Skip to main content

London buses to trial speed safety technology

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) 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 outli
June 26, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
London bus speed technology trial - photo courtesy of TfL
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 1466 Transport for London’s (TfL) 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 trials will take place on two routes in the city, which include a variety of different road environments, with differing speed limits, allowing the new technology to be fully tested.

This will enable 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 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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, traffic police chiefs are told at TISPOL 2017
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • Roadside monitoring used to target non-compliant trucks
    March 9, 2016
    The UK’s DVSA is utilising existing technology to identify non-compliant commercial vehicles and target repeat offenders while avoiding law-abiding companies. Enforcing the compliance of commercial vehicles (goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and vehicles with eight or more passenger seats) on the UK’s roads is the responsibility of the DVSA (the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency). The Department for Transport created the executive agency about 18 months ago by merging the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) and t
  • Registration opens for UK’s first public driverless vehicle trials
    May 13, 2016
    Members of the public can now register to take part in the UK’s first public driverless vehicle trials, due to take place later this year. The trials, which will take place in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, are part of the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project – a US$11.5 million (£8million) research project to investigate the use, perception and acceptance of autonomous vehicles in the UK. Taking place in the UK Smart Mobility Living Lab @ Greenwich and led by the UK’s Transport
  • FTA supports A9 HGV speed limit trial
    October 10, 2014
    The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has given its support to the HGV speed limit trial which commences on the A9 in Scotland on Tuesday 28 October. The pilot project on the A9 will raise the speed limit on the single carriageway sections between Perth and Inverness from 40 to 50mph for heavy goods vehicles which have a laden weight exceeding 7.5 tonnes. The trial, which will last 36 months and is to be introduced at the same time as a new average speed camera system, is aimed at improving the opera