Yes, there are similar examples in the Czech Republic (coming from Germany, I think). See here, Figure 9: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295397293_Prakticke_priklady_ucinnosti_opatreni_Practical_examples_of_road_safety_measure_effectiveness

It is not with a smile, but with text SLOW DOWN or THANK YOU.

Conference Paper Praktické příklady účinnosti opatření [Practical examples of...

Dear Dr Ambros,

thank you very much for your reply and the link to the conference paper. This is very kind of you. I am really curious in which regions they exist and I am happy to hear they exist in the Czech Republic.

Best wishes,

Rainer

You are welcome. Unfortunately I am not certain if we have the ones with the smile...

Don't worry, not every display here has a smiley either. It varies from community to community. I was happy to hear that these devices exist in Czech Republic.

Regarding Austria, they are widespread in use, with many different kinds of displaying the speed information (see, e.g., https://www.sierzega.com/de-de/Ueber-uns/Unsere-Produkte/Geschwindigkeitsanzeigen or

http://www.verkehrssicherheit.at/produkte/untergruppe_16.html). Moreover, since normally devices for vehicle counting are also implemented, they often are used for getting  basic traffic data, e.g., in contoversial cases whether or not a reduced speed limit is jusitfiable in the street concerned.

Dear Dr Berger,

Thank you very much for your response. I was happy to hear that the displays also exist in Austria, and that they fulfil several purposes. Thank you very much for the link, too.

Best wishes and kind regards,

Rainer

Thank you so much for your answers. So far we know that these displays exist in several countries: Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Germany. If someone has seen them anywhere else, please feel free to send a quick reply (e.g. just one word by naming the region or the country). This would help me get a better overview how widespread they are in use.

Thanks again,

Rainer

probably also in Canada - http://www.lapresse.ca/le-nouvelliste/actualites/201512/04/01-4927823-experience-pilote-votre-vitesse-affichee-sur-un-panneau-lumineux.php

and US, including map :-) http://www.radarsign.com/

(you can certainly google even more countries)

Dear Dr Ambros,

Thanks very much for your response, which is very much appreciated. So now we have Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Germany, United States and Canada. Probably they exist in many more countries. I tried to google them before, but there is no one commonly used name for them. Here in Germany I found the name "dialogue displays", but in other countries they are probably named differently. Also, it seems that different companies produce them, and they might name them differently.

Thanks again and kind regards,

Rainer

Yes there are similar in Ontario Canada, especially in the vicinity of schools.

Dear Dr Georgescu,

Thank you very much for your reply, which I appreciate a lot. It is good to hear that the devices are placed near schools in Canada. I have also seen some of these devices in the neighbourhood of schools in Germany.

Best wishes and kind regards,

Rainer

Here in New York State in the USA we tested conditional messages on signs that would differ based on how different the approaching driver's speed was from the desired speed. It seemed to elicit good compliance in field experiments and in real-world test situations. We couldn't add "non-standard" symbols in the real-world tests though, because of concerns about "non-standard" interpretation of the symbols. For further details see: https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=1287958 and https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/trans-r-and-d-repository/C-06-36-FinalReport.pdf

Dear Dr Bullough,

Thank you very much for the links to the projects. These are exciting news. I was glad to see that dynamic displays are tested in New York State, especially the application of conditional messages seems very promising.

Best wishes and kind regards,

Rainer

Just came back from France, where I saw many of these in different formats, at times adaptively changing displays on an LED screen.

So now we know they exist in a number of countries:  Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, France, Canada, United States and Germany (probably devices like these exist in many more than the named countries).

Is anyone aware of cross-cultural studies analyzing how motorists react to them in different areas?

Since the introduction of these devices, they have not only been applied in several countries, but also evolved from fairly early versions to more recent versions.

Here is a fairly early version, published in a Precedings issue:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/36789577_Testing_a_new_intervention_to_enhance_road_safety

Article Testing a new intervention to enhance road safety

And more examples of early versions:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47416052_Community-Based_Applications_to_Enhance_Road_Safety

Article Community-Based Applications to Enhance Road Safety

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47416058_Motivating_Motorists_to_Voluntarily_Slow_Down

Article Motivating Motorists to Voluntarily Slow Down

or the results of a questionnaire with regard to an early version:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47416056_Evaluation_of_a_Community-Based_Intervention_to_Enhance_Road_Safety

Article Evaluation of a Community-Based Intervention to Enhance Road Safety

Later, devices became more adaptive, see the following example:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221742074_Preventing_Road_Injuries_in_Children_by_Applying_Feedback_Devices

Article Preventing Road Injuries in Children by Applying Feedback Devices

Yet present versions seem to be even more adaptive. Consequently, there is a lot of development going on in the field.

Dear all,

thank you again for your stimulating discussion, which I appreciate a lot.

Yours sincerely,

Rainer