By 1808Delaware
You’ve seen them before. Traveling down a street or road, a sign informs you about the speed you have been traveling.
In some cases, the signage is portable. In other areas, however, more permanent dynamic speed feedback signs have been placed, notifying the driver while recording the speed for government bodies seeking to promote traffic safety. Remote data is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Such has been the case during the last nine and a half months along four streets in the City of Delaware — Cobblestone Drive, Carson Farms Boulevard, Executive Boulevard, and Hall Drive. On each, this type of signage has been installed, and monitors also record speeds on sections of each street that do not have them.
The goal is to identify whether or not this kind of device can have a deterrent effect on speeding.
At Monday’s meeting of the Delaware City Council’s Parking and Safety Committee, members heard a report on how this pilot project is faring from Delaware Project Engineer Jessica Ormeroid.
Ormeroid took each street in turn, sharing data observations in terms of speed reductions, if any, and then comparing those numbers to what has been observed in other areas of each street. The four areas provided a degree of correlation in their results — there were actual recorded decreases around each speed feedback sign, but the other areas fluctuated more widely or, in at least one instance, rose.
Reductions ranged from 1 to 5 miles per hour.
Ormeroid shared that the basic takeaway is that signs are working, but that more information is necessary to provide a more “holistic” picture of what is happening. She suggested continued monitoring with additional emphasis on the non-sign sections of each street, with another update provided in three months.
Council Member Lisa Keller asked if the higher speeds away from signs meant that motorists might be trying to make up time in those areas. Ormeroid responded that what is happening is up for debate, and that a larger chunk of data is needed.
