Has any DOT ever installed permanent red flashing beacons facing downstream (aka, towards wrong-way traffic)? It could be flashing 24/7. As long as it's not facing traffic coming off the freeway, no one except those going the wrong way would see it.
I doubt this. This would be a passive system, which would introduce a larger maintenance cost (for operating a permanently flashing beacon) for minimal benefit and potential reduced effectiveness over time if drivers get used to a constant flashing device in the area.
Understood. I was thinking the same thing, that drivers tend to begin ignoring things that are always on. But, I would have thought this might be different as the only time a driver would see it would be in their rear-view mirrors, or (importantly) directly in front of them if they were heading in the wrong direction. Even those drivers who may get used to seeing it in their rear-view, or as they pass by the ramps along the cross-road, perhaps only one in one-hundred thousand of those drivers would need to actively respond to the reason for the beacons' existence (basically: this is the wrong way).
The kinds of systems NDOT and others have installed are active systems that only flash when a wrong way driver is detected, which have more up front costs for the detection but only activate when necessary. Active systems also have the ability to alert a DOT/highway patrol monitoring center when the wrong way driver is detected and the flashers begin, and (depending on how it's set up) activate VMS or other warning signs upstream to alert other drivers of the potential hazard.
I would have thought that the costs involved for a permanent flashing beacon that had no detection system would actually be quite low, perhaps even lower over the course of a few decades as there would be very little in the way of maintenance. I was envisioning some sort of pole-mounted permanent-flashing beacon (one on either side of the off-ramp) with an R5-1 or R5-1a sign below it, perhaps using solar power to keep the beacons lit if no other conduit capacity exists nearby (i.e. for a VMS or ATM system).
My other reservation with the active systems, besides the larger upfront costs, is that I haven't heard of any
major success stories with any of the systems. At least in Phoenix, I still seem to hear a lot about wrong-way drivers who manage to reach the carriageway. It could be that the overall number of wrong-way drivers has dropped off, but it would be rather specious reasoning to assume the wrong-way systems are to thank (you could easily claim old drivers staying home thanks to the COVID-19 are to thank). Of course, if ADOT's wrong-way systems are indeed to thank, the next major issue is that the systems aren't at every interchange. In the mean-time, I think we need to find a very cheap solution that can be applied quickly at most off-ramps, rather than the high-up front cost, applied-as needed systems currently being deployed.
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Topic: Department of Redundancy Department (Read 216106 times)