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

  • Traffic signal priority initiatives aid better bus travel
    March 15, 2012
    David Crawford investigates traffic signal priority initiatives developing for better bus travel on the US Pacific Coast Transit patronage rises by an average of 35% along commuter corridors equipped with bus rapid transit (BRT) systems, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA). BRT as defined as bus transit enhanced with ITS systems for better services, is winning new passengers attracted by opportunity to avoid increasing fuel costs and traffic congestion.
  • Scrap all-lane running plans, say MPs
    June 30, 2016
    Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of
  • Cost benefit: Toronto retimings tame traffic trauma
    July 19, 2018
    Canada’s largest city reckons that it is saving its taxpayers’ money simply by altering the way traffic lights work. David Crawford reviews Toronto’s ambitious plans to ease congestion Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis (and the fourth largest in North America), has saved its residents CAN$53 (US$42.4) for every CAN$1 (US$0.80) spent over a 2012-2016 traffic signal retiming programme, according to figures released by its Transportation Services Division. The programme covered 1,275 signals (the city’s
  • Camera technology a flexible and cost-effective option
    June 7, 2012
    Perceptions of machine vision being an expensive solution are being challenged by developments in both core technologies and ancillaries. Here, Jason Barnes and David Crawford look at the latest developments in the sector. A notable aspect of machine vision is the flexibility it offers in terms of how and how much data is passed around a network. With smart cameras, processing capabilities at the front end mean that only that which is valid need be communicated back to a central processor of any descripti