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THIS FEATURE ANALYZES THE EFFECTS OF ASE SYSTEMS ON TRAFFIC-- FLOW CHARACTERISTICS AND SAFETY IN KOREA. DATA COLLECTED FROM ROAD SECTIONS AT EACH ASE STATION INITIALLY INSTALLED IN 1987 SHOWED SIGNIFICANT DECREASES IN TOTAL NUMBERS Of ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES. THE ASE SYSTEM WAS EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING AVERAGE SPEED, SPEED VARIANCE AND THE PROPORTION OF SHORT HEADWAYS.
MAINTAINING SAFE HIGHWAYS IS one of the most pressing issues facing highway engineers, law-enforcement officers and traffic-safety communities at large. Traffic casualties on the roads constitute the second largest public-health problem in Korea: Approximately 10,000 people are killed annually in traffic accidents, and the number of accidents per year has increased 35-fold since 1990.1
Speeding, in particular, has been reported as one of the major causes of fatal accidents. In an attempt to increase driver compliance with posted speed limits, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) installed online mode Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) systems at 41 fixed locations in five local centers throughout the country in April 1997. These systems have been of special interest because of their potential for substantially reducing police labor in speed enforcement. State-- of-the-art ASE systems include automatic functions of speed measurement, license plate number identification, communication, photography and provision of enforcement data. As of September 2000, the total number of fixed ASE stations had increased to 429 in 13 local centers. This number increased to 1,375 by the end of 2001 and is expected to reach 2,792 by the end of 2003. By that time, Korea will be one of the countries most actively using ASE systems for traffic law enforcement.2
EFFECTS ON TRAFFIC-FLOW CHARACTERISTICS
Speed Evaluation: Spatial Distribution
If speed enforcement does not include the use of warning signs, vehicle speeds near an ASE station area decrease abruptly, tending to further hazardous conditions. Because the objective of automatic control is to prevent drivers from speeding rather than to increase their risk of being captured, drivers are informed of the...