Skip to main content

A9 Safety Group wins prestigious road safety award

The A9 Safety Group in the UK has won the CIHT John Smart Road Safety Award, for a range of interventions along more than 200km of carriageway, including the implementation of 50 SPECS3 average speed cameras, supplied by Vysionics. The A9 SPECS3 installation has been in operation since October 2014, and is already delivering impressive changes to driver behaviour. Whilst it is still too early to report on casualty analysis, key performance indicators are already demonstrating that drivers have improved the
June 12, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

The A9 Safety Group in the UK has won the CIHT John Smart Road Safety Award, for a range of interventions along more than 200km of carriageway, including the implementation of 50 SPECS3 average speed cameras, supplied by 604 Vysionics.

The A9 SPECS3 installation has been in operation since October 2014, and is already delivering impressive changes to driver behaviour.  Whilst it is still too early to report on casualty analysis, key performance indicators are already demonstrating that drivers have improved the way they use the route, which should ultimately make it safer.  According to Vysionics, examples include the fact that overall speeding has dropped from one in three to one in 15 journeys, journey time reliability has improved and journey time reliability has improved. In addition, fewer than ten tickets per day overall have been issued, in traffic volumes of up to 24,000.

The SPECS3 cameras are mounted on highly visible columns, typically located at 5km intervals, covering both single and dual carriageway sections.  As a result, they act as a regular reminder that the route is being monitored along its length, resulting in a more considered driving behaviour.  

The judging panel commented that they were “impressed with the scale of the measures, which combine a package of engineering, education and communications strategies, and enforcement to address a significant road safety problem on an extensive route”.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Development of cooperative driving applications for work zones
    July 17, 2012
    The German AKTIV project is researching several cooperative driving applications for use in work zones. PTV's Michael Ortgiese details progress. The steep increases in traffic volumes predicted back in the early 1990s have unfortunately been proven to be more than accurate. In Germany, the AKTIV project continues to look into cooperative technologies' potential to reduce the impact of those increased traffic volumes and keep traffic moving despite limitations in infrastructure capacity.
  • Demonstration of first German A9 motorway safety project
    November 10, 2015
    In the first project of the ‘digital A9 motorway test bed’ to show how vehicles on a motorway can share hazard information, Continental, Deutsche Telekom, Fraunhofer ESK and Nokia Networks have carried out a real-time demonstration of communication between vehicles via the Deutsche Telecom LTE cell network. The project, which aims to improve road safety and traffic management, involved upgrading Deutsche Telekom's existing LTE network at sections of the A9 motorway test bed with Nokia Networks’ mobile e
  • Too safe for safety’s sake
    October 22, 2013
    In-vehicle systems are making huge advances in vehicle safety with the introduction of ABS, collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, lane departure alert and blind spot warning… the list goes on. But at the same time accidents are still happening and arguably getting bigger. A look at a list of multi-vehicle (30 - 300) accidents across Europe, North and South America and parts of the Middle East shows that the trend is increasing with 2013 already having witnessed seven such incidents – three of which
  • Asking drivers what information they need: radical but effective
    March 19, 2014
    When Texas A&M Transportation Institute was asked to devise a temporary traveller information system for work zones, it started by asking drivers what they need. Robert Brydia explains the thinking, implementation and results. US Interstate 35 (I-35) runs roughly north–south originating in Laredo, Texas and ends 1,500 miles away in Duluth, Minnesota having passed through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Within Texas the I-35 splits into I-35E and I-35W passing through Dallas and Fort Worth respectiv