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.”

Related Content

  • July 24, 2012
    Driving forward cooperative intersection safety applications
    Gregory Davis, FHWA, John Harding, NHTSA, and Mike Schagrin, ITS Joint Program Office (RITA) chart the course for cooperative intersection safety applications being pursued as part of the IntelliDrive programme. Crashes at intersections accounted for 8,703 highway fatalities in the US in 2008. Research and development is moving forward on IntelliDriveSM safety applications designed to help drivers avoid intersection accidents. These new safety systems could substantially drive down the highway death and inj
  • January 31, 2012
    Intersection collision avoidance system trial
    Although much of the emphasis of research into intersection management has tended to concentrate on the needs of urban locations, there remain specific issues pertaining to rural intersections which need to be addressed. Here, Rebecca Szymkowski and Greg Helgeson, Wisconsin DOT, Todd Szymkowski, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Craig Shankwitz and Arvind Menon, University of Minnesota detail progress on an intersection collision avoidance system for more remote locations.
  • March 9, 2015
    Putting a stop to intersection indecision
    David Crawford takes a look at innovations to reduce crashes at rural intersections. Intersection crashes continue to represent a worryingly large share of deaths and serious injuries across US highway networks. Statistics from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration show that an average of 21% of road traffic accident deaths occur at crossings. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) calculates that intersection crashes account for 48% of all injury-related i
  • October 16, 2014
    McCain’s RRIP to boost public safety at railroad crossings
    McCain has unveiled its innovative railroad interface panel (RRIP), which it says boosts public safety and operational efficiencies at railroad crossings in adherence with the proposed regulations for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) standard. The device serves as a single termination panel for railroad field wires and isolators in any traffic controller cabinet. Data collected from six inputs enables traffic agencies to easily monitor railroad status, initiate track clearances and place the sig