New technology trials to transform bus safety in London

Transport for London has announced plans to test new safety technology on London buses. Automatic braking and audible warning systems will be trialled alongside measures including new mirrors to improve the driver’s vision. All the new technology will receive a completely independent trial at the Transport Research Laboratory, whose engineers and technical specialists have been appointed to work with TfL, bus manufacturers and operators to trial a range of innovative safety measures.
August 16, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
1466 Transport for London has announced plans to test new safety technology on London buses. Automatic braking and audible warning systems will be trialled alongside measures including new mirrors to improve the driver’s vision.


All the new technology will receive a completely independent trial at the Transport Research Laboratory, whose engineers and technical specialists have been appointed to work with TfL, bus manufacturers and operators to trial a range of innovative safety measures.

These include autonomous emergency braking systems that allow the vehicle to detect its surroundings and automatically apply the brakes and features to alert pedestrians and other road users of the presence of buses, such as lights or audible warnings. The front of buses will be re-designed, which could reduce the impact of a collision, while changes to bus interiors will aim to improve passenger safety, such as higher-grip flooring and softening sharp corners. Improvements will also be made to drivers’ vision, including improved mirror design.

The results of the trials will feed into a new Bus Safety Standard that will be incorporated into bus operator contracts from the end of 2018. Transport for London has also published a report on Intelligent Speed Assistance today (16 August) following a successful trial in 2016. Bus operators are required to fit the technology, which limits the speed at which buses are able to travel, from later this year.

Location Based Systems Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • NXP and eSSys To provide ITS technologies for Korean C-ITS pilot project
    July 26, 2016
    South Korea has embarked on a year-long pilot of a next-generation Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System (C-ITS) project in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Dutch secure connectivity company NXP Semiconductors and Korean automotive electronics specialist eSSys are to be technology partners in the project, which begins this month, promoted by the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. NXP will supply eSSys with its RoadLINK V2X chipset, a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and v
    Read More
  • Siemens Mobility is clearing the air
    October 2, 2020
    Tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK alone are linked to air quality - but it doesn’t have to be that way. Siemens Mobility’s Wilke Reints explains why
    Read More
  • New warning system could improve work-zone safety
    October 18, 2013
    In a bid to improve work-zone safety, researchers from the University of Minnesota have developed the intelligent drum line (IDL) system prototype. The portable, dynamic system provides visual and auditory warnings to drivers who may have ignored or missed previous warning devices and pose a danger to the work-zone crew.
    Read More
  • Queensland extends emergency vehcile priority system
    December 18, 2014
    Following encouraging results from an initial small-scale trial of an emergency vehicle priority system in Queensland, Australia, the scheme is now being extended. In an emergency every second counts. Nowhere is this more graphically illustrated than by the survivability statistics for the time to cardiopulmonary resuscitation of pre-hospital cardiac arrest: at four minutes the survival rate is 22% but by 14 minutes the survival has dropped to 5% - as can be seen from the graph below. There is a similar tre
    Read More

Highlighted Content