Iowa DOT’s Groundbreaking Program Aims to Slow Speeders Across State
The Iowa DOT is the first in the nation to take a bold new approach to community speeding with a statewide initiative aimed at slowing speeders in every community along the state’s highways.
The Client
Iowa, known for its picturesque landscapes and vibrant, tight-knit communities, has a complex state and federal highway system made up of over 10,000 miles of roads. Iowa highways traverse the state and pass through the heart of its small towns. This vast transportation infrastructure is managed and maintained by the IOWA DOT.
With more than 350 communities located along Iowa’s state highways, the DOT plays a pivotal role in balancing high-speed through-traffic with the unique needs of local communities. The Iowa DOT has a long history of innovative projects designed to make roads safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.
The Challenge
One of the most common complaints that Iowa DOT received from communities across the state was regarding speeding through local towns. In many small cities across the state, the highway serves the dual role of providing high-speed travel over long distances, transitioning to accommodate local access to pedestrians, on-street parking, and cyclists. This presents a unique enforcement challenge and myriad of potential safety concerns.
For many towns, the typical response of lowering speed limits was not always effective or practical, especially given budget constraints and limited law enforcement resources to monitor and enforce these limits. As a result, the Iowa DOT sought a more innovative and cost-effective solution to address speeding issues across the state.
In search of the most efficient way to keep community roads safe, the DOT did an extensive review of every traffic calming tool they could find, from roundabouts to landscape changes and everything in between. They assessed the effectiveness of each option, the costs it would incur, and the gain each tool would offer. They wanted a way to keep roads safe in communities across the state in a way that was intuitive, efficient, and effective.
The Iowa DOT sought to develop a grassroots, statewide solution to protect Iowa’s pedestrians and drivers that could be distributed to communities across the state. They wanted a tool that would be most effective in slowing speeders down, could be purchased on the state level, distributed to any interested community, yet would be simple for towns to maintain and support on their own.
The Solution
After studying a full range of countermeasures, the state chose speed feedback signs as a quick, efficient, and effective way to slow speeders down. They developed the Speed Feedback Signs program, which offers radar speed signs at no cost to local communities with a population of 750-15,000. Cities can receive as many signs as there are entrances to the highway in their jurisdiction.
The state offers signs in two sizes, based on posted speed limits where the signs are being placed. The 12” signs offered by the program are made by Traffic Logix. These compact signs display the speed of approaching vehicles and provide a “slow down” message to drivers exceeding the designated speed limit. They are generally used on Iowa roads with speed limits of 35 mph and lower.
This program is the first of this scope in the country with a statewide rollout of a single uniform treatment to address speeding systemically across an entire state, one community at a time. The program is fully funded by the state, with $750,000 per year allocated to the program. A DOT contractor installs the feedback signs, along with a pole, speed limit sign, and solar panel at no cost to the cities. The city is simply responsible to accept ownership and maintain the sign. The Traffic Logix signs are warrantied for five years and are equipped with remote access, allowing the DOT to monitor functionality and troubleshoot issues in real-time.
The Benefits
The Speed Feedback Signs Program has already shown promising results. Early data analysis conducted by the Iowa State University’s Civil Engineering Department indicates that speeds are decreasing by as much as 6.5 mph as drivers approach the signs, with the effect extending up to one-third mile upstream. More importantly, the signs are helping make Iowa drivers more cognizant of their speeds while helping communities recognize the importance of taking tangible steps toward protecting their roads.
The program is helping slow traffic on hundreds of roads across Iowa, improving safety for vulnerable road users and making communities safer for everyone. They’re also helping to reduce the need for police enforcement to address speeding concerns.
Many Iowa cities have expressed their satisfaction with the program, and some have shared updates on their social media pages, eager to convey the added safety that the signs are offering their communities.
