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.

Related Content

  • July 11, 2012
    App taps into world’s largest and most complex real time passenger info system
    Transport for London’s (TfL) award winning Countdown System delivers bus real time information for every one of the 19,000 bus stops and 700 routes in London is claimed to be the largest and most technically complex real time passenger information system of its kind in the world. In 2009 Telent was awarded the contract by TfL to develop the Countdown software to deliver web and mobile content.
  • January 25, 2012
    Real time GPS tracking on school buses drives efficiencies
    Application of real time GPS tracking to school buses is driving operational efficiencies and allowing parents to follow their childern's movements, report Jason Barnes
  • February 6, 2020
    TfL trials bus sound to improve safety
    Transport for London (TfL) is trialling a bus sound to make road users in the UK capital aware of electric and hybrid buses moving at slow speeds. 
  • August 1, 2014
    Cubic (ITMS) wins key London traffic signals maintenance contract
    Transport for London (TfL) has awarded Cubic (ITMS), a subsidiary of Cubic Transportation Systems, a six-year contract worth some US$85 million to maintain and expand the use of intelligent traffic signals, as well as new crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, at strategic points across the city. The contract includes a provision for a further two-year extension. The Traffic Control Management Services 2 (TCMS2) contract covers the whole of London. Cubic has been assigned responsibility for 1,000 traff