If you use the lower portion of Holly Springs Road, some flashing speed signs designed to get you to slow down will be coming to your commute soon.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $6,000 to install two signs along Holly Springs Road, one in each direction, between Old Canton Road and Sewell Mill Road, at a time to be determined.
The measure was approved on the commissioners’ consent agenda, so there wasn’t any discussion.
In an agenda item information provided ahead of the meeting (read it here), Cobb DOT said the dynamic signs, like the one shown above on Indian Hills Parkway, “have shown some effectiveness for speed reductions.”
Cobb began installing flashing display signs after commissioners approved a Dynamic Speed Display Sign policy in 2016. Roads that have an 85th percentile speed of 10 miles over the posted speed limit and average daily traffic counts of 1,000 vehicles or more a day on local roads and 2,000 trips or more on collector roads qualify for the signs.
The 85th percentile speed is a common guideline used by transportation agencies, and it’s generally described as a speed at which 85 percent of drivers would not exceed in traveling in “free flow conditions.”
As drivers approach the sign, they see the posted speed limit, and a flashing sign indicating their vehicle speed.
The posted speed limit on that hilly, curvy section of Holly Springs, classified as a collector road, is 35 mph. Cobb DOT says traffic speed and volume data shows that stretch of the road has an 85th percentile speed of 46 mph and an average daily traffic of 9,379 vehicles per day.
Cobb DOT said maintenance costs for the signs are expected to be no more than $800 a year.
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