SLOW for SAM (Speed Awareness Monitors)
The Challenge
Speeding is a continual issue for road authorities to manage, especially on local streets and around schools. Speeding increases the required stopping distance of vehicles to avoid an accident. This in turn, results in increased occurrences of accidents and their associated severity. The challenge for us is to encourage better driver behaviour across our communities.
The Solution
Brisbane City Council took a proactive approach by installing speed warning signs on streets and roads to reduce speeding and help increase safety. SAMs collect entry and exit speed data of each vehicle, allowing for a rich data analysis of their effectiveness.
The SAM monitors, which have been well received by the community, were also recognised with the Road Safety Award at the 2018 Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia Awards for demonstrating innovation and safety improvements on our roads.
The result
Since installation in 2013, Council’s SAM signs have captured the data of more than 617 million vehicles, analysing trends in information such as passing speeds at various days and times.
An independent study conducted by RACQ in June 2018 showed that approximately 63% of people agreed SAM had a positive impact on speed awareness and believed that the SAM monitors had more impact on motorist behaviour change than other speed signs. In addition, 71% of people also voted they would like to see more Slow for SAM signs in the community.
Similar innovations are also being implemented including Wildlife Awareness Monitors at high-priority wildlife locations across Brisbane, in an effort to reduce animal strikes.
“The data captured by SAM has demonstrated the success of the program, showing an average reduction of about 8.1 km/h by those initially alerted of exceeding the speed limit. A great outcome for a cost effective solution.”
Nick Herson, Project Officer at Brisbane City Council
