The Highways Agency currently assesses the accuracy of VMS messages in two key ways; customer satisfaction and performance measurement.
The latest customer satisfaction surveys for the period April to September this year tell us that 40 per cent. believe the messages are more accurate than they were a year ago, while only 1 per cent. think they are less accurate. 54 per cent. responded that they were about the same level of accuracy, and 5 per cent. replied that they had not seen a VMS in the period covered.
The Highways Agency measures the accuracy of the setting of VMS. Supervisory staff working in the Highways Agency's control centres assess the accuracy and timeliness of signs in real time and monthly performance indicators are produced. The following are the performance indicators used:
To set 90 per cent. of signs and signals within three minutes of a traffic officer or police request being received, and change or remove 90 per cent. of signs and signals within two minutes of a traffic officer or police request being received. The current performance indicator score for year to date is 94 per cent.
Achieve 90 per cent. quality compliance for sign and signal setting. The current performance indicator score for year to date is 95 per cent.