Associate
Thailand Accident Research Center Thailand Accident Research Center
Asian Institute of Technology Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang
Pathumthani, Thailand Pathumthani, Thailand
Fax: +662-5245509 Fax: +662-5245504
E-mail: kanitpon@ait.ac.th E-mail: supattra@ait.ac.th

Nuttapong Boontob Pakorn Aniwattakulchai

Research Associate Research Associate
Thailand Accident Research Center Thailand Accident Research Center
Asian Institute of Technology Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang
Pathumthani, Thailand Pathumthani, Thailand
Fax: +662-5246419 Fax: +662-5246419
E-mail: etaoff@hotmail.com E-mail: poroapor@hotmail.com

Abstract: This paper examines the effectiveness of speed enforcement with police
intervention by conducting a two-week trial of speed enforcement on Highway No. 1
(Paholyothin Road). The results based on speed survey data indicate that for most types of
vehicles, the speeding police intervention was immediately effective in reducing speed and
increasing the percentage of drivers complying with speed limits. However, no significant
evidence on the effects was found in the absence of active police activity during night hours.

Keyword: speeding, speed camera, speed enforcement

1. INTRODUCTION

Speeding is reported as the principle cause of crashes worldwide. Approximately, 30% of all
traffic accidents in the U.S. and EU were due to speeding (NHTSA, 1997; ERSO, 2007). In
Thailand, speeding is also one of the most prevalent factors contributing to road crashes.
Recent statistics compiled by the Department of Highways indicate that speeding contributes
to 85% of all accidents on highways during the years 1999 to 2006 (Department of Highways,
2006).
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

Speeding laws have been introduced in Thailand’s Land Transport and Highway Acts for
decades. Speed detection by traditional radar guns has been implemented on major arterials,
usually during day hours. Yet, it is widely viewed that, to some extent, there is relatively little
chance of being apprehended by the police, mainly due to the lack of workforce capacity and
regularity in monitoring and enforcing speed limits. The capability of speed enforcement in
Thailand has been much improved in recent years. The Highway Police Department has
sought to reduce speeding behavior on highways by introducing speed camera enforcement.
42,304 drivers were caught during the first three months of trial of installing 45 sets of speed
cameras at 20 locations along various major arterial highways throughout the country
(Rungruang, 2006). However, making use of speed cameras has been at an early stage with
legal issues and controversy against the allegation of speeding based on photographic
evidence from speed cameras sent by post.

Speed camera technology is an essential supplement tool brought to replace traditional

speeding observing enforcement. As an automatic design, the camera can monitor a speeding
vehicles and record with high solution image. Studies shows that speed camera return a big
impact for safety improvement. In U.S, the proportion of motorist speeding 10 mph over
speed limits reduced more than 70% (Retting et al., 2008) and up to 82% in Columbia
(Retting and Farmer, 2003), while the reduction of speeding was reported 50-60% in Europe
and Australia (Wilson et al., 2006). The study of evaluation on automated enforcement
reported that, the effectiveness in term of injury crash reduction was in range of 20-25% for
fixed speed camera, and increased to 21-51% for mobile speed camera (Decina et al., 2007).

Whatever speed detection technology, empirical knowledge about safety benefits from
utilizing the current practice of speed enforcement in Thailand is rather limited. This paper
sets out to evaluate the effectiveness of speed enforcement with police intervention on a
national highway. A two week trial of speed enforcement on Highway No. 1 (Paholyothin
Road) was undertaken during March and April 2008 by a collaborative effort between the
Highway Police Department and Thailand Accident Research Center (TARC). The survey of
vehicle speeds was conducted during the daytime and nighttime to investigate whether and to
what extent speeding behaviors of drivers altered in response to speed enforcement. Our
emphasis was placed on examining changes in the mean speeds and drivers’ compliance with
the speed limit as a consequence of the trial of speed enforcement with police active presence.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1 A Trial of Speed Enforcement on Highway No. 1

Highway No. 1, namely Paholyotin Road, is the national highway connecting Bangkok to
Northern and Northeastern regions. It was expressly designed to facilitate long-distance
travels and high volume of traffic. A highway section from kilometer 60 to kilometer 82,
which is located in Ayuttaya province, was chosen as the trial area since the accident statistics
compiled by the Department of Highways indicate that, during 2001-2006 this 22 kilometer
highway section had the most severe high accident rate. It has a three-lane carriageway and a
one-way two-lane frontage road in each direction with access and exits physically controlled.
Figure 1 presents the location of the trial area for speed enforcement.
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

km.82 Beyond Check Point

km.74
Police Check Point

km.67
Speed Detection Site
km.60
Warning Sign of Speed Detection

Figure 1 The trial area for speed enforcement on highway no. 1

The trial of speed enforcement was focused on controlling speeds of traffic in the northeast
bound direction. A speed camera was used in detecting vehicle speeds and recording speeding
evidence at kilometer 67 (See Figure 1). It is preferable to a handheld radar gun as its laser
technology provides more accurate measurement of vehicle speeds. Given the limitation in
Thai regulations that sending notification of speeding and a ticket with a photograph taken
from speed camera by post is currently not acceptable by the law, the speed camera was not
being operated in an automatic manner during this trial. Instead it was used to record vehicle
speeds manually by a highway police officer, and a police check point was set up at kilometer
74, allowing another police officer to stop speeding offenders and issue speeding tickets right
after they were found guilty. The communication between police officers at the speed camera
location and the check point was made by radio. These represent the current practice of speed
enforcement by highway police in Thailand. In addition, a warning sign was installed at
kilometer 60 to alert drivers to the speed enforcement area ahead. The trial of speed
enforcement was launched during off-peak hours (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) on weekdays, starting
from the 4th week of March to the 1st week of April 2008.

2.2 Speed Surveys

To measure changes in vehicle speeds over the entire length of the trial area, “before” and
“after” speed surveys were conducted at three locations: kilometer 65 where drivers were
approaching the speed detection site, kilometer 67 where the speed camera was installed, and
kilometer 82 which is located at some distance after the police check point. The speed surveys
were conducted by trained and experienced observers using stopwatches to record time of
vehicles over a measured distance. The surveys were carried out over three consecutive
weeks, starting a week before the beginning of speed enforcement operation (the 3rd week of
March 2008) and covering the two week trial period. In total, 43,293 vehicles had been
collected in this study.

An important issue in conducting the speed surveys involves selecting appropriate dates and
time for data collection. To this end, traffic count data from 1 February to 17 March 2008,
which were taken from the Department of Highways, were analyzed to explore the day-of-
the-week and the hour-of-the-day variations of traffic volume for all types of vehicles at
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

kilometer 67 of Highway No. 1. As shown in Figure 2, the volume of traffic was fairly steady
from Monday to Thursday. However, it increased dramatically in Friday and Saturday, mainly
due to increases in outbound traffic from Bangkok. With respect to the temporal pattern of
traffic over a time period in a day, it can be seen that after the morning peak hours (7 a.m. to 8
a.m.), traffic volumes decreased steadily until 3 a.m. in the next morning. Based on this
information, the speed surveys were carried out three days a week, including Wednesday as a
representative for working days with steady traffic pattern, Friday as a representative for
working days with high traffic, and Saturday as a representative for weekend with heavy
traffic. Moreover, two periods of time were selected for monitoring speeding behaviors. These
include the period of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. representing daytime, and the period of 8 p.m. to 12
a.m. representing nighttime. The speed surveys at night allow us to examine whether the
speed enforcement is influential in reducing speeding behaviors in the absence of active
police activity.

85,000 6,000

Traffic Volume (Vehicle/Day)

80,000 5,000
Traffic Volume (vehicle/day)

75,000 4,000

70,000 3,000

65,000 2,000

60,000 1,000

55,000 -
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
50,000
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Time

Figure 2 Temporal variations in traffic volume at kilometer 63 of highway no. 1

One reason that the speed surveys were carried out during off-peak hours is to measure
vehicle speeds in free flow conditions. This is a requisite for monitoring speeding behaviors,
which needs to minimize the undesirable effects of traffic volume so that only those with a
free choice of speed unaffected by others are observed. The measurement of free flow vehicle
speeds would be unreliable if observed speeds and traffic volumes exhibited a strong and
positive relationship. In this study, there is no evidence of such correlation for both daytime
and nighttime as presented in Figure 3 in which data on vehicle speeds are plotted against data
on traffic volumes that were collected while conducting the speed surveys at the same
locations.

110

y = 73.676x 0.0274 y = 175.93x -0.071

100 R² = 0.0712
R² = 0.0146

90
Speed (km/h)

4-Wheel Vehicle: Daytime

80 y = 4.9456x 0.3292 4-Wheel Vehicle: Nighttime
R² = 0.141
Heavy Vehicle: Daytime
70
y = 62.887x0.0212 Heavy Vehicle: Nighttime
R² = 0.0045
60

50
1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000

Volume (Vehicle/h)
Figure 3 Relationship between speed and traffic volume
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

3. RESULTS

3.1 Changes in the Mean Speeds

Figure 4 presents the results obtained from the speed surveys at kilometer 65 where drivers
were approaching the speed detection site. The speed data for observed vehicles are grouped
into two major categories: (1) 4-wheel vehicles including passenger cars, van, and pickup, and
(2) heavy vehicles including buses and medium and heavy trucks. It is found that during the
day hours, the mean speeds of 4-wheel vehicles in the second and third weeks (the trial period
for speed enforcement) significantly decreased when comparing to those obtained during the
first week. The average of the mean speeds dropped from 100 km/h in the first week to 94
km/h and 94 km/h in the second and third weeks, respectively. Similar results are obtained for
the average of the mean speeds for heaving vehicles, decreasing from 69 km/h in the first
week to 61 km/h in the third week. During the nighttime, we also find significant reductions
in the speeds of heavy vehicles during the last two weeks of the speed surveys, albeit in the
absence of speed enforcement at night. However, this was not entirely the case for 4-wheel
vehicles as the speed reduction effect was found to take place only during the third week.

110
4-wheel vehicle: Before Speed Camera
105

100 1st Week

100
Speed (km/h)

2nd Week
96 3rd Week
95 94
94
91
90 91

85

80
9 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 22 23

Time

80
Heavy Vehicle: Before Speed Camera
75 74

70
Speed (km/h)

69

65 66
65 1st Week

61 2nd Week
60 60
3rd Week
55

50
9 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 22 23

Time

Figure 4 Mean speeds at kilometer 65 on highway no. 1

At the speed detection site where the speed camera was installed, the results in Figure 5 also
indicate that there were significant changes in speeding behaviors of drivers in response to the
trial of speed enforcement. Though the speed reduction effects in the second week appear to
be fairly marginal, we find relatively substantial decreases in vehicle speeds associated with
speed enforcement during the third week.
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

110
4-Wheel Vehicle: Camera

105
103
103
100
Speed (km/h)
96 97
95 95 1st Week
2nd Week
90
3rd Week
88
85

80
9 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 22 23

Time

100
Heavy Vehicle: Camera
95

90
86
85
84
Speed (km/h)

80 79
79
75 76
1st Week
71
70 2nd Week

65 3rd Week

60

55

50
9 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 22 23

Time

Figure 5 Mean speeds at the speed detection site (kilometer 67 on highway no. 1)

To further investigate the overall effect of speed enforcement on vehicle speeds, the data from
the speed surveys at these two locations during the same week were combined, and
comparison with respect to vehicle types was made between the speed data obtained during
the first and third weeks of the surveys. The t-test was also employed to determine whether
significant differences exist between the averages of the mean speeds. The results presented in
Table 1 reveal that significant evidence of speed reduction effects is limited to the daytime. In
the presence of speed enforcement operation, vehicle speeds in the third week were lower by
2 to 9%, compared with those observed before the trial of speed enforcement. For most types
of vehicles, the average of the mean speeds is found to be statistically different. The exception
is the case of trucks where the t-test indicates no significant difference in speed during the
daytime. In contrast, there is evidence of speed reduction for trucks at night which we could
not explain. Based on all of these findings, nevertheless, it seems plausible to conclude that
the effectiveness of speed enforcement in terms of reducing vehicle speeds might be subject
to active police presence and activity.
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

Table 1 Comparison of the averages of the mean speeds by type of vehicles

Type of Daytime Nighttime
vehicles 1st week 3rd week % Diff t-test 1st week 3rd week % Diff t-test
Passenger Car 103 96 -7% * 91 92 +1%
Pickup 97 91 -6% * 90 90 0%
Van 98 95 -2% * 93 91 -2%
Truck 61 60 -3% 63 55 -13% *
Bus 86 78 -9% * 83 85 +3%
Notes: Speeds are measured in km/h.
% Diff denotes percent difference.
* indicates that the null hypothesis of no difference in the averages of the mean speeds can be rejected
at the 5% level.

Although the results thus far suggest that the trial of speed enforcement was successfully
effective in reducing speed of vehicles approaching and passing the speed detection site, it is
important to realize that some drivers may react in an undesirable way to speed enforcement.
That is, they would slow down for speed detection and the check point, and then accelerate
after passing the speed enforcement zone. We experimented this with data from the speed
survey during the daytime at kilometer 82 which is 8 kilometers away from the police check
point. As can be seen in Table 2, comparing the mean speeds of vehicles at the speed
detection site and beyond the police check point suggests that overall there was no evidence
of manipulating behavior during the two-week trial period for speed enforcement. In
particular, the averages of the mean speeds beyond the police check point were practically
lower than those at the speed detection site. Note however that these findings are based on the
aggregate data that do not reflect individual behaviors. Some interesting information could
have been achieved by conducting a self-report survey of drivers passing through the speed
enforcement zone, which is unfortunately beyond the scope of this study.

Table 2 Averages of the mean speeds during the daytime

at the speed detection site and beyond the police check point
Speed survey locations
Survey
Type of vehicles Kilometer 67 Kilometer 82
period
(Speed detection site) (Beyond the police check point)
4-wheel vehicles 2nd Week 103 98
3rd Week 96 96
Heavy vehicles 2nd Week 79 70
3rd Week 71 69
Note: Speeds are measured in km/h.

3.2 Changes in Drivers’ Compliance with the Speed Limit

Another way of evaluating the effectiveness of speed enforcement is to determine the
proportion of drivers complying with speed limits. According to the 1992 Highway Act, the
speed limits for such 4-wheel and heavy vehicles in the trial area for speed enforcement,
which is outside municipalities, are 90 and 80 km/h, respectively. In doing so, data from the
speed surveys for 4-wheel vehicles (i.e. passenger car, pickup, and van) and heavy vehicles
(i.e. bus and truck) were analyzed to examine whether the percentage of drivers complying
with speed limits in the third week was any higher than the initial (1st week) level. The results
are presented in Figures 6 and 7 where the proportions of drivers exceeding the speed limits
are also shown.
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

Daytime Nighttime
60% 54%
47%
50%
36% Passenger Car
40%
30% 24%
20% Before
1st Week
10% After
3rd Week
0%
60% 52% 58% 54%
50%
38% Pickup
40%
30%
20% Before
1st Week
10% After
3rd Week
0%
60% 50%
49%
50% 38%
35% Van
40%
30%
20% Before
1st Week
10% After
3rd Week
0%
< 90 90-110 110-130 130-150 < 90 90-110 110-130 130-150

Speed (km/h)
Figure 6 Distributions of speeds for 4-wheel vehicles

Daytime Nighttime
100% 93% 92% 90% 98%
80%
Truck
60%
40% Before
20% After
0%
70% 61%
60%
Bus 47%
50%
37%
40% 33%
30%
Before
20%
10% After
0%
< 80 80-100 100-120 < 80 80-100 100-120

Speed (km/h)
Figure 7 Distributions of speeds for heavy vehicles

As illustrated in these figures, it can be found that speed enforcement with police presence
during the day hours performed fairly well for most types of vehicles, in terms of increasing
the percentage of drivers complying with the speed limits. The strongest effect was observed
for buses (33% to 61%), followed by pickup trucks (38% to 52%), passenger cars (24% to
36%), and vans (35% to 38%). For truck drivers, the police speeding intervention appeared to
be ineffective in reducing intentions to speed. Moreover, the results in Figures 6 and 7 reveal
that the influence of speed enforcement was not persistent overnight, which is similar to the
findings on changes in vehicle speeds. This reinforces the importance of police presence for
speed control so as to effectively reduce speeding behaviors on highways.
Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.7, 2009

4. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

During the two week trial of speed enforcement with police intervention on a section of
Highway No.1, the results from the speed surveys during the day hours showed its
effectiveness in reducing speeding behaviors. For most types of vehicles, the averages of the
mean speeds were lower and the proportions of drivers who comply with speed limits were
higher, compared to the initial levels observed in a week before the trial. Nonetheless, it is
found that the effectiveness of speed enforcement was subject to active police presence and
activity. In most cases, neither changes in vehicle speeds nor changes in drivers’ compliance
with speed limits were clearly evident at night. Given the lack of police workforce for speed
control, these findings cast some doubt on the sustainability of the current practice of speed
enforcement in Thailand if either a lower prevalence of speeding violations or a reduction in
speed-related accidents and casualties during the nighttime would primarily need to be
achieved. It is essential that the feasibility of implementing automated speed enforcement
such as speed cameras be determined in that trade-off between its costs and benefits is
comprehensively analyzed. Resolving the evidentiary issues and exploring public attitudes
towards speed camera enforcement are clearly priority.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Health Foundation
and the assistance of the police forces from Highways Police Division (Sub Division No. 1)
for implementing the trial of speed enforcement on Paholyotin Road. The authors also would
like to dedicate all of this work to late Professor Yordphol Tanaboriboon, the first TARC
manager, for his initiative scheme on road safety research contributed to Thai society.

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