Actibump has been in use in Sweden and Australia for a number of years. Research at several locations has investigated how the system influences driver behaviour. The results are summarised below.
Linköping (SE) • Uppsala (SE) • Malmö (SE) • Curtin University (AUS)
The road near the University Hospital in Linköping, Sweden, is a busy arterial route lined with shops and houses. Nearly 14,000 vehicles use it each day, and a city bus runs every 20 minutes. The police, ambulance service and fire brigade are also heavy users of the road. All in all, a situation where road safety is very important. Driver behaviour was already quite good in general, but the pedestrians and cyclists frequenting the zebra crossing nevertheless felt unsafe. The local authority decided to lower the speed limit from 50 km/h to 40 km/h and install Actibump in order to remedy the situation. The municipality has had no more complaints from people feeling unsafe. An independent research firm investigated the Actibump’s effect upon speed and road-user behaviour. Its main conclusions were as follows:
Uppsala, Sweden, has a busy road passing a school on the way to a large hospital. More than 15,000 vehicles use this route each day. There are also zebra crossings used intensively by pedestrians. During the day, the maximum speed here is 30 km/h. That increases to 40 km/h overnight. To improve the safety of all road users, the local authority installed Actibump in all lanes. An independent research firm investigated its effect upon speed, driver behaviour and noise levels. Its main conclusions were as follows:
The Swedish city of Malmö had a persistent problem with speeding on a number of roads. To make them safer, the local authority decided to install Actibumps. A few months later, research was conducted into the results from from the first three installations. Its main conclusions were as follows:
The official speed limit on the campus of Curtin University in Perth, Australia, is 40 km/h, but in practice drivers were averaging around 55 km/h. Nearly 65% went too fast. Four Actibumps were installed during winter 2017/2018. Ten months later, the average share of speeding offences had decreased by 78.7%.
Results per Actibump:
Percentage of speeding drivers
Pre-installation
After 10 months
Actibump 1
Actibump 2
Actibump 3
Actibump 4
