Connected LED Traffic Signs Light the Way for Road Safety

Traffic, especially seasonal traffic, can be a major test of our patience and sanity. And as we enter one of the busiest traffic periods of the year, authorities are doing their best to keep us safe and help us get to our destination without incident. One of the ways in which they can do this is by harnessing technology and the Internet in LED traffic signs.

How many times have you missed your turn-off when you’ve actually been searching for the sign? Yes, as we whiz along the busy highways focusing on sticking to the speed limit and not getting lost, it’s so easy to miss a road sign or important notification.

This is where LED traffic signs really shine!

The Two-Second Window

The Society for Information Display, in an in-depth study on drivers’ visual perception of information on LED signs, notes an important point. “According to the investigation of Song et al.,19 the content on the information display panel of the main lane and contact road is four words in two lines at most, and at this time, the reading time is approximately 2.5 s.”

If our lives and that of our passengers rely on those two and a half seconds of reading time, then we really want the message to be displayed clearly, accurately, and timeously.

Safety signals and important notifications are no longer left to a man with a flag or a static, illegible road sign. LED traffic signs have enjoyed a critical leap forward as technology and connectivity options advance.

Traffic Congestion

A connected device grants users the ability to program the LED signs from the comfort of a remote location. This allows for instant updates on traffic incidents, congestion, expected travel times, weather warnings and other time-sensitive information.

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, and if we see a traffic congestion notification then I’m sure we’d all welcome the opportunity to take the next viable offramp and not sit idling in the heat for an hour. Even if we can’t avoid the issue, at least we can make a call to let another party know that we’ll be a little late. (Hands-free, of course!)

These advance warnings also ensure that we will lower our speed in anticipation of slow-moving traffic up ahead or turn our lights on and drive with caution if there is a weather system approaching.

Safety in High Incident Areas

We are flooded with signs and messages every day, and it’s too easy to filter out the important notifications along with the dross.

This is especially true while driving. A long, inter-provincial drive or even frequent shorter trips will see us subjected to traffic lights, large billboard adverts for phones, whiskey and insurance, company logos, real estate banners, distance markers and dozens of other symbols and cyphers which vie for our attention.

Eltec traffic product and warning systems say, “Our IoTraffic LED-enhanced signs prevent drivers from “tuning out” with attention-grabbing LED traffic lights. And because all IoTraffic control signs are remotely programmable, clients can easily set their LED IoTraffic lights to only flash or light up at certain times of day, preventing drivers from growing numb to the lights.”

Essentially, LED signs are designed to make you sit up and take notice; to stand out from everything else on the road and make the very best use of those couple of seconds of drivers’ attention.

In known high accident zones, slippery conditions, or areas where there are animals or pedestrians frequently crossing the roads (such as in rural areas), LED notifications are essential.

LED Traffic Signs for Construction Areas

Road construction and maintenance is an essential part of life on our 400,000+ kilometres of road in South Africa.

Arrive Alive highlights the following points regarding road safety around construction areas; “Road construction zones present a deadly hazard for workers, motorists, and pedestrians. This hazard is brought about by high-speed limits, impatient drivers, and widespread traffic congestion.  To this we can add heat, driving stress, and long stretches of highway under construction – creating a recipe for extreme driving hazards for motorists and road workers alike.”

To help alleviate the hazards common to road construction, they recommend stringent safety measures as well as “a variety of devices and technology” which serve to “provide information to motorists, including brighter, bigger electronic signs.”

LED signs have been used to good effect for warning motorists of upcoming traffic works, situations necessitating contraflow or stop-go traffic, lack of road markings during maintenance, and general awareness of construction personnel present on the roads.

Each internet-connected sign can be monitored and programmed to serve the unique and changing needs of a road construction site.

Main Benefits of “Connected” LED Traffic Signage

Do we take traffic warning signs for granted? The step toward LED traffic signage is a necessary one in this crowded visual world we live in.

The facts are:

• LED traffic lights which enjoy reliable connectivity, and which can be instantly updated from anywhere in the country have been proven to reduce road accidents and fatalities.
• No matter what the weather conditions are or what time of day an incident occurs, these high-visibility signals can transmit their life-saving messages at the touch of a button.
• LED signs have been designed to be highly visible from 100 meters during the day or night, making them easy to see and fully legible while allowing motorists enough time to act on their message.

Huge Connect derives a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that our reliable Wide Area Networks, our secure cloud services, and our robust GSM services are being used to control and monitor the life-saving LED traffic signs on our roads.