Road Cone Placement and Traffic Control: Best Practices for Effective Road Safety
A road cone, also known as a traffic pylon, traffic cone, and even a witch’s hat, has become synonymous with road safety in South Africa today. You will often notice them placed in strategic positions around road construction sites or where workmen, law enforcement officers, and other emergency personnel need to be cordoned off and kept safe from the flow of traffic. It is also typically used to direct the flow of traffic away from danger and to introduce effective traffic management in areas where it is not safe for a vehicle to travel.
At Armco Superlite, our traffic cones are some of our most successful pieces of road-safety equipment and you will
typically see our products on many South African and southern African roads and on industrial sites. They have even been spotted in shopping centres where janitorial staff use them for warnings of wet floors or workers making repairs. They have also been spotted where manhole covers have been lifted for workers to conduct maintenance, to warn pedestrians or motorists of the pending danger.
A Road Cone for Effective Road Safety
By its very nature, a road cone is designed to be noticed, even in bad weather or low-visibility conditions, including after dark. The reason for this is because, when drivers need to navigate their way through a detour like a construction zone or roadblock, for example, there are many signs, people, and changes in road surfaces that they may have to contend with. For some drivers, this may become overwhelming and lead to confusion about where it is safe to drive.
This could easily increase the likelihood of them making a mistake or being involved in an accident. Under these conditions, the humble road cone is visible. Being bright orange in colour and sometimes paired with a reflective strip, the traffic cone reflects in a vehicle’s headlights and can be seen from a far distance both during the day and at night. It is an immediate warning for drivers to slow down and be aware of obstructions or changes to normal road conditions. It will then guide them into the safest possible lane or in a direction away from workers or other obstructions.
A Road Cone Is Not Just Used for Effective Traffic Management
The uses of a road cone are vast, and people have thought of many inventive ways to effectively make use of them other than traffic management. They are often combined with caution signs and barricades to cleverly warn workers of heavy machinery and other mechanical equipment being used on a construction site and in many other industries like mining, for example.
For this application, we supply the 1.8m high road cone so they are visible to the drivers of oversized trucks and other large equipment. Although the signage warns of what the obstruction is or what the work zone is designated for, it is usually the road cone that stands out the most to demarcate the area. But these are not the only places our traffic cones are used. Our traffic cones come in three convenient sizes and have been observed at schools and sportsgrounds for training purposes and many more ingenious uses.
Where to Procure Road Cones and other Road Safety Equipment
At Armco Superlite, we are the proud leader of road-safety equipment in South Africa with a deep footprint into Sub-Saharan Africa. Our distinguished clientele includes all the major contractors, mining houses, municipalities, shopping centres, trading companies, schools, police services, racetracks, petrol stations, consulting engineers, road marking companies, and even SANRAL. Even though we manufacture and supply road-safety equipment for some of the largest companies in Africa, there is never an order too small that we cannot accommodate.
If you need road cones or any other road-safety products, make Armco Superlite your first port of call. Peruse our website and contact us. Our fully trained, qualified team is waiting for your call.