Abstract
This paper aims to assess the effect of speed limiters on traffic safety and throughout using a microscopic traffic simulation tool. A simple evaluation algorithm was proposed to assess the traffic safety by measuring the inverse of time-to-collision (TTC^<-1>) of all vehicles which pass through a road section during certain time period. The proposed algorithm was applied to investigate the effect of speed limiters on traffic safety. A simple numerical example showed that a) even 10% penetration of speed-limited vehicles significantly increased the traffic safety on a freeway weaving section and b) travel time was also increased due to the deterioration of travel speed on speed-limited sections. It was concluded that speed limiters significantly contribute to the enhancement of traffic safety, whereas negative effect was observed in terms of traffic throughout.
