Brisbane City Council’s speed awareness monitors are bouncing into Easter, helping to make suburban streets safer over the school holiday period as part of a citywide speed awareness campaign.
Infrastructure Chairman Amanda Cooper said more than 250 million vehicles had passed the monitors since they were launched in 2013, with two in every five speeding motorists reducing their speed after seeing the flashing signs.
“Council continues to look at new ways to slow down speeding vehicles and, from this week, the Easter Bunny will be keeping a close eye on our suburban streets so that all road users can get home safely to their families over the holiday period,” Cr Cooper said.
“From now until Easter Monday, ‘Easter SAM’ will smile down at motorists doing the right thing, however, anyone who hoons past our speed awareness monitors will be told to slow down and may even risk missing a visit from the Easter Bunny.
“We’re investing more than $1 million this financial year to deliver Council’s award-winning ‘Slow for SAM’ speed awareness campaign, with 149 speed awareness monitors currently located across Brisbane.”
Cr Cooper said the ‘Easter SAM’ campaign followed a special Christmas-themed campaign during December.
“Council continues to lead the way in road safety initiatives and was the first Council in Australia to create Christmas-themed speed awareness monitors that encouraged drivers to slow down for Santa,” Cr Cooper said.
“The signs continue to have a positive effect on driver behaviour, with many road users taking SAM’s feedback on board to reduce their speed, get home safely and keep SAM smiling.
“Results taken over the past six years show more than 81 per cent of drivers are doing the right thing, with 47 million lead-footed drivers reducing their speed by an average of 8.7km/h after passing the speed awareness monitors.
“After being told to slow down, two in five of those lead-footed drivers reduced their speed below the speed limit.
“The location of each sign is based on feedback from councillors and the community about local speeding hotspots.
“137 of the 149 speed awareness monitors will rotate to another location by the end of April, including 18 new locations.”
“Each sign is installed for at least one month to allow enough time so that SAM can have a positive impact on motorist behaviour and make our suburban streets safer.”