Skip to main content

Latest pedestrian safety technology from McCain

Designed to boost driver awareness of pedestrians, McCain says its latest technology for pedestrian safety, the rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB), is widely recognised as a means to reduce accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at intersections and mid-block crosswalks without traffic signals. An ideal solution for a range of applications, the RRFB has highly visible high-intensity LEDs which remain dark until activated by a pedestrian, when the lights flash in a wig-wag pattern, alerting appr
March 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Designed to boost driver awareness of pedestrians, 772 McCain says its latest technology for pedestrian safety, the rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB), is widely recognised as a means to reduce accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at intersections and mid-block crosswalks without traffic signals.

An ideal solution for a range of applications, the RRFB has highly visible high-intensity LEDs which remain dark until activated by a pedestrian, when the lights flash in a wig-wag pattern, alerting approaching vehicles that pedestrians are present.

According to McCain, RRFBs are rapidly gaining popularity as an inexpensive and effective alternative for improving compliance and facilitating pedestrian crossing manoeuvres; generally delivering driver compliance of around 80 per cent.

Following an extensive study confirming the effectiveness, the 831 Federal Highway Administration issued an interim approval of the RRFB in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). According to the approval, the RRFB offers “significant potential safety and cost benefits, because it achieves very high rates of compliance at a very low relative cost in comparison to other more restrictive devices that provide comparable results, such as full midblock signalisation.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • More safety for cell phone-using pedestrians
    April 26, 2016
    German transportation provider Stadtwerke Augsburg is experimenting with warning lights at two pedestrian crossings in the city in an effort to alert oblivious phone-using pedestrians to approaching trams. Rows of flashing LED lights installed into the kerb are intended to act as an alternative to conventional warning signs; when a tram approaches, they flash red to warn pedestrians that the traffic signal is red and green when it is safe to cross.
  • Debating a cost-effective means of road user charging
    July 20, 2012
    Does GPS/GNSS-based technology provide a cost-effective means of charging or tolling on a national or international level, or are the issues pertaining to effective enforcement an obstacle. Here, leading equipment manufacturers debate the issue.
  • Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    March 17, 2017
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
  • McCain takes on the Swarco name
    August 19, 2022
    It was in 2016 when US-based ITS supplier McCain became a part of the Swarco family.