High-tech road signs for M4 silicon corridor

Work will begin next month on a £15m project to install 43 high-tech motorway message signs on the M3 and the M4, beginning with a communications upgrade.

The new signs, which can display text and picture messages, are due to come into use by the end of 2006.

Dr Stephen Ladyman, Minister for Roads, said: "Using pictures as well as words on the new signs will help drivers to understand and react to the information displayed more quickly."

Research has shown that drivers understand picture-based messages up to a second quicker than text-based messages, the Highways Agency said.

The new signs will be linked up to a new regional traffic control centre where police and traffic managers will work to reduce the impact of congestion and accidents.

The signs will also get data from the Motorway Incident Detection Automatic Signalling (Midas) incident detection system, which uses loops in the road to identify slow or queuing traffic and automatically activates the signals to warn approaching vehicles of an incident on the road ahead.

Using such a system on the entire length of the M4 and the M25 could result in an annual saving of approximately £8m per year due to accident prevention, the Highways Agency said.

It said 27 of the so-called MS4 signs will be installed on the M3 between Winchester and Southampton, and 16 will be installed on the M4 between Maidenhead and Reading, where many UK high-tech companies have their headquarters.

Work to install the signs on the M3 is due to start on 4 July 2005 and on the M4 in mid-July. The scheme also includes CCTV cameras, so traffic managers can view incidents on the motorway, and new emergency telephones.

Cameras have been mounted on a number of the signs so the Highways Agency can see how drivers react to the signs but it emphasised that the cameras cannot be used to catch speeders and do not have the functionality to be used for recognition of number plates.