400-Plus Speed Signs Now On CT Roads Through UConn/DOT Program

STORRS, CT — Nearly very Connecticut town and city now has a roadside "speed feedback" sign, thanks to a free equipment program offered through the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

More than 260 digital speed feedback signs have been placed around the state, informing drivers of their current traveling speed, program officials said.

The signs were offered by the CT Training & Technical Assistance Center's Safety Circuit
Rider program, operated under the Connecticut Transportation Institute at UConn. Free Speed Management training was also offered to all 169 cities/towns.

The initial project, launched in August 2020, was a two-year program to offer two speed
feedback signs and Speed Management Training to all 119 "rural designated towns" in Connecticut. The majority of towns happily accepted the offer, and the program quickly grew to add an additional year and accommodate all Connecticut cities and towns.

Some of the first towns to receive the signs were in north central and northeastern Connecticut and included Andover, Bolton, Columbia, Coventry, Ellington, Glastonbury, Hebron, Mansfield, Somers, Stafford, Tolland, Suffield and Willington.

But the program eventually spread to larger population areas like Fairfield County and tows like Greenwich.

"This is a huge benefit to municipalities," Safety Circuit Rider Melissa Evans said. "I'm frequently

asked, 'what’s the catch?' There is no catch, and the percentage of the signs’ acceptance rates shows that this is very positive thing."

In total, the T2 Center had a 96 percent acceptance rate, meaning 163 out of 169 municipalities
accepted the signs. Since the first delivery two-and-a-half years ago, signs have been installed at more than 415 locations around the state.

Evans said, "speed is a significant concern in Connecticut." She added that, "The speed
feedback signs are just one tool in a comprehensive speed management tool kit to help address it."

Speed reminder signs are one of the Federal Highway Administration Office of "Safety’s proven safety countermeasures for speed management," T2 program officials said.

Additionally, the FHWA just released a new speed management resource titled Safe System Approach for Speed Management. The resource is designed to help practitioners understand the impacts of speed on traffic safety, explore linkages between speed management and the Safe System Approach, and implement a speed management program that is aligned with the Safe System Approach.

"Our vision for the program was to provide tools to each municipality in Connecticut and
training to show how these signs could connect to a broader speed management strategy to support their safety goals," T2 Executive Program Director Donna Shea said. "We are thrilled with the response to this program and our opportunity to help reduce fatalities and injuries on local roadways."

The signs are movable and temporary, meaning town officials can rotate through problematic
roads and streets that might need to be monitored by speed, T2 program officials said.

Each sign would normally cost a town about $5,000, Evans said. The cost also includes cloud
data collection for the life of the sign, allowing town officials to collect information and data
automatically and seamlessly from anywhere.

"Using this data, town engineers might consider safety improvements to their roadways, while police departments might increase enforcement in certain areas,” Evans said. The data is also being used in two research projects at UConn and CTDOT.

CTDOT Engineering Administrator Mark Carlino thanked the T2 Center team for its work.

"The delivery of the speed feedback signs to so many municipalities across the state is such a significant milestone," Carlino said. "Speed is one of the leading causes of fatal and serious injury crashes and these portable signs will give local officials another resource to help reduce excessive speed."

According to the National Safety Council, speeding was a factor in 29 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2021 with a total of 12,330 deaths in the United States that year. The T2 west site can be accessed here.