Clearview Traffic blog

Clearview Traffic is pleased to announce a new low-cost journey time monitoring and queue detection solution based on Bluetooth device recognition. The Golden River M830 represents the state of the art in this new vehicle detection technology.

Until now, journey time monitoring required the deployment of expensive ANPR cameras – often one per lane in each direction. Apart from the cost of installation, this approach raises concerns about privacy and data protection.

Queue detection has traditionally relied on inductive loops to measure the spot speed and separation of individual vehicles, needing a complex algorithm to recognise the formation of a queue. Loops are expensive and disruptive to install, and costly to maintain. The associated counting equipment is typically housed in an obtrusive dedicated roadside cabinet…. to read more click here

Golden River Traffic (GRT), part of Clearview Traffic Group Ltd, has renewed a 5 year contract with Sheppey Route Limited to maintain the road traffic monitoring system on the A249 Stockbury to Sheerness. The Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) project road comprises of the A249 trunk road between the Stockbury junction on the M2 (junction 5) and Sheerness Docks on the Isle of Sheppey, a total length of 10.56 miles (17km). The southern portion of the road from the M2 to the crossing of The Swale was improved to dual 2 lane all-purpose standard and was opened to traffic in 1996. Click here to read more

This is a widely discussed topic within the traffic industry and the UK’s road users, “the question is much harder to answer than you think, which is more dangerous, a bumper-to-bumper megalopolis like London, or the freedom of the open country road? Instinct tells us that more cars equal more hazards. When roads are full, people jump the lights; when it’s a scrap for the gaps, margins of safety fall; when the going’s slow, half the faces at the wheel are in a map, mobile phone or crisp bag, or nodding off”, writes Michael Blastland from BBC News. To read the full story please click here

In the UK alone there were 1,870 people killed and 24,770 killed or seriously injured (KSI), in reported road accidents in the year ending March 2011. Nearly 50% of these are during the hours of darkness, despite nightime driving only accounting for a third of all journeys undertaken. Clearview Traffic Group Limited takes these statistics very seriously and promotes the Astucia range of products on the basis that they have proven to decrease the number of road accidents on the UK’s roads and worldwide.

Country roads could be perceived to be more dangerous than city roads as they are not as well lit, this can be due to a number of reasons, one being that Councils all over the UK are introducing streetlight switch-off schemes or simply do not have the budgets to put street lighting on all country roads. Country roads can be a dangerous place and can hold just as many hazards as city roads. Most country roads have numerous bends, sharp turns and narrow lanes. Blind corners go hand in hand with the twisty aspect of these minor roads and have the potential to be accident hot spots, especially in the hours of darkness.

City roads can also be perceived as more dangerous due to unclear road markings that can sometimes be confusing for UK road users. Some UK roads have perceived high rates of accidents due to the geography, road layout and poor visibility of the road layout ahead.

Clearview Traffic Group Limited’s Astucia SolarLite Road Studs, unlike retro-reflective cats’ eyes work intuitively charging and activating from natural sunlight alone meaning they’re a totally sustainable road safety solution. They also provide up to ten times greater visibility than retro-reflective studs. The Astucia SolarLite stud increases visibility at night of the road ahead beyond the headlight beam of the vehicle. This provides an increased time for a driver to reactfrom just 3.2 seconds at 60mph, to over 30 seconds which significantly improves the chance of properly judging certain road hazards such as blind corners. Astucia SolarLite road studs are being successfully used the world over to reduce accidents and Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) rates. The studs contain an in-built solar powered Light Emitting Diode (LED) to increase visibility to up to 900 metres, ten times greater than that offered by a traditional retroreflective cats’ eye.

It’s Astucia’s belief that all roads – whether in the countryside, in cities or on major motorways should be well defined and well lit.

For more information on Astucia’s product range visit www.clearviewtraffic.com

New survey reveals drivers are in fact, in favour of streetlight switch-off schemes

It’s the talking point of the traffic industry and a topic causing controversy among road safety groups and the general public.

Yet for all the heated debates it’s sparked, our recent survey has revealed that in fact, 93% of drivers are in favour of streetlight switch-off schemes.

The schemes have been growing in popularity since 2009 when the concept debuted and politicians decided whether to back the new idea in an attempt to cut rising energy bills in Bath and North East Somerset.

As the success of initial trials spread, councils up and down the country began to consider how they could implement their own switch-off schemes. Yet as talk of proposals and plans got underway, panic set out among the general public with a fear that collisions and crime would be on the up when the lights went down.

Views were so extreme that in Corby, angry drivers lined the streets to protest and even set up a Facebook group to shun the scheme in a bid for Northamptonshire County Council to return to full illumination after the first wave of lights were switched off.

So how do you cut costs and keep discerning motorists happy? There’s too much at stake for trial and error. Pilot schemes are all very well, but who’s going to be held responsible for the errors which could lead to fatalities on the roads?

Regardless, 93% of drivers are in fact in favour of streetlight switch-off schemes according to our recent survey.

The survey, designed to investigate the views of the general public also found that 56% believe road studs to be the most efficient form of delineation on the roads, with headlights following closely behind and a mere 12% trusting streetlights as the main aid for illumination.

81% of drivers agreed that multiple light sources could in fact be detrimental to seeing clearly and create a ‘glare’ which distracts from the road ahead.

56% of drivers were concerned about the rise of collisions and crime after dark whilst only 31% deemed the cut in CO2 levels worthwhile for a greener planet.

The research may come as a surprise to some considering the current negativity surrounding streetlight switch-off schemes in the press. To take into account the general public whilst also continuing to progress with the schemes, some councils have chosen to adopt additional safety measures to ensure visibility is not compromised. Dimming lights rather than switching them off entirely, as seen in Nottinghamshire, along with sustainable solutions such as solar powered road studs as seen in Buckinghamshire.

Astucia SolarLite road studs are an ideal accompaniment to install alongside streetlight switch-off schemes. Thanks to their intense brightness, they provide 10 x greater visibility than retro-reflective studs plus are energy efficient charging and activating from natural sunlight alone.

Click onto www.astucia.co.uk to find out more

M1 street light switch off sparks concern for road safety

The current trend for street light switch-off schemes continues as The Highways Agency unveiled its plans to deactivate lights on the M1 between junction 10 at Luton and junction 13 at Milton Keynes from the hours of midnight to 5:00am.

Streetlight switch-off schemes are part of an overall agenda to cut costs and carbon emissions, implemented by the Department of Transport as its contribution to the Government’s austerity programme.

Although whilst the government focus on economic expenses, the expense of road safety has been met with controversy.

And in light of the proposal to switch off the 15-mile stretch of the M1, doubts over the impending darkness are becoming even more frequent.

Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety voiced his own lack of confidence:

‘Where you can and can’t be is defined by signals and without lights there is a greater chance that people will make a mistake’

The road safety charity Brake is in agreement. A spokesperson for the charity commented:

‘When crashes do happen on these roads they are much more likely to involve multiple deaths and serious injuries because of the high speeds involved’

Whilst the M1 switch off may be the no.1 concern at present, it’s certainly not the first of its kind. The Department for Transport have tested the schemes on various stretches of the M2, M4, M5 AND M27. And most importantly, they’ve done it with success.

Granted, it’s a triumph but there’s still wide-spread caution which needs to be addressed. Which is why many councils have chosen to compromise by adopting additional safety methods. One of these methods is to install dimmer lights. A less drastic measure, but still signifying willingness to change, whilst appeasing the public.

Another method is to install additional road safety methods such as Astucia SolarLite road studs to deliver a clearer view of the road ahead by delineation.

These innovative, sustainable studs provide 10 x greater visibility than conventional cats eyes, charge and activate entirely on natural sunlight and have already been deployed with great success including an installation on the M25 where there was previously no street lighting whatsoever.

Buckinghamshire County Council was also keen to deploy thousands of streams of SolarLite road studs alongside additional safety measures at selected rural and semi-rural locations.

To find out more about Astucia SolarLite road studs, click onto www.astucia.co.uk or read the entire article about the M1 street light switch-off here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8693552/Motorway-lighting-switch-off-triggers-safety-fears.html

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Whether you’re a council or local authority member, traffic planner or engineer, you’ll find all the info you need here about our new innovations and constantly improving services at your no.1 source for road safety and traffic data collection.