Curtains for speeders at Curtin University thanks to Actibump

Curtin University in Perth, Australia, is rolling out more Actibumps for slowing traffic after what is says has been a successful trial of four systems. “We expected the same effect as in Sweden,” said David Eskilsson, general manager at Edeva, the Actibump manufacturer based in Linkoping. “But the decrease in the percentage of speeding drivers from over 70% of all drivers in January to below 25% in October last year on the most difficult site has been better than even we expected.” In January 2018 Curtin
June 10, 2019 Read time: 3 mins
Actibump successful in Australia
Curtin University in Perth, Australia, is rolling out more Actibumps for slowing traffic after what is says has been a successful trial of four systems.


“We expected the same effect as in Sweden,” said David Eskilsson, general manager at 5190 Edeva, the Actibump manufacturer based in Linkoping. “But the decrease in the percentage of speeding drivers from over 70% of all drivers in January to below 25% in October last year on the most difficult site has been better than even we expected.”

In January 2018 Curtin University installed four of the active speed bumps to reduce the number of speeding drivers, particularly on semester week days when there are a lot of pedestrians and vehicles on campus. Each day around 2,000 vehicles use the street which has a speed limit of 40km/h.

“The use of the smart speed bumps also provides a steadier flow of traffic, which makes it easier for pedestrians to judge the speed of the approaching vehicle,” said Graham Arndt, director of operations and maintenance at Curtin University. “Additionally, the units have been maintenance free and operated continuously for a year without the need for any intervention.”

Arndt said the university will be installing another set of two active speed bumps on Townsing Drive and another active speed bump will replace a so-called dumb bump - a moulded black plastic bump near the Manning Road entrance. The Actibump traffic safety system allows full accessibility for all vehicles driven at, or under, the set speed limit. Speeding vehicles are physically reminded of the speed limit by an inverted speedbump. A radar measures the speed of the oncoming vehicles and speeding vehicles activate a hatch that is lowered a few centimetres into the road surface. Drivers were surprised to see the road “disappear in front of them” and this made them slow down, said Arndt.

For non-speeders the hatch remains level with the road surface. Edeva says that  independent evaluations have shown that the system decreases the noise, improves yielding behaviour and decreases the speed to that of the speed limit of around 3km/h, regardless of speed limit or previous speeding behaviour.

Speed limit and other variables are set through a web-based interface that also presents the statistics collected by the system.

Edeva says that around 50 Actibump units have been installed worldwide, with most of them in Sweden including in Linköping, Malmö, Helsingborg, Karlstad and two of them are installed in Ystad, on the European road network E65 owned by the Swedish Transport Administration.

Highway & Network Management

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The MBT-1 from Mobile Barriers now protecting workers in the UK
    July 16, 2019
    Two giant US-made 21m-long mobile barriers are now keeping highway maintenance workers safe in England. The 16tonne barriers were made in by Mobile Barriers, based in Denver, in the state of Colorado. They have been deployed in the West Midlands region of England in collaboration with UK highways maintenance contractor Kier. With yearly operating costs of US$17,000, the MBT-1 can pay for itself with nominal usage, according to the manufacturer. This could be in less than two years with 10-15 lane clos
    Read More
  • State-of-the art road tunnels in construction and use of ITS
    April 25, 2013
    A wealth of major road tunnel construction projects and significant cant ITS installations within existing key road tunnels have been recently completed or will soon be underway. Guy Woodford examines some of them. A state-of-the art Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) - the 10th largest ever to be built worldwide will be put to work later this year on New Zealand Transport Agency’s landmark Waterview Connection project in Auckland. The giant Herrenknecht-manufactured machine will be used to construct the twin 2.5
    Read More
  • Improved pedestrian safety in Qatar
    July 14, 2015
    Improved pedestrian safety is being achieved in Qatar with the help of new technology. AGD Systems and Qatar-based Traffic Tech Group have joined forces to install pedestrian detection systems. Traffic Tech Group will be AGD’s exclusive global distributor for the Puffin and Toucan pedestrian crossings in the region to increase pedestrian and cyclist safety and improve traffic flows. On-street trials of AGD-enabled Puffin and Toucan schemes commenced in late 2014 at a dual pedestrian crossing on the busy A
    Read More
  • Clearview magnetometer trial detects alternative to loops
    October 1, 2019
    An UK investigation into the performance of Clearview Intelligence’s magnetometers as an alternative to inductive loops on MIDAS installations has concluded they deliver like-for-like results.
    Read More

Highlighted Content