The traffic control system now in operation on Uxbridge Road in Ealing between Park View Road and Lady Margaret Road is the first system in the U.K. to combine a pedestrian crossing facility with pre-signals and an automated queue relocation system. It is the culmination of 20 months of detailed design from the system conception in February 1993. It is not possible at this stage, until the 'after' studies have been completed and analysed, to quantify the benefits gained by the introduction of the system and indeed to compare them with those predicted. The system demonstrates the versatility of existing Type-Approved traffic control equipment in dealing with complex multi-layered problems. A similar system is currently being installed by OFTRA on Uxbridge Road at Hanwell Bridge. It is considered that the performance of these two systems will significantly affect future decisions on bus priority schemes utilising pre-signals and queue relocation. The design of these two systems has required OFTPA to develop two software packages for modelling their effects and testing their configuration. This work has significantly enhanced the facilities available to the Traffic Engineer to design, install and configure traffic systems which will efficiently control traffic to maximise the capacity of the available roadspace. The techniques and systems developed in this demonstration project will assist Traffic Engineers in implementing bus priority measures where they are most needed — that is, at sites where congestion results in severe delay to buses.
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