Swansea Council has awarded a contract to intelligent traffic solution and technology business Swarco to design, install and maintain a bespoke vehicle activated signage solution to support new 20mph national speed limits and warn drivers of their high speeds.
In March, the Welsh government passed a law that will see the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales reduce from 30mph to 20mph from September 2023.
To support the upcoming changes to the speed limit, local authorities in Wales are currently working to make the necessary alterations to existing highway signage to ensure drivers are aware of the changes to the law.
And following an open competitive tender process on Sell2Wales in late 2022, Swansea Council entered into a commercial contract with Swarco to replace its existing vehicle speed activated signs with new electronic sign units that dynamically display the approaching vehicle’s actual speed.
The new signs will display the vehicle speed in green if the vehicle is complying with the new default speed limit and in red if not.
The agreement will see the installation of 120 bespoke vehicle activated signs throughout Swansea.
The signs use a radar to detect vehicle speeds and use a LED display to show messages to oncoming drivers, as well as being equipped with internal data logging stored within the signs to provide statistical feedback and data on the number of activations, vehicle speeds and volumes, meaning the council will be able to monitor changing driver behaviour.
Neil Holland, traffic engineer at Swansea Council, said: “This vital traffic management equipment should help to encourage motorists to lower their speed when new government legislation relating to urban traffic speeds comes into force in the coming months.
“The forthcoming changes to the restricted road default speed limit in Wales has given us the opportunity to take advantage of technological advances in speed reduction, positively affect driver behaviour and reinforce the message that lower vehicle speeds lead directly to a reduction in both the likelihood of highway collisions occurring and the severity of any that do unfortunately occur.”
The new contract is designed to work in co-ordination with an existing service and maintenance contract already in place.
Innovations and achievements such as this will highlighted and celebrated at the second annual CiTTi Awards, which takes place at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London on 21 November 2023. Entries are now open and close on July 28. For more information, please visit www.cittiawards.co.uk
