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

  • Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    March 3, 2017
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.
  • Big data and self-driving cars: New studies from ITF
    May 29, 2015
    Two new reports launched by the International Transport Forum (ITF) during the Annual Summit of Transport Ministers in Leipzig, Germany, highlight issues for the transport sector: the use of big data and the trend towards automated cars. The ITF claims that failing to ensure strong privacy protection in the collection and processing of location data may result in a regulatory backlash against the technology, which could hamper innovation and limit the social and economic benefits the use of such data delive
  • Bronx benefits from mesoscopic-microscopic modelling
    January 7, 2014
    Michael Marsico, Andrew Weeks, Keir Opie and Murat Ayçin explain the application of hybrid traffic simulation to a planning study in New York City. Traffic modelling, particularly mesoscopic-microscopic hybrid simulation, has played a key role in planning for the future of one of America's shortest interstates, the 1.3-mile Sheridan Expressway. New York City has just completed a two-year, interagency study federally funded by a TIGER II grant on how to improve the Sheridan Expressway and its surroundi
  • European tunnel safety steps up a gear
    September 19, 2017
    David Crawford reviews the latest safety systems installed in European tunnels. Blueprints for the safer road tunnels of the future are emerging fast as European operators invest in technologies to enhance travellers’ prospects of surviving an accident. Central to modern emergency planning is the principle that, following an incident, drivers should be enabled to rescue themselves and their passengers with the aid of prompt and correct identification and communication of the hazard. Roles for cooperativ