London buses to trial speed safety technology
Cutting-edge
new technology that is designed to reduce speeds and increase vehicle
safety will be trialled on London’s buses next month, as part of the
Mayor and Transport for
London’s (TfL’s) continuing work to halve the number of people killed
or seriously injured on London’s roads.
The
Mayor and TfL announced today that Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA),
an innovative technology that ensures vehicles can’t exceed speed
limits, will be trialled on 47 London
buses in a UK-first.
The new technology,
which was outlined in London’s first Pedestrian Safety Action Plan last
year, recognises speed limits on the route using TfL’s Digital Speed
Limit Map of London,
and ensures that the bus is not able to go any faster.
The UK-first trials
will take place on two routes - route 19 (which runs from Battersea to
Finsbury Park) and route 486 (which runs from North Greenwich to
Bexleyheath). These
routes include a variety of different road environments, with differing
speed limits, which will allow the new technology to be fully tested.
This will allow TfL to
understand the effectiveness of ISA in promoting speed compliance across
the road network and improving safety. The trials, which run until
autumn, will
also seek to understand the attitudes of drivers and passengers to the
technology. If successful, ISA could be introduced across London’s 8,700
bus fleet.
The Deputy Mayor of
London for Transport, Isabel Dedring, said: “London’s buses are central
to keeping the city moving and our fleet is one of the safest in the
world. However,
with nearly 9,000 buses on the Capital’s roads it’s clear they have a
major role to play in continuing improvements in road safety. This trial
is a great example of how we’re harnessing innovation and new
technology that will aide bus drivers on the job and
help to improve the safety of other road users.”
Leon Daniels, Managing
Director of Surface Transport at TfL, said: “London’s bus drivers are
some of the best trained in the world, carrying more than 6.5 million
passengers a
day. However, in a city that is becoming increasingly busy, it is
important that we do everything we can to make our roads safe for all.
“Intelligent Speed
Adaptation improves road safety by reducing incidences of speeding for
all road users, allowing drivers to focus on looking out for potential
issues on the road
rather than checking their speed limit. If this trial confirms that
this technology could be beneficial to the safety of London’s roads, it
could be introduced across our bus fleet.”
Jack Skillen, London
Director of Living Streets, said: “It’s critical that we make walking
safer and easier as a way of improving people’s health and wellbeing. We
are pleased
to see measures like the Intelligent Speed Adaptation being implemented
on London’s bus fleet and the introduction of more 20 mph limits to
help reduce road danger and make our streets safer for pedestrians. We
have been working closely with TfL to put the
Pedestrian Safety Action Plan in place, and look forward to seeing the
roll out of ISA more widely across London.”
Phillip Shadbolt
Chairman of Zeta Automotive, said: “The team at Zeta Automotive are
proud to be working with TfL during this trial to evaluate the impact of
our Intelligent Speed
Adaptation technology on speed compliance and improved road safety.”
The
data informing the ISA trials will come from TfL’s Digital Speed Limit
map of London, which was re-launched last year to help spur the
development of the next generation of
in-vehicle technologies and mobile phone apps for the road. Making such
information openly and freely available, and keeping it accurate, means
existing services such as sat-navs and GPS can provide drivers with the
correct information on the speed limit of
the roads they are travelling on. This will give road users greater
certainty and help to improve road safety.
London
is continuing to lead the way in trialling innovative technology on
buses. As well as developing the New Routemaster bus, the greenest bus
of its kind in the world, earlier
this year, state-of-the-art technology to allow passengers to know how
many seats are still available on the upper deck was installed on the
route 59. Last summer, TfL also carried out trials of pedestrian and
cyclist detection technology on buses. Following
these trials, a follow-up project is being planned to determine the
role of this safety technology in preventing vulnerable road user injury
on London’s roads.
TfL to accept Apple Pay on public Transport
The top five London Underground stations for contactless payments are Oxford Circus, Kings Cross, London Bridge, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf.
Oyster will continue to be available, with contactless payments being another option that lets customers travel without the need to top-up their Oyster credit. The next part of TfL's plans to revolutionise ticketing concentrate on how the benefits of contactless can be brought to Oyster, to ensure all customers experience the same convenience.
TfL to accept Apple Pay on public Transport
Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed Apple Pay can be used on London’s public transport system when
it launches in the UK next month.
TfL
was the first public transport provider to accept contactless payment
cards and will continue this
record of innovation by becoming the first to accept Apple Pay. TfL
developed the contactless technology needed to travel on its services
in-house and is leading the way with over 100 million contactless
journeys made on its services since it launched in September
2014.
One
in ten contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL's network,
making TfL one of the largest
contactless merchants worldwide and over four million unique credit or
debit cards have been used on TfL services so far. More than 1.2 million
contactless transactions are made each day on TfL services –
representing 17 per cent of pay as you go journeys.
This high level of take up continues to drive the use of contactless
elsewhere in the retail, food and leisure industry.
TfL's
Director of Customer Experience, Shashi Verma, said: “With around one
in ten of all contactless transactions
in the UK now taking place on our transport services in London, we are
delighted to welcome Apple Pay as another new and convenient contactless
way for our customers to pay for their travel. I would encourage anyone
who uses pay as you go to try contactless.
There's no need to top-up, just touch in and out with your mobile
device, credit or debit card.”
For more information on Apple Pay, visit:
http://www.apple.com/uk/apple-pay/
Contactless is a quick and easy way to get around on transport services in London. It removes the need
for customers to top up, and is a secure means of paying for travel with multiple layers of security protecting against fraud.
Customers
using contactless pay the same adult-rate pay as you go fare as Oyster
and benefit from having
their fares capped - this automatically calculates the best value for
their contactless travel in a day or over a seven-day period from Monday
to Sunday.
The top five London Underground stations for contactless payments are Oxford Circus, Kings Cross, London Bridge, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf.
Oyster will continue to be available, with contactless payments being another option that lets customers travel without the need to top-up their Oyster credit. The next part of TfL's plans to revolutionise ticketing concentrate on how the benefits of contactless can be brought to Oyster, to ensure all customers experience the same convenience.
More information on contactless payments can be found at
www.tfl.gov.uk/contactless
And finally:
Staying in London. Yesterday Friday 10th July, the Royal Air Force provided a special line-up for the flypast over Buckingham Palace to mark the Battle of Britain 75th anniversary.
Four Spitfires, two Hurricanes and four Typhoon jets will flew over Buckingham Palace at 11:45 showcasing the RAF aircraft securing UK skies then and now. The flypast followed an enhanced Changing of the Guard by the Queen’s Colour Squadron, which began shortly after 11:00.
And finally:
Staying in London. Yesterday Friday 10th July, the Royal Air Force provided a special line-up for the flypast over Buckingham Palace to mark the Battle of Britain 75th anniversary.
Four Spitfires, two Hurricanes and four Typhoon jets will flew over Buckingham Palace at 11:45 showcasing the RAF aircraft securing UK skies then and now. The flypast followed an enhanced Changing of the Guard by the Queen’s Colour Squadron, which began shortly after 11:00.
West Londoner Graham D.Smith has kindly provided four images of the event as follows: