Roadside LED Display Aims to Curb Speed

Watch your speed in Simi Valley. Literally.

Police here just bought a new roadside radar trailer that tracks how fast you are driving and displays your speed instantly in glowing red numbers 20 inches high.

The $13,000 radar device is solar powered, but it can also run on batteries for up to 18 cloudy days, said Lt. Jon Ainsworth. A changeable sign posted atop the LED display will remind drivers of the actual speed limit wherever the trailer is parked.

Police plan to put the radar trailer in problem areas such as school zones and neighborhoods where residents have complained about speeders, he said. The trailer also can be used to monitor how often--and how fast--drivers are speeding.

“It has a computer mechanism built into it that allows us to track the number of cars as well as the speed of the vehicles,” Ainsworth said Tuesday. “Our goal is to reduce the prevalence of speeding throughout the community.”

About 22% of all traffic accidents in Simi Valley are speed related, he said. In 1995, 266 of the 1,213 wrecks were in some way caused by speeding.

“We intend to use this as an educational device, to encourage motorists to slow down,” Ainsworth said.

And, Ainsworth warned, if anyone is thinking of speeding past the trailer just to see how fast they were going, a police cruiser may be stationed nearby to pull them over and tell them in person--with a ticket.