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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Speed Signs Cost Less Than You Think

By Jessi McCafferty


The Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program in the Transportation Department of Bellevue, Washington, put out a 2005 report on the effectiveness of radar speed display signs after installing 20 in various locations and monitoring them over a 5-year period for results, cost and other things. Apart from the results showing the signs were effective and stayed effective over the course of the study, some other prominent things can be taken away from the report, such as the low long-term cost of using electronic display signs.

In the breakdown of the price of buying and installing the signs, the report also lists the ongoing electricity costs and maintenance costs. Twenty signs spread around the town cost Bellevue only about $60 each month total in electricityĆ¢€"about $3 per month per sign. While that will vary from place to place based mostly on the price per kilowatt hour of electricity at any specific time, it illustrates the low electricity costs for speed signs.

Because TraffiCalm's speed display signs use LED lights, the usage of power is minimal, even though they operate 24 hours per day. And the signs may be employed variably, automatically closing off at night during slow traffic hours or staying on only in a certain heavy-traffic portion of the day, which would lower the already minimal costs even further.

The other continuing cost area that many officers might fret about is maintenance. There's upkeep that could need to occur if something goes badly or to negate regular wear, and maintenance that's critical to fix signs after things like hurricanes or vandalism.

The Bellevue study cited objects being thrown at signs as the no 1 kind of vandalism. Sealed signs protect against this as much as practicable, so fix costs due to vandalism are insignificant. The expenses for maintenance and repair were so nominal over the 20 speed display signs used in Bellevue, which were a spread of models, that the exact dollar amounts were not even listed for the 5-year period.




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