By Steve Ranger, 27 June 2005 14:55
NEWS Work will begin next month on a £15m project to install 43 high-tech motorway message signs on the M3 and the M4, beginning with a communications upgrade.
The new signs, which can display text and picture messages, are due to come into use by the end of 2006.
Dr Stephen Ladyman, Minister for Roads, said: "Using pictures as well as words on the new signs will help drivers to understand and react to the information displayed more quickly."
Research has shown that drivers understand picture-based messages up to a second quicker than text-based messages, the Highways Agency said.
The new signs will be linked up to a new regional traffic control centre where police and traffic managers will work to reduce the impact of congestion and accidents.
The signs will also get data from the Motorway Incident Detection Automatic Signalling (Midas) incident detection system, which uses loops in the road to identify slow or queuing traffic and automatically activates the signals to warn approaching vehicles of an incident on the road ahead.
Using such a system on the entire length of the M4 and the M25 could result in an annual saving of approximately £8m per year due to accident prevention, the Highways Agency said.
It said 27 of the so-called MS4 signs will be installed on the M3 between Winchester and Southampton, and 16 will be installed on the M4 between Maidenhead and Reading, where many UK high-tech companies have their headquarters.
Work to install the signs on the M3 is due to start on 4 July 2005 and on the M4 in mid-July. The scheme also includes CCTV cameras, so traffic managers can view incidents on the motorway, and new emergency telephones.
Cameras have been mounted on a number of the signs so the Highways Agency can see how drivers react to the signs but it emphasised that the cameras cannot be used to catch speeders and do not have the functionality to be used for recognition of number plates.
Comments
There are 8 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Great. So now we'll get pictures to tell us when we are already stuck in a queue. We need something like the French system which tells you the likely time to the next few junctions, not to state the blindingly obvious: "Queue caution".
2. anonymous
It's all very well to improve the quality of signs, but shouldn't the reliability of the information be addressed first?
Most of the time, the information displayed on the existing signs seems to be telling you about incidents that were cleared up hours ago, they just haven't reset the signs.
As a result many motorists simply ignore the signs, assuming them to be wrong.
3. Julian Nicholls
What's the point? They're not using the current signs. I travel on the M27 and M3 every day, and each has two large matrix signs. In both cases, the signs are within sight of each other with no intervening junction.
It's a cold day in hell when there's anything displayed on any of the four signs.
4. anonymous
And when the traffics stationary they can beam in East Enders and Corri and a few commercials to entertain the captive audiences, cant wait..
5. Neil Barrett
The old matrix signs had about a 1 in 4 chance of being right in my experience (I've driven ~50K miles a yr for the last 15 yrs).
The new ones have a no higher hit rate. Unless the people who run them cancel information once it's out of date (leaving notification up for at least 8-10hrs after an event seems normal) all that happens is people are trained into ignoring them.... Which is where we are now. They are usually completely ignored.
6. anonymous
In the unlikely event that there actually is a viable alternative route, then as soon as a warning appears, that alternative will cease to be viable because everyone will switch to it.
So what is the point of these signs?
7. Radical Meldrew
The quality of the information given is vital, pictorial information will be difficult to represent all events coherently. What we actually need is:
1) A system that is administered properly and not left on for hours after the incident has passed. This will encourage trust.
2) Information that is actually useful to the driver.
e.g.: I use the M2 every day but did not know where the 'accident after B255' was likely to be. If they had said Bluewater, or Bean, I could have avoided it very easily.
The alternative of trying to read a map whilst driving is just silly so why do they assume every driver will know all of the relevant road numbers?
I have come to the inevitable conclusion that most traffic offices must be manned by motorist hating anoraks. Wake up now! It's us motorists, some good some bad; who provide you with a job so it’s in your interest to look after them isn't it?
8. Neil Postlethwaite
More of our money to burn....
Why not spend the cash and give everyone a Trafficmaster box instead, The excellent Freeway box is only £70 and give you reasonably accurate traffic info from 10-15 miles away.
Or better still, an integrated GPS SatNav system - You'll need one soon anyway for congestion charging on roads. When the scheme folds as a technological failure, we'll all have a decent SatNav box !!
They said in the other story, they are spending £250m a year on roadside info signs..... Shheesh. *WASTE OF MONEY ALERT** !!