Case note

Speed-zone changes and aggregation bias

Evaluating speed-limit changes with connected-vehicle data — and showing where averaged data mislead.

Design

Six NSW sites

Each speed-zone change is compared with control roads using weighted difference-in-differences, with a rolling coefficient of variation to track speed spread, not just the mean.

Aggregation bias

Path-level vs aggregate

Aggregated segment speeds mix vehicles that drive different paths. Comparing the aggregate estimate with path-level trajectories exposes a bias (aggregate minus trajectory) that can make a change look larger or smaller than it is.

Validation

Instrumented cars

Connected-vehicle speeds are compared with two instrumented SafeFuture research cars on the same roads.

Limits

What we will not claim

This note presents the method. Site-level effect sizes are not presented here as findings.