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Accessing the DfT’s Green Light Fund (GLF)

Tuesday, 28 November, 2023

There’s only a short window to apply for the DfT’s Green Light Fund (GLF). In this blog we take a look at the goals of the fund and how VivaCity can give your signalling a boost with the GLF.

Green Light Fund

Launched by the DfT in October 2023, the Green Light Fund (GLF) is part of a landmark Traffic Signal Funding grant (totalling £70 million). Targeted at English local authorities (except London), its aim is to support signals maintenance and upgrading, and encourages the use of innovative technology to achieve this.

“A £20 million challenge fund to tune up traffic signals to better reflect actual traffic conditions and get traffic flowing.”
Department for Transport, October 2023

50% of England’s traffic signals are working below optimal performance

With around half of England’s traffic signals working below optimal performance, the Green Light Fund is a much needed and much welcomed opportunity for local authorities to give their signalling a boost.

Boosting your signal performance with VivaCity

Even when in full working order, traditional in-highway detection, such as induction loops and magnetometers, provide only limited data for signal control.

Limited detection area: If a vehicle misses a loop, or joins or leaves the approach between loop locations, demand can be incorrectly measured
No class distinction: A car sat over the advanced stop line can call a cycle early release. Cycles are not served at all if they do not pass over detection points. (Carbon frame bikes not detected at all!)

_{Challenges faced by in-highway detection technology
Even when in full working order, the performance of in-highway detection technology for signal control – like loops and magnetometers – is limited.}

Whilst there are devices for pedestrian and cycle detection, a typical junction requires multiple devices, each with limitations and from multiple manufacturers. These devices are usually restricted to detect specific modes and only in a specific zone.

In-highway detection technologies are also hard to maintain. There is a large proportion of loops in the UK that have been deemed faulty, impacting MOVA and SCOOT performance and resulting in sub-optimal signal control performance. It’s not just the cost of replacing loops and magnetometers that’s the challenge – it’s the disruption to residents and the traffic management required too.

*_{A large proportion of loops across the UK are faulty.}*

*_{Maintaining in-highway detection tech is costly and disruptive.}*

With updates to the Highway Code that give pedestrians and cyclists priority over motor vehicles, there is pressure on local authorities for signalling to focus on the movement of people, rather than the movement of vehicles. The challenge is to balance the needs of different road users, from both road safety and transport policy perspectives. This is a task made all the more difficult without accurate and reliable multimodal data.

Give signal performance a boost with VivaCity and the GLF

Now is the time to up your signal performance game! The GLF has been precisely designed to support you achieve this. You can use this funding to replace old, under-performing detection equipment with innovative technology and optimise signalling to better reflect current transport landscapes and demands. What’s more, the scale of funding is such that it’s possible to upgrade whole corridors and city networks, rather than having to make relatively small changes one junction at a time.

Benefits of VivaCity’s Smart Signal Control solution

Replacing outdated signal detection technology, like loops and magnetometers, with vision-based, above ground detection tech offers a host of benefits:

Multimodal detection: Highly accurate detection of all modes of transport, including active travel
Multiple detection zones: Detect multi-class occupancy in multiple zones across a wide field of view

graphic of a busy road with VivaCity Sensors optimising traffic signals — _{Multimodal and multizone detection: Capture and classify all traffic modes in multiple detection zones.}

Volumetric detection: Classified volumetric data sent to the controller

_{Volumetric detection: The VivaCity sensor sends classified zone occupancy. You can set occupancy thresholds – for example at a pedestrian crossing – to hurry a particular signal stage when a certain occupancy is met.}

Detection at range: Detect road users up to 100m from junction without the costs of ducting over the entire distance
Market-leading accuracy: High classification accuracy and directionality filters result in extremely low false positive rates
Optimised for scalability: Build your sensor network to address city-wide, multimodal detection challenges

Smart Signal Control is compatible with Yunex, Swarco and Telent controllers.

3-in-1 solution: Holistic junction performance metrics

With ongoing pressure on budgets it’s important to make the most of any technology you deploy. Versatility is key. By using different lens types – any of which can sit comfortably in the standard sensor case – VivaCity sensors can be used for three purposes: signal control, traffic monitoring and road safety. VivaCity sensors are always connected, so there’s no need to add all features at the point of installation – you can add them as and when they’re needed. When used in combination, the datasets unite to provide holistic and fully comprehensive junction performance metrics, all from the same sensor.

Explore VivaCity’s range of capabilities:

Smart Signal Control

Smart Traffic Monitoring

Smart Road Safety