Skip to main content

Successful trials ‘prove effectiveness’ of speed limiting technology on buses

Transport for London (TfL) has completed trials of intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology fitted to buses. The trials saw the technology, which prevents vehicles from accelerating over speed limits, fully tested on two bus routes that included a variety of road environments and differing speed limits. All buses fitted with ISA remained within the speed limit 97-99 per cent of the time, which TfL says proves the effectiveness of ISA. The extremely rare incidents of excess speeds were seen on downhi
March 18, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
1466 Transport for London (TfL) has completed trials of intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology fitted to buses. The trials saw the technology, which prevents vehicles from accelerating over speed limits, fully tested on two bus routes that included a variety of road environments and differing speed limits.

All buses fitted with ISA remained within the speed limit 97-99 per cent of the time, which TfL says proves the effectiveness of ISA. The extremely rare incidents of excess speeds were seen on downhill sections of road.

TfL says the trials were particularly effective when travelling through 20mph zones, which are being widely introduced and cover around a quarter of London’s roads, helping to ensure other vehicles in the area adhered to the limit.

As part of the Mayor’s bus safety standard for London, that he announced last month, TfL intends to require all new buses from 2017 to have this technology fitted.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Pilot shows how wi-fi data could improve London Underground journeys
    September 11, 2017
    Journeys on London Underground could be improved through Transport for London (TfL) harnessing wi-fi data to make more information available to customers as they move around London, new research has shown. The four-week TfL pilot, which ran between November and December last year, studied how depersonalised wi-fi connection data from customers' mobile devices could be used to better understand how people navigate the London Underground network, allowing TfL to improve the experience for customers.
  • Alcohol interlocks aid drink drive adherence
    October 28, 2016
    The use of alcohol interlocks to prevent drink driving and change driver behaviour is gaining ground around the world but needs greater buy-in from authorities as Colin Sowman discovers. The often repeated mantra says that prevention is better than cure - and none more so than in the case of drink-driving. The introduction of the breathalyser provided an objective indication of alcohol consumption instead of having drivers touch their nose or walk in a straight line. Initially breathalysers were used as a r
  • FTA backs HGV speed limit increase
    July 24, 2014
    The UK’s Freight Transport Association (FTA) has voiced its support of today’s announcement that the HGV national speed limit on single carriageway roads will increase from 40mph to 50mph. The Government decision followed a public consultation to which FTA had contributed and states that in early 2015 the national speed limit for heavy goods vehicles of more than 7.5 tonnes on single carriageways will increase. FTA said that this decision supports an improvement in road safety by reducing the 20mph
  • Volvo and KPMG find buses are key to urban air quality
    September 13, 2016
    Buses can play a key role in the battle to improve air quality in towns and cities as David Crawford discovers. A city with a population of half a million would gain about US$12.3 million in annualised societal savings if all its buses ran on electricity instead of diesel. This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging analysis carried out by Swedish bus manufacturer Volvo Group and global business consultants KPMG.