New signs show driver’s speeds in real time

WASILLA — Digital signs displaying passing motorists’ speeds have gone up along Knik-Goose Bay Road and the Parks Highway.

“It’s a visual reminder and an education tool. They’re not for enforcement. They are radar driven but they don’t take pictures,” said state Department of Transportation Spokeswoman Jill Reese. “They do collect data so that after a time period we can look and see if indeed the speeds did slow down due to the signs.”

Reese said that the state actually put up four sets of signs; the two in the Valley and then a set on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage and the Sterling Highway on the Kenai Peninsula. Those four roads are the state’s designated Highway Safety Corridors. They were named among the top five the most dangerous in the state in 2006 — the fifth is the Palmer-Wasilla Highway — and the state has been working ever since on traffic calming measures liked reduced speed limits, doubled traffic fines, rumble strips and passing lanes.

“Sure enough we’ve reduced crashes by about 50 percent, so that’s great and we’re real happy about that but we’d like to get them down to zero if we can,” Reese said.

Some folks who’d encountered the speed signs on Knik-Goose Bay Road have complained about their accuracy and Valley Republican state representative Lynn Gattis, who has a hay farm in the Point MacKenzie area and travels the road herself, said that she would look into it.

“I did a spot check myself and the fact of the matter (is), the signs are not correct,” Gattis said on her official Facebook page.

Reese said that the state is investigating.

“We’ve been out testing them both with the state troopers and with our construction folks and so far they’re working correctly,” she said.

She said that there could be a lot of different reasons people think the signs not reading accurately. Vehicle speedometers could be inaccurate or it could be reading a car other than yours. She said that the state plans to put out a set of Frequently Asked Questions to answer concerns about the signs and how they work.

“We’re checking to make sure that they’re reading correctly, but so far from our tests from this week, they seem to be working correctly,” she said.

The work was funded by $150 million in federal highway funds the state received in 2013 to be used for highway safety improvements.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.