Skip to main content

UK city to introduce thermal imaging traffic management

City of York Council is to introduce thermal imaging technology on key cycle routes in York to help reduce the time spent at traffic signals, improve journey reliability and cycle safety. The city is set to become one of the first councils in the country to start using the technology which will accurately detect cyclists at signals by their ‘heat signature’, allowing the signals to react accordingly and be adjusted to give more ‘green time’ for cyclists. The thermal technology was first introduced by
March 24, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
City of York Council is to introduce thermal imaging technology on key cycle routes in York to help reduce the time spent at traffic signals, improve journey reliability and cycle safety.

The city is set to become one of the first councils in the country to start using the technology which will accurately detect cyclists at signals by their ‘heat signature’, allowing the signals to react accordingly and be adjusted to give more ‘green time’ for cyclists.

The thermal technology was first introduced by 1466 Transport for London last year as part of the cycle superhighway network.

The scheme is all part of a multi million pound overhaul of York’s ageing traffic signals – the largest scheme the city has seen since the last major overhaul of York’s traffic signals in the mid 1990s which introduced the city’s new urban traffic control system to control the city’s transport network.

The five year scheme also includes replacement of worn out and unreliable in-road road loops with camera systems for traffic detection.

The authority is also proposing to replace approximately half of the 122 traffic signals and 54 pedestrian crossings in the city over a five-year rolling programme with modern equipment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Promoting cycling is the solution to congestion and pollution
    August 20, 2015
    Cycling offers health, air quality and road space/parking benefits, promoting governments and the EU to look at tax and technology initiatives. David Crawford reports. One way to improve urban air quality is to make green alternatives to car use financially attractive. Incentivising employees to switch their travel-to-work mode to using their own bikes could increase cycling’s modal share of commuting travel by 50%, a recent French research project suggests. The country’s government already subsidises pu
  • Opening the closed-loop to realise ITS benefits
    April 8, 2014
    Jim Leslie, manager of ITS applications engineering at the Econolite Group looks at practical steps in transitioning from closed-loop masters to a centralised ATMS. Not many years ago the standard method of coordinating signalised intersections in local areas was to install an on-street master – each of which monitored and controlled a limited number of signal controllers or intersections as a closed-loop system. And, to a certain extent, each closed-loop system was autonomous from others deployed by the ag
  • AAA report: caught red-handed
    February 17, 2020
    Using published crash statistics, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s report found that 939 people were killed in red-light running crashes in 2017 – a rise of 28% since 2012. Moreover, more than a quarter (28%) of crash deaths at signalised intersections “are the result of a driver running through a red light”.
  • Boston to install smart parking meters
    March 30, 2015
    Parking in Boston is wet to get smarter and easier for people who part at the city’s 8,000 metered spaces, with the addition of new intelligent multi-space and single space parking meters. Drivers will be able to pay via mobile phone, a credit card, or pocket change. This next generation of meters will also provide real-time data to the City to help Boston Transportation Department (BTD) better manage the space at the curb. The information provided by an upgraded parking system and an analysis of current on