Queensland Experiences with Vehicle Activated Signs

Vehicle activated signs (VAS) are widely used in the United Kingdom and a number of other European countries. A large scale evaluation study of VAS undertaken by the UK Transportation Research Laboratory identified significant speed reductions on the approaches to hazards and associated reductions in crashes where these signs were deployed.

While the signs are perceived to be expensive and have not to date been widely used in Australia, the potential to yield similar safety results from their application in Queensland has encouraged further investigation into the use of this technology as a road safety device. In particular there is scope to encourage better speed compliance on the approaches to intersections with poor safety performance, and in advance of hazardous curves.

In addition, there is appeal in their ability to be quickly deployed on the approaches to known problem locations as an interim treatment, prior to more significant works being designed and implemented.

This paper outlines the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ experiences with the deployment of speed activated signs.