London buses will be unable to break speed limit in drive to improve road safety
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Some of London buses will be unable to break the speed limit in a bid to improve road safety in a trial to start next year.
Cruise control technology linked to a digital speed map of all of
London’s roads will be used to stop drivers going too fast in the
project by Transport for London.
The Intelligent Speed Adaptation,
or ISA, will be used on buses for the first time on UK streets and it
is hoped that due to their size the buses will also be able to prevent
other vehicles from breaking the speed limit.
A small number of
buses will take in the trial as TfL looks to reduce the number of
fatalities on London’s roads, around half of which involve vehicles
breaking the speed limit.
Some 2,192 people were seriously injured on London roads last year, with 132 casualties around half which were pedestrians.
Earlier
this month the City of London introduced a blanket 20mph limit with a
pledge by its police to make it the first London borough where it is
rigorously enforced.
To further enhance bus safety, TfL is already
running a trial with vehicles fitted with collision detection software -
sensors that alert the driver when a cyclist or pedestrian gets
dangerously close.
Isabel Dedring, Deputy Mayor for Transport,
said: “The safety of the capital’s roads, particularly for vulnerable
users, is a top priority. Clearly we want our buses to be on the cutting
edge in delivering safe roads. Trialling and then rolling out these
kinds of innovative technologies on our buses is one way in which we can
do this.“ Lilli Matson, head of delivery planning, TfL, said: “Our aim
is to raise the profile of how technology can play a part in making the
roads safer. Digital speed maps are able to be read by ISA which can
monitor and regulate speeds. We want to see what effect it has on
London’s roads overall and to see how it can control speeds. Because of
the size of buses this is likely to affect the speed of other vehicles
following behind. It can be operated either voluntary or if you take it
to the extreme then the speed of the vehicle can be set like cruise
control and overridden only in case of emergency. There’s no decision on
this yet but we will probably go for the voluntary system to allow the
driver to retain full control of the vehicle. In the case of fatal
collisions involving all types vehicles on London’s roads, half are due
to speeding.”
ISA trials were included in the mayor’s recently published Pedestrian Safety Action Plan.
Other
initiatives include pedestrian countdown timers at 400 sites, or 10 per
cent of all such crossings. A digital speed map has been created to
help spur the development of the next generation of in-vehicle
technologies and mobile phone apps for the road. Making such information
freely available, and keeping it accurate, means existing services such
as sat-navs and GPS, can provide drivers with the best information on
the speed limit of the roads they are travelling on, giving them greater
certainty, helping them to keep safe and avoid speeding penalties.
