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

  • Attitude is key to sustainability, says Volvo CE’s Thomas Bitter
    June 27, 2018
    Whether you are in the global Volvo Ocean Race or working on-site locally, sustainability is about attitude as much as technology. David Arminas reports. Technology, sustainability and safety. We ignore these often related themes at our peril. This was the key point made by Volvo Group chief executive Martin Lundstedt during his brief opening presentation at the start of the Building Tomorrow Conference in Spain last October. The conference took place within the harbour of Alicante that was bustling wit
    Read More
  • New Zealand’s Waterview project is moving closer to completion
    December 13, 2016
    New Zealand’s biggest road project is less than a year away from completion, and a lot of progress has been made since World Highways last looked at the project two years ago - Mary Searle Bell reports New Zealand’s Waterview project is moving closer to completion and will be the largest road project in the country. The NZ$2 billion Western Ring Route will see the creation of an alternative motorway to State Highway 1, which runs through the centre of Auckland. The 47km-long motorway will allow a large p
    Read More
  • Automated testing is safer, cheaper and more thorough
    December 12, 2018
    Automated testing is improving safety during paving and saving on testing costs. But it could also help reduce long-term maintenance costs too - Kristina Smith writes Testing pavements as they are laid can be a hazardous activity. The technician may be on their hands and knees, far behind the main gang, or reaching inside the hopper to measure the temperature of the hot mix or dodging rollers to take density readings.
    Read More
  • UK contractor Ringway provides protection for autonomous vehicles
    April 3, 2018
    Ringway, a Eurovia company in the UK, has taken part in a self-driving vehicle test on public roads in the English city of Milton Keynes. For the three-day test, two Ringway trucks provided a rolling roadblock behind an autonomous Jaguar Land Rover passenger vehicle. The trucks were there to ensure other highways users were safe and not inconvenienced by the tests, according to Ringway. Ringway also supplied two supervisors and two traffic management vehicles.
    Read More

Highlighted Content