In this article Peter Hoban, Director at Innovative Road Safety Solutions (IRSS), explains why a product originally designed to wrap damaged street furniture could potentially be reimagined to enhance driver safety on rural roads.
Article by Peter Hoban, IRSS
The CoverMe Bag
At IRSS, we’ve developed the CoverMe bag, a reusable, sustainable, and fully recyclable alternative to hazard tape. It’s currently used by councils to wrap and hazard-mark damaged lighting columns, doors and decommissioned columns.
We began with the London Borough of Bexley and are now working with a growing network of partners, including Doncaster Council, Kier, Balfour Beatty, Enerveo, Cheshire East Council, and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. We’re also collaborating with the Association of Road Traffic Safety and Management (ARTSM) to help shape new guidance around bagging off electrical equipment.
But this article isn’t just about the CoverMe bag in its current form, it’s about how the concept behind it could be adapted to improve rural road safety, particularly when it comes to speeding and visibility at night.
The ‘Tree Wrapper’ Concept
How? Well, the CoverMe bag is fully reflective. I believe that, with a bit of tweaking and R&D it could be adapted into a protective, reflective wrap that can be secured around trees located on rural roads, especially those on dangerous bends.
Drivers approaching would be able to see the bend and the tree, or even hedgerows coming up in their headlights well in advance and take suitable evasive action.
In places where space limitations prevent the installation of traditional chevron signage, these wraps could act as a flexible, visual warning, especially helpful for motorcycle safety at night.
Moreover, it’s not just the reflectivity that can help; the fact the bag (or wrap in this case) is fully printable means you could easily add a safety message or warning to it – the fact it’s a 20mph or 30mph speed limit or simply ‘caution, slow down’, for example.
Essentially, these wraps could, I believe, be a useful alternative to the illuminated speed-activated warning signs that many councils currently spend millions of pounds on every year installing and maintaining. And an alternative that helps to preserve the natural darkness of our rural areas especially.
At the moment, I appreciate, this is just an idea on the drawing board. But, like all good ideas, it’s simple, easy to get your head around and, I believe, has the potential to be a cost-effective cost-saving road safety measure for the future. It also removes high installation costs of signage and another potential piece of street furniture especially for bikers.
Need to Know
- ‘Bagging off’ equipment, such as IRSS’s ‘CoverMe’ bag removes potential for working from height accidents.
- It could be used as a protective, reflective wrap secured around trees located on rural roads, especially those on dangerous bends.
- They could also have ‘slow down’ warnings printed on them, and be an alternative to illuminated speed-activated warning signs
Find Out More
To find out more and to request a free copy of a best practice document, please email peter@irssuk.co.uk.
Image – IRSS