Electronic Speed Signs: Ensuring Safer Roads for Everyone
Road traffic injuries are not only one of the gravest public health issues around the world but also a leading cause behind millions of untimely deaths every year. Each year, more than 1.2 million people either lose their lives or get seriously injured or disabled due to road accidents taking place each moment on the global road networks. These road accidents happen mostly in low and middle-income countries.
The price for these accidents is not only paid by those involved but also their families and communities and the health services of the concerning countries as well as their economies. Total spends made on such accidents constitute 1%–2% of the gross national product of most countries.
With the rapid increase in motorization, everyday road crashes have become one of the fastest-growing concerns even in developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. In case the ongoing trends remain unchecked, road accidents in the next 20 years will increase to a horrible extent across the globe with the strongest impact falling upon the common citizens.
Excessive and inappropriate speed is considered to be the most important factor that contributes to fatal road accidents and injuries that the world is facing today. Even though the governments and traffic authorities around the globe are leaving no stone unturned to prevent these road accidents, speed is claiming millions of lives.
What needs to be done both on governmental as well as community-level includes the following pointers:
- The traffic rules should be completely reformed keeping the needs of contemporary times. Those breaking the rules must be punished seriously.
- Speed management has always been one of the most effective and efficient methods for ensuring road safety. Traffic authorities must provide their staff with appropriate training in the light of the new-age requirements.
- Speed sign installation has worked wonderfully well the world over when it comes to having a check upon the over speeding vehicles as they provide valuable information to drivers and other road users.
- Representing rules that are in place to keep you safe, a Speed Feedback Sign is the best way to communicate messages to the over speeding drivers as well as pedestrians for bringing the rate of accidents down.
Road traffic signs, the most cost-effective, durable, and maintenance-free devices, are classified into four main groups and sub-categories:
- Guidance: Location/Route Markers/Direction
- Temporary: Command/Prohibition
- Regulatory: Control/Command/Prohibition/Reservation
- Warning: Road Layout/Direction of Movement
One unique aspect associated with speed limit signs is that they are within the reach of common people and societies, and they don’t have to depend upon the government efforts to install or deploy them in a particular zone. The individuals who are socially responsible have already started their road safety regimens, however at the local street level.
Experience in many countries has shown that speed signs are some of the best tools at basic levels to have a check upon road accidents both on highways as well as local streets and lanes that are prone to accidents.