A recent blog post from our friends at Trimet took a deep dive into a question they receive all the time from local residents. On the new FX-2 Division bus line, “why are the buses running red lights?”
In fact, that’s not true. LYT provides transit signal priority for this Trimet bus route. But what may appear to the untrained eye to be a bus running a red light is actually an innovative, new technology at work.
Trimet’s blog post goes into more detail about the basics of bus queue jump lanes and their corresponding (and dedicated) traffic signal. We encourage you to read about it on their blog or watch the video at the bottom of this article.
In a nutshell, queue jump lanes allow buses to “jump” in front of waiting traffic at a red light. By giving the bus a head start (through a specific transit-only traffic signal) before other vehicles, the bus can avoid traffic congestion by fully enjoying the benefits of LYT’s transit signal priority technology.
However, in a world’s first, LYT has created technology that can detect that a legitimate transit bus is waiting in a queue jump lane without the need for complex hardware detection equipment. This means that only buses can jump the queue and private vehicle drivers that try to cut in line via a queue jump will be left waiting.
The result is less hardware to install, less maintenance down time, and lower cost for our transit agency partners. And for riders, it means a faster ride while line-cutting drivers get their get their comeuppance.
LYT continues to invest in developing innovative solutions that can help solve traffic congestion in our communities. Click here to schedule a demo today and find out how you can bring this next-generation signal priority technology to your city in just a few week’s time.
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