Actibump proves a success in Australia
In January 2018 Curtin University installed four active speed bumps called Actibump at the University’s campus in Perth, Western Australia.
The goal was to reduce the number of speeding drivers, particularly on semester week days when there are a lot of pedestrians and vehicles on campus. Mr Graham Arndt, Director of Operations and Maintenance at Curtin University, says: “We have been extremely impressed with the effectiveness of the Actibumps in reducing the number of speeding motorists along that section of road.
“The use of the smart speed bumps also provides a steadier flow of traffic, which makes it easier for pedestrians to judge the speed of the approaching vehicle, therefore making it safer to cross the road. Additionally, the units have been maintenance free and have operated continuously for a year without the need for any intervention.”
Because of this success, Curtin University is continuing to roll-out the Actibump systems across its campus in Perth, Western Australia. “We will be installing another set of two active speed bumps on Townsing Drive following the promising results we have witnessed from the new technology,” Mr Arndt says.
Another active speed bump will also be installed to replace a ‘dumb bump’, a moulded black plastic bump near the Manning Road entrance. Mr Arndt continued: “The old speed bump had prompted traffic to slow down to almost a stop, causing traffic to build-up near that entrance to the university. By using an Actibump at that location, we expect the traffic to flow more smoothly and within the speed limit, offering an effective road safety and traffic management solution.”
The success of the first internationally installed Actibump systems proves the system is efficient, not only in Sweden.
“We expected the same effect internationally as in Sweden, but the decrease of speeding drivers from over 70% speeding drivers in January 2018 to below 25% in October on the most difficult site, that’s better than even we expected,” says David Eskilsson, General Manager at Edeva. “This is reassuring for the other international installations that are about to become official,” he says.
Edeva develops traffic systems for liveable cities to help customers create accessible, safe and secure traffic situations. They work on a global market with municipalities, national transport administrations, regions, cities, public entities, universities, logistics companies, harbours, airports, industries and toll stations. The company was founded in 2009 in Linköping, Sweden.
There are currently over 50 Actibump units active in the world, most of them in Sweden, for example in Linköping, Malmö, Helsingborg, Karlstad and two of them are installed in Ystad, on the European road network E65 owned by the Swedish Transport Administration.
The Actibump traffic safety system allows full accessibility for all vehicles driven at, or under, the set speed limit. Speeding vehicles are physically reminded of the speed limit by an inverted speedbump. A radar measures the speed of the oncoming vehicles and speeding vehicles activate a hatch that is lowered a few centimetres into the road surface. For non-speeders the hatch remains level with the road surface.
Independent evaluations have shown that the system decreases the noise, improves yielding behaviour and decreases the speed to that of the speed limit ±3 km/h, regardless of speed limit or previous speeding behaviour. Speed limit and other variables are set through a web-based interface that also presents the statistics collected by the system.
