National Trend Gains Momentum: Number of HOAs Privately Funding Traffic-Calming Solutions Continues to Grow

Radarsign™Sales to Independent HOAs Rose by 82 Percent in 2010

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Feb. 9, 2011—In 2010, part of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, local municipalities struggled with shrinking tax revenues, budget gaps and budget cuts for neighborhood traffic-calming purchases.  As a result, communities plagued with unsafe streets due to speeding drivers, the trend for HOAs to take matters into their own hands has gained momentum. For Radarsign—the manufacturer of the world’s first armored driver feedback sign—year-end numbers reflect an 82 percent increase in sales to independent HOAs and confirm an acceleration in the trend of privatized purchases of traffic-calming solutions.

“The trend began about 10 years ago in California,” said Charlie Robeson, managing partner of Radarsign, “when stand-alone, solar-powered driver feedback signs began to appear in some of the more progressive communities. People saw them and wanted them installed in their own communities.  What started on the west coast has become a widely accepted solution on the East Coast and in Middle America. Local public works or transportation departments and governing bodies must approve the signs but the residents purchase and install them.”

“The trend is especially apparent in today’s economic climate,” Robeson continued. “Out of frustration, when local governments can’t afford to implement solutions to make streets safe homeowners associations and community activists seek their own solution to slow speeding drivers. The solution that HOAs are turning to is Radarsign.”

Radarsign was founded with neighborhood safety in mind; its founders live in neighborhoods where speed signs were often ignored, causing the areas to be unsafe at times.  It wasn’t until they did some research that they learned just how unsafe their communities could be:

• A pedestrian hit by a car traveling 40 mph has an 85 percent chance of being killed.  At 30 mph, those odds decrease to 55 percent. By contrast, the chance of a pedestrian being killed if hit by a car moving at 20 mph is only 15%. (Killing Speed and Saving Lives, UK Department of Transportation, 1987)
• A vehicle traveling 40 mph will still be going 36 mph when it hits a person who suddenly appears in the street 100 feet ahead of it; however, the average driver going 25 mph would be able to come to a full stop within 100 feet. (Killing Speed and Saving Lives, UK Department of Transportation, 1987)

About Radarsign® Brand Radar Speed Signs:
In 2004, Atlanta-based Radarsign® established new industry standards for traffic calming solutions with the debut of the world’s first armored driver feedback signs.Radarsign radar speed signs are vandal-, weather- and bullet-resistant. They are also the traffic calming industry’s most durable, most ecological and most energy efficient radar speed signs. Engineered and manufactured in the USA, all Radarsign models are MUTCD-compliant and utilize recycled aluminum, innovative LED reflector technology, minimal battery power and solar panels to deliver bright, easy-to-read feedback to drivers. Radarsign products are scientifically proven to reduce drivers’ speeds and have been entrusted to provide safe and effective traffic calming solutions for: municipalities, treasured national parks, schools, neighborhoods, military bases, and private and public development projects across the U.S., Canada and overseas. www.radarsign.com.