Road safety cash totalling over £50k is being ploughed into safety schemes in Swansea in a bid to improve road safety for pedestrians.
Swansea Council has successfully bid for the cash as part of the overall funding made available by the All Wales Casualty Reduction Partnership.
If approved by Swansea Council’s Cabinet, the money will be used to install speed indicator display signs (SIDs) at key sites throughout the city.
The SID signs will display information to oncoming motorists in a bid to educate drivers of the speed limits on routes that regularly suffer from vehicles travelling in excess of the local limit.
Permanent signs will be erected at Swansea Road in Llewitha and Gorseinon Road. These will supplement signs that have already been placed on other routes in Swansea over recent years. Additional mobile signs will also be purchased which can be utilised to support speed enforcement programmes throughout Swansea.
Some of the money has already been used to reduce the speed limit on Cwmbach Road which runs between Cockett and Waunarlwydd.
Further funds have been used to install a hi-tech digital speed camera at the junction of Sketty Lane and Mumbles Road. The camera is one of only two in Wales that can monitor motorists who jump red lights as well as monitor the speed of motorists through the junction.
John Hague, Cabinet Member for the Environment in Swansea Council, said: “The funding is vital to Swansea and will help us address some concerns that communities have with inappropriate speeds.
“I would urge all drivers to drive responsibly and stick to appropriate speed limits- especially near local schools where young children might be crossing roads.”
Jim Moore, Manager of the Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: “Our priority as a partnership is to always look to reduce casualties, to educate motorists and to influence drivers behaviour and the SIDs do just that. Feedback from motorists is positive with many commenting that they didn’t actually realise they were going over the speed limit until the sign flashed. We will continue to look at and fund engineering initiatives in a bid to drive down speeds on our roads.”
