Speed limit projectors for Victoria

Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, is known for having one of the highest instances of speed cameras both nationally and globally and now it's trialling new technology designed to improve the safety of road workers.

Attempting to slow down vehicles by projecting warnings in front of them, the new road safety initiative will warm drivers when they exceed the posted roadwork speed limit, 40km/h.

The technology is now being trialled in a construction zone near the intersection of Thompsons Road and Western Port Highway in the Cranbourne southeast of Melbourne.

Designed to improve the safety of not just road workers, but also drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, the technology works differently to a similar system employed in the Sydney harbour tunnel.

Instead of projecting images onto the road, it drops a curtain of water and then projects images such as stop signs onto the water mist.

The warnings are projected 10 to 15 metres in front of offending cars, and could create a potential braking hazard for vehicles that brake too hard and/or late and skid on the water that covers the road.

The new system employed in Melbourne works by using radar sensors to track vehicle speeds and if they're above a certain threshold, warning messages such as ‘Caution, Slow Down’ are projected in front of speeding vehicles "until they slow down", says VicRoads.

"Victoria continues to lead the world in road safety technology and these projectors are another example of how we’re working to keep everyone safe on our roads," said Luke Donnellan, the Victorian state Minister for Roads and Road Safety.

"We’re doing an unprecedented amount of road work across the state – construction speed limits and new technology like these projectors help to protect our road workers so they get home to their families safely," he said.

Although the radar speed alert projector system can determine speeding drivers, the system will "not record a driver’s speed and cannot be used to issue speeding infringements," according to the press statement.

The trial project is a collaboration between VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and is being funded by the state Labor government's $1.4 billion Towards Zero Action Plan. The objective is to cut the number of people who die on Victorian roads to less than 200 by 2020.

To September 24 this year, Victoria’s road toll stands at 149 -- a reduction of almost 20 per cent on the 185 deaths recorded for the same period last year.

The new speed projection system is under consideration for more locations across Victoria if the current trial proves successful.