PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — PennDOT activated a new electronic speed control and driver warning network on Thursday along a 14-mile stretch of the Schuylkill Expressway.
The digital network includes 72 speed limit and detection and warning signs on eastbound and westbound I-76 between King of Prussia and the Roosevelt Expressway interchange in Philadelphia.
Brad Rudolph, PennDOT deputy communications director, said the system marries variable speed limit technology and electronic message signs, which will display warnings about accidents and slowdowns on the busy highway.
“They will react to real-time expressway and traffic conditions and weather events and try to slow motorists down to prevent some of those stop-and-go conditions that we see along the corridor in an effort to reduce some of the crashes that we see,” Rudolph said.
The message signs are equipped with electronic sensors that are linked with the variable speed limit signs to detect changing conditions on the busy highway.
“The variable speed limits will react in kind and in concert with that system and then slowly lower the speed limits incrementally by five or 10 miles an hour based on your distance between the incident,” Rudolph explained.
The corridor sees more than 130,000 vehicles a day. By regulating speeds on the highway and spacing traffic out based on incidents, he said there’s a chance to reduce the number of accidents.
“There’s usually about 400 or 500 crashes along 76 in just Montgomery County each year,” Rudolph said. “Many of those are rear-end collisions just from going at a high rate of speed and dropping real low because there’s an event ahead.”
The system will go through a month-long testing phase to give drivers time to adjust to seeing the speed limit and advisory signs.
“Once May 10 hits, the signs will go automated and they’ll become variable,” Rudolph noted.
Drivers should also be aware that the speed limits posted for specific zones of the highway will be enforced by Pennsylvania State Police who patrol the expressway.