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All across the Great Western territory => Buses and other ways to travel => Topic started by: stuving on August 17, 2017, 20:30:51



Title: Automatic braking and audible warning systems to be fitted to London buses
Post by: stuving on August 17, 2017, 20:30:51
From Engineering & Technology (https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2017/08/automatic-braking-and-audible-warning-systems-to-be-fitted-to-london-buses/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_campaign=New%20EandT%20News%20-%20Automation%20FINAL%20-%20MEMBER&utm_medium=Newsletters%20-%20E%26T%20News&utm_content=E%26T%20News%20-%20Members&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Feandt.theiet.org%2Fcontent%2Farticles%2F2017%2F08%2Fautomatic-braking-and-audible-warning-systems-to-be-fitted-to-london-buses%2F):
Quote
Automatic braking and audible warning systems to be fitted to London buses

By Jack Loughran             Published Wednesday, August 16, 2017

London’s red buses are to be equipped with new safety technology including automatic braking, audible warning systems and new mirrors as part of a trial aimed at improving safety

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan set out a ‘Vision Zero’ approach to road danger earlier this year in his draft transport strategy.

It aims for no one to be killed in or by a London bus by 2030, and for deaths and serious injuries from road collisions to be eliminated from London’s streets by 2041.

The new safety features are particularly relevant considering a number of highly publicised accidents in recent times. Earlier this month footage emerged of a jogger pushing a woman into the path of an oncoming bus in May this year, luckily she wasn’t hurt but it was a close call. Last week a double decker bus crashed into a shop near Clapham Junction injuring 10 people.

All of the new technology will be independently trialled at the Transport Research Laboratory and will include:

  • Autonomous emergency braking systems that allow the vehicle to detect its surroundings and automatically apply the brakes
  • Features to alert pedestrians and other road users of the presence of buses, such as lights or audible warnings
  • A re-design of the front of buses, which could reduce the impact of a collision
  • Changes to bus interiors to improve passenger safety, such as higher-grip flooring and softening sharp corners
  • Improvements to vision for drivers, including improved mirror design

The results of the trials will feed into a new Bus Safety Standard that will be incorporated into bus operator contracts from the end of 2018.

Transport for London has also published a report on Intelligent Speed Assistance, which will require bus operators to fit speed-limiting technology onto vehicles later this year.

PS: I have no idea what ate the original of this post yesterday.


Title: Re: Automatic braking and audible warning systems to be fitted to London buses
Post by: grahame on August 17, 2017, 22:05:26
PS: I have no idea what ate the original of this post yesterday.

We had a database issue ... fixed that with a copy, nothing lost.  But with the two copies, I overlooked the server disc getting full.   It was probably unable to save when you posted - sorry about that. The system flags pretty quickly and then was sorted within a minute or two.  Very unlucky to have lost any post.


Title: Re: ]Automatic braking and audible warning systems to be fitted to London buses
Post by: Bmblbzzz on August 27, 2017, 20:23:27
It's misleading of them to mention the jogger incident in this context as it was not a road safety issue but a personal attack.

That aside, the measures seem fairly sensible, though I do wonder how big in the overall road safety context buses really are. Especially the "features to alert pedestrians". These are new buses so presumably they have DRLs anyway.



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