A Study of Gateway Treatments at Rural School Locations in Malaysia
Alvin Poi Wai Hoong Dr. Ahmad Azad Abd Rashid Akmalia Shabadin Ts. Dr. Iskandar Hamid Ts. Ir. Dr. Khairil Anwar Abu Kassim Assoc. Prof. Dr. Law Teik Hua
Abstract
This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of a customized visual graphics of different colours mounted on overhead pedestrian bridge as a form of gateway treatments. The hypothesis of this study is that the use of catchy graphics on overhead bridge has an influence on vehicle operating speeds. An online survey was carried out to identify the design of visual graphics that captured the most attention of respondents. The selected design was produced in four different colours and installed at three rural school locations in the state of Selangor. Vehicle speeds were measured before and after the installation of the visual graphics to test for any statistically significant differences.
Results revealed that the visual graphics in the fluoro-yellow green (FYG) colour played a role in reducing vehicle speeds by up to 14km/h at one of the study sites where the baseline operating speeds were more than 100km/h. The same intervention however was not effective at the other study sites where the baseline operating speeds were lower than 80km/h. The other colours were found not effective most probably because they are less conspicuous against the background of the pedestrian bridge. This study had proven that the use of visual graphics mounted on the overhead pedestrian bridge could be a potential speed management tool by capturing drivers attention from as far as 300m. This study had also leave a gap for future study to investigate if the use of similar visual graphics painted on the road provides better speed reduction outcome when in use with those mounted on the pedestrian bridge.