Summary

This research is geared toward assessing whether Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) is suitable for deployment on mainline highways in California. It therefore consists of two parallel, and equally important, research and evaluation tracks, technical and institutional. If ASE is to be deployed, both tracks are necessarily investigated, both must produce convincing elements, and importantly, both must be recognized as interdependent, e.g., quantification of an "acceptable" level of reliability helps overcome a potential objection to any ASE deployment policy. We must realize, however, that an assessment of technology alone will not do the job; while it may be a necessary antecedent to overcoming institutional or policy barriers, it is the decidedly nontechnical factors that must in the end be addressed. The scope reflects this approach. At the project's end, a detailed report on how ASE systems measure up on a variety of roadways, an assessment of institutional issues, a detailed examination of public perception and, given sufficient ASE technical performance, a plan for deployment that addresses recommended policy steps in light of these perceptual issues will be delivered. To do this requires a gamut of tools: a set of controlled experiments to assess ASE, a series of focus group interactions, followed up with a telephone survey, and a set of roadside tests. Results will be synthesized into a plan for a Field Operational Test. If ASE proves difficult to implement, an answer will be produced as well.