Wired Magazine tells the story of a community in California that was having a difficult time getting drivers to slow down in school zones. Even increased police enforcement had only a limited effect. But after installing a series of radar feedback signs, drivers slowed down by an average of 14 percent.

According to Wired:

“The signs were curious in a few ways. For one thing, they didn’t tell drivers anything they didn’t already know—there is, after all, a speedometer in every car. If a motorist wanted to know their speed, a glance at the dashboard would do it. For another thing, the signs used radar, which decades earlier had appeared on American roads as a talisman technology, reserved for police officers only. Now Garden Grove had scattered radar sensors along the side of the road like traffic cones. And the Your Speed signs came with no punitive follow-up—no police officer standing by ready to write a ticket. This defied decades of law-enforcement dogma, which held that most people obey speed limits only if they face some clear negative consequence for exceeding them.”

The key was what scientists call a “feedback loop.”

Basically, if you equip people with information about their actions in real-time, they’ll improve their behavior. Tell drivers that they’re speeding, and they’ll usually slow down. For another example — tell drivers that they’re using too much gasoline (via, say, the consumption display in a Toyota Prius), and they’ll actively try to improve their efficiency.

And they work. Again, according to Wired:

“So feedback loops work. Why? Why does putting our own data in front of us somehow compel us to act? In part, it’s that feedback taps into something core to the human experience, even to our biological origins. Like any organism, humans are self-regulating creatures, with a multitude of systems working to achieve homeostasis. Evolution itself, after all, is a feedback loop, albeit one so elongated as to be imperceptible by an individual. Feedback loops are how we learn, whether we call it trial and error or course correction. In so many areas of life, we succeed when we have some sense of where we stand and some evaluation of our progress. Indeed, we tend to crave this sort of information; it’s something we viscerally want to know, good or bad. As Stanford’s Bandura put it, “People are proactive, aspiring organisms.” Feedback taps into those aspirations.”

Here at Brandon Industries, we offer a full line of driver feedback signs that can effectively slow down drivers and make your community’s streets a safer place for families. But the feedback loop principle applies partially to more than just radar feedback signs — even without real-time feedback, any of the street signage systems your community, school, or business park uses to transmit important information can be more effective through careful, repetitious installation.

For example, colorful custom logo signs and custom aluminum signs that display your community’s logo transmit “real-time” information about where the driver is — and remind them that these streets are where kids and families could be playing.

The feedback loop principle just proves how important strategic streetscape planning is for safety in your neighborhood. We’re eager to help neighborhoods build effective, safety-boosting streetscapes.

1. Easier for Emergency Responders

Emergency vehicle drivers are pros, and don’t need the assistance of speed bumps to do their jobs safely. Instead, according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, speed humps and bumps unnecessarily slow down emergency responders like police and fire trucks three to five seconds per hump, and ambulances with a patient on board by nearly ten seconds per hump.

Imagine the consequences. In any situation where an emergency responder is needed, time is critical, and just a few extra seconds can lead to a crime that escalates, a fire that spreads, or health that deteriorates (not to mention the jarring effects on critical patients caused by bouncing around over speed bumps).

Driver feedback signs don’t impede such critical responders.

2.  More Flexibility

Need to address speeding in a different part of your neighborhood? Want something temporary to slow down drivers (around, say, weekend events or festivals)? Good luck digging up speed humps for short-term use.

Radar speed signs, on the other hand, can be easily moved as your community sees fit.

3. Less Distracting

While, yes, speed bumps slow down drivers, they don’t necessarily make streets safer, because speed bumps draw the focus of drivers onto them. Think about how you take on those pesky humps—you calculate the angle that will both cause the least amount of wear and tear on your car’s shocks, as well as require the least amount of speed reduction.

The focus, therefore, is on your car and on the humps—not, say, kids kicking a ball around across the street.

Feedback traffic signs, on the other hand, make drivers focus on safe driving itself. You’re zipping along blissfully unaware of your surroundings when you suddenly spot a flashing radar sign. You don’t stare at the sign— you start scanning the road and surroundings for cops (and therefore, schoolchildren and other pedestrians the driver feedback signs are meant to protect). Furthermore, radar detectors will often be triggered by radar signs, making those who are most likely to speed through your neighborhood the most likely drivers to slow down significantly when a feedback sign is nearby.

At Brandon Industries, we offer a full line of attractive, effective radar feedback signs, including solar-powered, battery-powered, and A/C-powered signs.

Long days, warm nights, and big parties — summer is coming. At Brandon Industries, we can help your neighborhood prepare. Here are just a few possible streetscape solutions you might want to start thinking about before the summer months arrive:

Schools Out: Time to Play

Kids will soon be out of school, and the last thing you’ll want is for them to spend the summer cooped up around a video game system. But for the kids to have a summer full of healthy, memorable days climbing trees, playing sports, and running around outside, safety must take top priority.

The most obvious safety threat is traffic, because drivers won’t always be driving as carefully and cautiously as they could be. In other words, you want people to drive through your neighborhood expecting kids to be chasing a soccer ball out into the street from time to time.

We can help you build a signage system that encourages safe driving, both through a full catalog of regulatory and traffic signs, custom signs (“Caution: Kids Playing”), and extra efforts like radar driver feedback signs.

Warm Nights, Fun Under the Lights

Days are (finally) stretching long past dinner time, and nighttime temps are approaching the summery balm we all know and love. Especially once daytime temps approach unbearable, folks are going to start spending more and more time outdoors at night.

Effective outdoor lighting— along walkways and around public areas, as well as streets—is critical to keeping things safe and fostering a sense of community by encouraging people to gather and play. And you don’t need to sacrifice aesthetic quality to do all this—our attractive luminaires and courtyard lamps are stately, elegant, tasteful, and cohesive.

Time to Party

Summer is the season of carnivals, festivals, farmers markets, golf outings, outdoor concerts, garage sales, and all around outdoor merriment. In other words, it’s the time when many communities hold big parties and events partially designed to invite in friends and neighbors from other parts of the city.

This means regular bursts of first-time visitors will be coming to your neighborhood, which means two things:

• An effective network of custom wayfinding signs is key to getting folks where they’re going quickly and easily, minimizing traffic and keeping the streets safe for your kids.
• Attractive, comprehensive streetscape solutions and touches like decorative mailboxes and custom logo signs that impress visitors, highlight your community’s commitment to detail and excellence, and solidify your neighborhood’s reputation as a desirable one (which will eventually be reflected in higher home values).

1. They do more than just measure speeds

Think of a radar feedback sign as an all-purpose road safety machine. In addition to deterring speeding, the signs can collect am impressive variety of statistics that communities can then use to understand local traffic patterns and improve overall safety. The optional StreetSmart™ software can collect and report statistics like:

• Vehicle counts
• Speed limit violations
• Vehicle average speeds
• Vehicle peak speeds
• Percentage of vehicles violated speed limit
• Vehicle average speeds by MPH segments
• Vehicle peak speeds by MPH segments
• Daily 59th and 85th percentile speeds

The signs come with an SD memory card that can hold data for up to 500,000 vehicles.

2. They don’t need to be plugged in.

Off the grid, in a desert, on difficult-to-reach roads—name the setting, and we probably have a Radarsign driver feedback sign tough enough and versatile enough to do the job the there. In fact, at Brandon Industries, we offer solar-powered driver feedback signs and battery-powered driver feedback signs (in addition to our regular a/c-powered signs).

The battery-powered signs come with two 12-volt, 18-amp AGM batteries that can last approximately one week before needing to be recharged (done easily overnight). Battery power is ideal for when you want to move the sign around or set up temporary signs (and thus can’t easily plug into a power source).

The environmentally-friendly solar-powered signs provide years of self-sustaining, uninterrupted use in a permanent location. There’s no need to recharge the batteries, and no need to find a consistent power source.

3. They’re easy to customize and optimize.

The signs don’t need to be running all day and night, every day and night. If you only want to collect statistics and add that extra emphasis on safety during certain times of the day—say, during rush hour or immediate after-school hours—we make that sort of customization simple. Or you can keep collecting statistics while saving power and money by turning off the feedback displays. The options are endless.

Furthermore, our signs are easy to move from pole to pole, amplifying the neighborhood-wide effect just one sign can have.

4. They’re bulletproof, teenager-proof, and designed to withstand abuse.

Amazingly, the Radarsign driver feedback signs boast a .375″ thick aluminum BashplateTM, good for protection against all range of vandalism threats from 14 year-old rock throwers to 40-caliber bullets fired from point-blank range. The signs will keep serving your community whether there’s sun, snow, or a hail (of bullets).

Additionally, the intuitive signs turn off automatically when measuring extreme speeds. This removes the temptation for speedsters to “test” their cars against the signs and see just how fast they can go.

Radar Speed Driver Feedback Signs featured on Atlanta news program.

In busy neighborhoods, especially where there are likely to be schools, industrial areas and shopping centers, a control on drivers’ speed is imperative if optimum safety is to be maintained. Many drivers will admit that they’re unaware when they’ve tipped over the given speed limit – and it can happen to even the most diligent of motorists. And exceeding the speed limit even marginally can be incredibly dangerous. The limits are there for good reason – so how best can drivers be reminded to slow down or stick at 30?

Radar Driver Feedback Sign

Radar Driver Feedback Signs

• Radar feedback signs are capable of running on both battery and solar power
• They are available in two different sizes
• They’re tough and built to withstand the weather and any unfortunate occurrences of vandalism
• No licensing is required to operate a radar feedback sign
• Driver feedback signs are clearly visible from a distance of 500-1000 feet so drivers have plenty of time to absorb the information given and adjust their speed accordingly

As our roads get busier we need to step up our safety measures. In known accident hot spots it’s often a speed problem that is the root cause. Wherever children are likely to be, a radar speed sign can significantly reduce risk. In communities where there is a high elderly population slowing driving speed can give everyone peace of mind – radar speed signs offer the chance of just that in an unobtrusive but highly efficient way.

The statistics from the World Health Organization about fatalities on the road in the USA are frightening. Each year around 42,700 (that’s roughly 13 people for every 100,000) are killed in road accidents. When you consider that driving too fast will have been the cause of a great many of these it makes sense to use a cost-effective traffic calming system that really gets results.

Creating a ‘safer roads’ community can quickly and easily be achieved with well-placed radar feedback signs. Installation is quick and easy, they’re low maintenance, they’re not an eyesore, and they can save a lot of heartbreak.

Remember, it’s never too late to start preventing accidents, but it’s always too late once they happened.

A radar feedback sign is a sign of a safer neighborhood. Fast moving technology that slows speeding drivers.

Driver feedback signs are the latest innovation in traffic calming systems. Here’s how they work:

Driver Feedback Traffic Sign

The radar driver feedback sign clearly shows the area speed limit. Below this the driving speed of the oncoming vehicle is displayed in the YOUR SPEED box. So, for example, in a 25 mph speed zone the driver who is informed that he or she is doing 39 is reminded in a high impact way that slowing down is necessary.

Driver feedback signs, or radar signs, use the latest technology to gauge vehicle speed and the display signs are clear enough to be understood by motorists without causing visual obstructions or being obtrusive in the given driving environment.

Statistics reveal that drivers respond to radar feedback signs – in 80 cases out of 100 motorists slowed down when alerted to their error the sign’s flashing LED display. The results are highly rewarding – drivers cut their speed by 10% – 20%. Studies show average speeds drop 35 MPH and the percentage of drivers who obey the speed limit increase by 30-60% when driver feedback signs are used. This makes for far safer roads and it’s also a cost effective means of traffic control that eliminates the need for more expensive resources such as ‘on site’ traffic policing.

As far as flexibility goes radar speed signs can be set to function to a specified schedule. For instance, in school areas where it may not be necessary to issue speed cautions outside of school hours, the radar sign can be set to off mode, and be programmed to become fully functional again when it is needed most. However, even when radar feedback signs are on off mode, information about traffic behaviors can still be collected in their database.

Question: So what’s the psychology behind the effectiveness of radar feedback signs? Why are they more effective than simple static speed limit reminder signs?

Answer: It’s probably fair to say that most experienced drivers are fairly relaxed when driving and, rightly or wrongly, are so used to seeing printed speed limit signs that they no longer have the high impact that they should. Radar feedback signs issue flashing LED displays that informs the driver of his or her current speed alongside notification of the legal speed limit of the area. The flashing LED has the effect of altering the driver’s brain state from the relaxed but aware alpha mode into the more alert and attentive beta state. So, radar feedback signs work to trigger changes in the brain’s physiognomy rather than in a psychological way. Having said that, there are psychological aspects – many drivers when reminded by radar speed signs that they need to correct their behavior do so because they feel momentarily aware of having driven carelessly. And the message is a direct one that speaks straight to the driver – YOUR SPEED means you, that’s how fast you’re driving. It’s simple but potent stuff.

As a traffic-calming tool, radar speed signs are proven to be popular and highly effectual.