Headlines: April 27th, 1997

The Highways Agency, the Police and two local councils have worked together to produce an additional service for motorists in the south of England.

The partnership has enabled a network of motorway and main road signals to
carry travel information beyond that usually put up by Police to deal with the
conditions immediately in front of the motorist.

Highways Agency Chief Executive Lawrie Haynes said: “This is a very exciting
project for us because it is the first time on an English motorway that control of these electronic message signs will be made available to local authority traffic
managers, as well as the local police control office.

Priority will continue to be given to police warnings about accidents or other
hazards ahead, but the signs will now also carry information about road
conditions they can expect when they leave the motorway.

Ray Morris, Operations Manager for the project, said: “What we are trying to do is give motorists better use of the networks. Ideally of course we would like
more people to use public transport, but once people have chosen to use the
car, we want to help them make optimum use of the networks available to them.”

The councils involved in the project are Hampshire County Council and
Southampton City Council. The project is funded by money from Europe and from the DETR.