Several new road signs are flashing around Pierce County.
“Pierce County emerged as one of the areas with a very high rate of distracted driving,” said Tim Hogan, the founder of Safer Street Solutions.
Hogan is putting up his SmartSigns in the Pierce County area, where there were 116 traffic fatalities last year, many of them related to distracted driving, speeding and people not wearing seat belts.
Four SmartSigns will rotate in twelve different locations across the province, reminding drivers to slow down, put down the phone and fasten their seat belts.
“We use a real-time infrared sensor and the nice thing about it is that it doesn’t take pictures or store any private data,” says Hogan.
Drivers remain anonymous and there is no enforcement or ticketing with the program.
But the Pierce County Target Zero Traffic Safety Taskforce hopes it will provide clear data for traffic in key problem areas.
This also applies to school zones, according to a recent survey of local school districts.
“In all cases, most drivers were speeding in active school zones while children, families and staff were present. We were quite concerned that Pierce County drivers were not adjusting their speed for safety reasons,” said Janine Koffel of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
Hogan says his signs have helped reduce distracted driving by as much as 40%.
“We expect to see a change in driving behavior as long as the signs are on, but we want to see whether that change in behavior continues after the signs are removed,” said Koffel.
The program in Pierce County is expected to run through July.
A similar program is underway in King County and started in March.
