Skip to main content

SDR a vital tool in assessing speed concerns

UK company Traffic Technology has supplied Surrey County Council with its SDR (speed detection radar) above ground vehicle classifier as part of the Drive Smart campaign, a partnership initiative involving Surrey County Council and Surrey Police that targets anti-social driving. Speeding was highlighted as the issue of greatest concern to local residents so all eleven boroughs or districts in Surrey have been supplied with at least two SDRs.
March 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
UK company 561 Traffic Technology has supplied 4241 Surrey County Council with its SDR (speed detection radar) above ground vehicle classifier as part of the Drive Smart campaign, a partnership initiative involving Surrey County Council and Surrey Police that targets anti-social driving. Speeding was highlighted as the issue of greatest concern to local residents so all eleven boroughs or districts in Surrey have been supplied with at least two SDRs.

“The SDR is used as a vital tool to either prove or disprove a concern of speed,” said Michael Pritchard, casualty reduction officer for Spelthorne Borough. “Not only will it reveal if there is a speeding issue, but the data can be studied to discover the exact problem times, thus saving many hours at the side of the road and wasting time enforcing speed when there is merely a perceived problem.”

The Traffic Technology SDR uses the latest radar technology to accurately detect each vehicle passing the invisible sensor zone, and provides accurate count, classification and speed data for each direction of a bi-directional single carriageway. All the SDR units used by the county council have been upgraded with the latest Newcomm software which enables data to be downloaded via Bluetooth or GPRS to the online WebReporter software and output in a range of formats to suit their needs.

Data from the SDRs is shared with the council, which maintains a speed management plan for each area, and contains SDR data, both historic and current, for each road on the plan. These include roads where there is a history of fatal and serious injury accidents, roads where there are proven speed issues and roads where there is a pattern of damage only collisions. The data forms a valuable part of the plan especially when enforcement strategies are planned and permanent engineering measures are being considered.

“The SDR was designed to meet the need for accurate and reliable non-intrusive traffic monitoring,” says Richard Toomey, managing director of Traffic Technology. “As it needs no in road sensors, it is quick and easy to deploy for temporary speed monitoring applications.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cameras speed pothole detection
    October 25, 2013
    High-speed video cameras for ITS applications developed by Sony Image Sensing Solutions have been adopted by system integrator Horus to create a pothole identification system capable of detecting potholes at speeds of up to 130 kph (80 mph). The vision-based pothole detection system integrates six high-speed Sony ITS camera modules, each taking 15 high-resolution frames per second to form a 360-degree imaging system which accurately records data from up to three lanes simultaneously, even when travelling
  • London buses to trial safety technology
    March 31, 2014
    London buses will carry out a groundbreaking trial of optical and radar-based detection software this summer, helping to further reduce the number of collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists in London. The trials are part of Transport for London’s (TfL) draft Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, and will build on research previously carried out by TfL on detection equipment and will look to test the effectiveness of the technology for reducing collisions with cyclists and pedestrians.
  • Vivacity to deploy traffic sensors in Australia 
    September 9, 2021
    Bicycle Network compares sensors to 1,000 people with clipboards and pens 
  • Temporary CCTV poses more challenges than permanent installations
    June 12, 2015
    Long-term roadworks pose particular problems for temporary surveillance installations. Converting the hard shoulder to a running lane, either full- or part-time, is the UK Highways Agency’s solution to ease motorway congestion. This is leading to a number of long-term projects where large stretches of the hard shoulder are closed off by temporary concrete barriers and during these roadwork programmes, temporary CCTV cameras are deployed to monitor and record vehicle traffic and workers.