New speed awareness monitors (SAM) have been installed across Brisbane, including one at St Dympna’s Primary School in Aspley just in time for the start of the 2023 school year.
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St Dympna’s Primary School has been chosen as one of the 22 locations for the SAM signs as part of the SAM for Schools program, to help create safer environments for students to travel to and from school.
Like how it works in other locations across the city, the monitors will display a smiley face when vehicles are travelling at or below the speed limit. However, if vehicles are travelling above the posted speed limit, it will display the vehicle’s speed followed by a reminder to “slow down.”
Council considers some factors when assessing if a certain location will be suitable for the speed awareness monitors. Factors include:
- visual impact on adjacent residents
- obstructions such as trees and other traffic signs
- clearance from driveways and infrastructure such as power poles, service pits and pipelines
- clearance from power lines and lower-hanging communication cables
- adequate sunlight for the monitor solar panels
- separation between other traffic signs to ensure drivers have sufficient time to read messagesst
All monitors are individually solar-powered and fitted with a Doppler radar. They are limited to measuring only a single approaching vehicle at a time within its radar range of 3 km/h to 255 km/h.
At present, there are already 200 monitors in place across Brisbane and around 31 have been installed near schools. Council is planning to install 69 more over the next three years.
“Nothing is more important than kids’ safety and this is just one of the projects we’re investing in as part of our school safety initiatives,” said Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
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The monitors have been placed to alert motorists with their speed and not to issue infringement notices.