Seen new speeding signs around Overland Park? Here’s what’s going on

You might have noticed a few more signs letting you know your speed lately while cruising through Overland Park.

With funding from a $100,000 federal grant, the city finished installing 33 new driver feedback signs in October that display your speed in real time.

The idea is that drivers might be distracted and not realize they’re speeding, and these signs will help them refocus and adjust their behavior.

Twenty-one such signs were already in place throughout the city. The new signs are intended to be in place for five to 10 years, which is the typical life of these devices, according to Lorraine Basalo, the public works director for Overland Park.

Generally, these solar-powered signs go up on collector streets with one lane of traffic in each direction. By confining it to these types of roads, it makes it easier for drivers to know that the sign is talking about them and not someone in another lane.

Basalo said they tried to be strategic in choosing the locations. City staff investigated areas where residents had complained about speeding cars, as well as spots that had previously had issues recorded by speed studies or police enforcement.

A 2025 city speed study found that at one location near Lowell Avenue and 100th Place, the majority of drivers were going 35 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone. That spot, right by Brookridge Elementary School, received one of the new signs.

Further south, a 2023 speed study found motorists on Edgewater Drive, just west of Nall Avenue, were cruising through the 30 mile per hour zone at 38 miles per hour. That location also got one of the new signs.

The results of all their speed studies are publicly available via a map on the city’s website.

In positioning the signs, Basalo said they were particularly interested in spots where most drivers were significantly speeding.

“We want to understand what is the average speed that we’re seeing along that stretch of road for the majority of our drivers. We tend to focus on our 85th percentile,” Basalo said.

Trouble spots are where they’re seeing drivers routinely exceed the speed limit by seven to 10 miles per hour.

Locations for the new signs range from 165th Street to just north of 54th Street, but 20 of the new signs are located north of 103rd Street.

Typically, city staff waits six to nine months before conducting more speed studies in the same locations to see if the signs are having an effect.

“We’re only human, and I think sometimes people get used to it. The signs are there. It just becomes in the background. They don’t see it anymore; they don’t pay attention as much,” Basalo said. “Other times, that’s not the case. Other times, we really start to see a difference.”

When there isn’t a change, the city police continue to do speed enforcement periodically, though the sign does stay in place.

“What we’re really trying to do is continue to chip away at those behaviors,” Basalo said.