Gamba aims to keep motorcyclists safe

Motorcyclists are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users. Their lack of protection from accident impacts puts them at particular risk.
April 6, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Motorcyclists are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users. Their lack of protection from accident impacts puts them at particular risk.


And while many modern crash barriers work well in redirecting vehicles back along the median, rather than crossing the central reservation and causing head-on crashes, these barriers do not work well with motorcyclists, says 8398 Gamba Safety.

Hitting a barrier’s support or metal edge can cause severe injuries, even death.

The Italian company is launching a new system that can replace or upgrade existing barriers and greatly reduce the impact force involved.

It consists of a sliding cable barrier system that is placed in front of existing barriers. Unlike most cable-based restraint systems, the Gamba Sliding Coated Cable Barrier (GSCCBS) does not have pre-tensioned cables. Instead, the cables have a certain amount of ‘give’.

This means, says Gamba, that the cables absorb up to 80% of the impact force, dissipating it along the cable and into the ground. Additionally, a net or special cloth fixed horizontally along the base of the barrier ‘catches’ motorcyclists, rather than bouncing them back into the traffic stream.

The cables have a steel core, surrounded by several layers of woven polyester and Kevlar. Even if the central cable snaps under the impact, the layers of fabric prevent any debris being scattered along the roadway.

Gamba Safety’s new system has been launched in co-operation with ANAS, Italy’s Roads and Highways Agency, which has just received €2 million to upgrade existing barriers.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bringing AI into ITS: Artificial realities
    May 21, 2025
    AI can have a positive transformative effect on transportation safety and efficiency – but if you want creativity you still need a person, says Huawei
    Read More
  • Diverse development of tolling business models
    April 25, 2013
    A diversity of tolling business models offers a wider toolbox of highway finance options, as the IBTTA’s Patrick Jones explains. The business models for America’s tolled highways have gone through several different evolutions over the last 75 years, reflecting a succession of shifts in transportation policy and politics, financing and funding models, urban patterns, customer needs, and technology. And with more and more decision-makers expressing renewed interest in tolling, it’s that very diversity that ma
    Read More
  • MG Squared to showcase camera lowering systems at ITSA 2016
    May 27, 2016
    MG Squared (MG2) will use ITS America 2016 San Jose to underline the financial, operational and safety case for its camera lowering systems. Indeed, the company recently installed its first camera lowering device on a California roadway which to enable Caltrans to test the capabilities of the innovative system as it looks to the future for how to maintain its ever increasing camera presence along California roadways. There will also be an MG2 demo pole and lowering device equipped with a Bosch MIC camera on
    Read More
  • New thinking needed on the transportation front
    December 10, 2014
    Having spent his working life in transportation, Larry Yermack gives his views on today’s technology challenges. I remember it vividly; it was the late 80s, soon after I started as CFO of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and I was standing mid-span on the deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on a Friday afternoon.
    Read More

Highlighted Content