Message Board
All Encompassing Road Sign
Oladele Olawole3/4/2011 6:51 PM EST
Road signs has been with us for a very long time. What has not been with us is innovation in the road signs industry. As a matter of fact, while electronic has penetrated a number of other sectors of our life, road signs are yet to witness and drastic or dramatic change.
This might soon be a thing of the past as D-Net Communications, a Norwegian based electronic design company is currently thinking on the concept of a programmable road signs. The thinking is that road signs must be interactive, changeable on the fly depending on the environmental condition and conditions on the road.
With the concept, it is possible for road signs to monitor road traffics and provide appropriate report, divert traffics, slow traffic down and warn of dangers ahead.
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Robotics Developer
3/8/2011 3:33 PM EST
I am sure it is a cost benefit trade-off that currently does not make sense for towns/cities. A simple metal/painted road-sign is cheap, easy to replace, easy to install and requires no maintenance. An electronic sign is expensive to buy, install and maintain; it requires power and if it provides intelligence than it would need a wireless or wired connection. Perhaps, the best approach would be to use in vehicle reporting of conditions/speed limits/road status/detours/etc.
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David Ashton
3/8/2011 11:08 PM EST
It DOES make sense - and is certainly used here in Australia - mostly on motorways and highways. We have variable speed limit signs on motorways and information signs that usually just have safety messages but when there are changed road conditions ahead(accidents, snow etc) they warn of those and advise of detours or alternate routes.
It certainly does not make sense in rural areas or in back streets. I agree.
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peter.mcc
3/13/2011 6:24 PM EDT
It's true they use them but they are heaps more expensive - like $100k+ for an electronic one vs probably $500 (planned/installed) for a metal one.
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WKetel
3/11/2011 4:04 PM EST
I agree with "robotics", which is that for many applications a painted metal sign is a much better choice, because it is much more reliable and much more vandal resistant. We already have a lot of the electronic signs that are able to be updated, and what I find is that the message is always changing and so it is seldom readable. In addition, the signs also post really dumb announcements half of the time, which reduces from the probability that a lot of folks will even look at them.
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David Ashton
3/14/2011 5:04 AM EDT
You're right William, but there are cases where programmable signs are good. On the main motorway out of Sydney that I use occasionally they have electronic speed signs and they do regulate the traffic flow quite well, (though often they read "90" (KMh) and the traffic is crawling along at 30...
Some of the School Zone signs here (which reduce the speed from 50-100 KMh to 40 at certain times on school days) have been replaced with electronic ones which have the "40" illuminated in LEDs, and a couple of orange flashing lights above it. They are great, they are really noticeable and have saved me a fine on a few occasions. They cost a lot apparently though I reckon I could design one for a couple of hundred bucks (including solar charger) by using (eg) standard truck type LED lights for the Orange flashers, instead of the custom ones that they use - the truck types cost about $10, are fully encapsulated and pretty reliable.
We have one of the message board type signs on the road out of our town and though it usually has safety messages, it sometimes warns of roadworks / ice / diversions etc further down the road, and I think that's a good idea. Those would cost a lot though, they're big and heavy and need good supports.
A better idea would be for warnings to be transmitted via low power data radio so when you go past them they display on your radio / GPS / whatever. I gather this is done in some places (RDS?) but it does not seem too widespread, can anyone else comment?
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DU00000001
3/14/2011 11:36 AM EDT
David, what you probably refer to is TMC (Traffic Message Channel) transmitted via RDS. Quality of data depends on the number of sensors distributed along the roads and/or the manual data feed.
But, yes - it exists.
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mikellekim
3/15/2011 2:16 PM EDT
I'd like my car's cruise control to be aware when I drive into a slower speed limit, and slow me down gradually. A number of downsides of course.
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prabhakar_deosthali
3/26/2011 7:15 AM EDT
Instead of having expensive programmable road signs , it may be more effective to have automatic updates of the chosen route on the drivers dashboard through a wireless service.
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