telent has been chosen as a supplier of innovative digital countdown timers to help keep traffic moving across London…
With traffic flow a major concern in the capital, the new traffic signals make it easier for pedestrians to judge how much time they have to cross the road, so they can cross safely.
The digital timers are the first of their kind to be used in the UK. They are the product of the recent telent/Swarco collaboration agreement, combining Swarco’s leading edge urban traffic products, with telent’s renowned industry experience and proven service delivery.
The digital timers feature a display unit which counts down to zero, so that pedestrians know exactly how much time is left before the lights switch to green and traffic will begin to move.
With around one in five of all fatal and serious pedestrian injuries in London occurring at pedestrian crossings, the timers will also help cut down on the number of road traffic accidents by filling the ‘black-out’ period between the green man symbol going out and the red man appearing.
During an eighteen month trial, the digital countdown timers will be monitored at eight junctions across London to assess their impact on traffic flow and road safety.
“Digital timers have been used in other cities around the world with great success,” explained Keith Higginbotham, General Manager Traffic Technology. “We’ve been looking for the right opportunity to showcase our digital countdown timers here in the UK and are excited about the role they will now play in keeping London moving, safely.
“Collaborating with Swarco on this project was an obvious choice because of their vast experience in the development of traffic products and systems. This, coupled with telent’s systems integration and service strengths provides a quality and reliability beyond compare in the marketplace.”
With annual revenues of around £300 million, telent has decades of experience in supplying a broad range of network and communications services. Today, the privately-held company employs approximately 2,500 people and has one of the largest engineering field forces in the UK. Customers include: Airwave, BT, Deutsche Bahn, EADS, Merseyside Fire & Rescue, the Metropolitan Police, National Express, Network Rail, Stagecoach, Tube Lines, and the UK Highways Agency.
telent’s joint venture with Carillion, Carillion telent, was awarded a £1 billion 7-year nationwide support contract by Openreach, BT’s local access business, in 2009 (www.carilliontelent.com).
SWARCO offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive portfolios of road marking, signalling, signage and traffic management products, services and solutions. Headquartered in Wattens/Tyrol, SWARCO comprises 2800 employees in 80 companies in 20 countries that help their customers to manage mobility and increase traffic safety with high quality and environmentally friendly solutions. SWARCO is the world’s number 1 in LED-based traffic signal production, the number 2 producer of glass beads to reflectorize road markings, and a turnkey solution provider in Intelligent Transport Systems and urban and interurban traffic management.
