With safety around the Old Street station being of key concern to Islington and Hackney Councils and Transport for London (TfL), SRL’s Urban64 was chosen to help keep cyclists and pedestrians safe during transformation of Old Street Roundabout in London. The roundabout was a collision hot spot and with cyclists making up almost a third of all vehicles, most accidents involved cyclists or pedestrians. With four subways to access Old Street station, there was also concern for public safety, particularly at night.
An ambitious plan was put forward to close the north-western arm of the roundabout, creating a new peninsula space with the existing central-island and introducing a two-way signal controlled layout. The plan included new cycle lanes and crossings being created, some segregated from vehicles with cycle-only signals to increase safety.
Transport for London (TfL) appointed Morgan Sindall as main contractor and Blue Arrow as Traffic Management contractor on this high profile, complex project. As the scheme was going to be a long duration, they needed to consider a temporary solution and SRL’s Urban64 system was used throughout the construction phases. For the past year, SRL’s Urban64 system has controlled cyclist, traffic and pedestrian movement through the new site layout. Dedicated Cycle Phases are detected by intelligent thermal cameras, with all cycle routes benefiting from low-level cycle signals.
Urban64 is a permanent technology system designed uniquely for temporary installations. Completely flexible, Urban64 has a unique ability to incorporate complex permanent traffic signals facilities in a temporary layout, most notably Low-level cycle signals. This was the major benefit and a deciding factor for using Urban64 at the Old Street Roundabout.
SRL worked alongside Red Wilson Associates, who are experts in traffic signal engineering and design, to create multiple temporary layout designs and methods of control, using its Low-level cycle signals and thermal detectors, to enable the safe flow of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrian traffic during the construction phases.