Skip to main content

Illuminated road studs aid roundabout safety

In a bid to improve safety at the Sheriffhall roundabout near Edinburgh, Scotland, Clearview Traffic has been working with BEAR Scotland on an innovative accident reduction project at the complex six-arm gyratory roundabout which is used by over 42,000 vehicles per day. The project, which Clearview says is the first of its kind in the UK, uses the company’s IRS2 intelligent hardwired road stud to increase driver awareness and improve lane discipline on and off the roundabout. Improvements and efficien
July 15, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
In a bid to improve safety at the Sheriffhall roundabout near Edinburgh, Scotland, 557 Clearview Traffic has been working with BEAR Scotland on an innovative accident reduction project at the complex six-arm gyratory roundabout which is used by over 42,000 vehicles per day.

The project, which Clearview says is the first of its kind in the UK, uses the company’s IRS2 intelligent hardwired road stud to increase driver awareness and improve lane discipline on and off the roundabout.

Improvements and efficiencies made to the traffic signal-controlled roundabout in recent years have dramatically increased its capacity. BEAR Scotland was keen to ensure safety measures were improved in line with the increased use of the roundabout. Investigations found that inadvertent lane drifting was a significant contributory factor to negotiating it safely.

To address this issue, whilst at the same time causing minimal impact on the existing road markings and supporting infrastructure of the roundabout, BEAR Scotland and Clearview Traffic devised a unique road stud layout scheme that would guide the A720 traffic from either direction safely around and off the roundabout.

With the new system in place, as soon as the traffic signal on the entrance to the roundabout turns green, studs embedded in the road surface immediately illuminate and guide drivers onto the appropriate lanes of the roundabout. As the traffic signal turns red, all the studs on that section switch off and the studs on the next section illuminate as the corresponding traffic signal turns green. In this way, drivers now get an illuminated green phase to guide them all the way around and off the roundabout, with clear visual definition of the lanes to heighten lane discipline and reduce preventable collisions.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Active traffic management - challenges and benefits
    April 12, 2013
    Minnesota DoT has built one of the most intensive Active Traffic Management (ATM) systems on the road today. Like many ITS deployments, the state has gained benefits but also faces many challenges, as Pete Goldin reports. Smart Lanes is the brand name of Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDoT) ATM system on I-35W in the Twin Cities Metro Area. The original system covered 16 miles of I-35W south of Minneapolis starting in 2009, and was extended by two miles in 2011. Additional ATM equipment was inst
  • Utah Department of Transportation: How we’re using traffic analytics software
    February 4, 2025
    Our use of Iteris ClearGuide lets our traffic operations engineers interpret critical probe traffic data without the need for statisticians and software developers
  • Inertial sensors dramatically improve GNSS for ITS applications
    January 18, 2012
    Phil Harris, Thales UK, on how fused sensor data can significantly enhance GNSS-based positioning systems' performance in urban areas. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based positioning is unique among available positioning technology due to its universal coverage and low equipment cost. By measuring the distances between an unknown position (such as a vehicle), and at least three known positions (GPS satellites), the unknown position can be calculated in three dimensions (latitude, longitude, and
  • Sontrafic protects smartphone zombies
    April 17, 2024
    We’ve all seen them. In fact – to be honest – we’ve all probably been them at some point: smartphone zombies – otherwise known as “smombies” – are those pedestrians who are too distracted by scrolling through their Insta timelines or listening to their headphones to check whether it is safe to cross the road.