Survey of free speeds on roads outside built-up areas with elevated speed limits in Hungary

In Hungary since 2008 some roads operate with posted speed limits which are higher than the general 90 kmph outside urban areas. The goal of the current study was to explore how well road users can recognize various types of roads. An on-line picture-show survey was made about the speed choices of 170 drivers at 35 different road scenes. The comparison with existing speed measurements showed a quite good match. Therefore the survey method is appropriate to estimate the drivers’ speed behaviour. The results show on one hand that on the usual road categories like motorways and normal two-lane primary roads the speed choice is clear for road users, i.e. these roads are self-explaining. On the other hand, there are also road categories, which are not self-explaining and therefore road users have difficulties to choose the appropriate speeds