Barron Road speed study counts 8,000+ cars, made possible by new electronic signs

Motorists travelling eastbound on Barron Road may have recently noticed an electronic sign displaying their vehicle’s speed.

“In a nutshell (the device) is a new version of speed and traffic monitoring,” said Lt. Keith Hefner. “It has improved speed detection.”

The traffic/speed monitoring device is the first of two to be erected in Poplar Bluff. The second will be on Lurlyn Road.

The locations were “driven by citizens’ complaints of speed and reckless driving,” according to Poplar Bluff Police Deputy Chief Mike McClain.

Barron Road is a “major thoroughfare back and forth; we’ve had complaints on traffic as far as speed,” explained Capt. Darron Moore.

The solar-powered, self-contained device is being used as an “effort to monitor (traffic) without putting a patrol car out there,” Moore said.

In the past the department has stationed a patrol car on streets to conduct traffic studies.

“This will eliminate the time an officer” would spend doing those counts, Moore said.

Hefner agreed, adding “with the shortage of policemen, it frees up” an officer to be on patrol.

The unit also “gives us a larger data pool because, in the past, an officer would spend one to two hours,” Moore said. “Now, we can collect it for weeks.”

In addition, “you get consistent data for a designated period,” Hefner said.

The unit generates a report, which includes traffic count data.

“It does direction of travel,” said Moore. “I know it does average speed. It does a count of how many were over and under the speed limit.”

The unit also provides information regarding the fastest and slowest speeds, and a time window can be set for data to be collected.

During a recent test of the unit, the collected traffic data was almost identical for eastbound and westbound traffic on Barron Road, Hefner said.

From 2:15 p.m. Nov. 5 to 7:45 a.m. Nov. 7, more than 8,000 cars traveled Barron Road, Moore said. Of those cars, 4,078 were eastbound and 4,110 were westbound.

“The report breaks it down to whether (the vehicles) are approaching the system or going away” from it, Hefner said. “ … The reports give the busiest day of the week (and) breaks it down to the day of the week/hour of the day.”

The unit came with preloaded messages that can be displayed or messages can be customized.

Ice ahead, traffic congestion and kids at play are some of those preloaded messages, Hefner said.

“Even if we don’t display the speed for drivers to see; it still figures (those vehicles) into the overall report,” Hefner said.

The $3.795 cost for the devices, was a capital expenditure, McClain said.