The Bus Safety Standard (BSS) is focussed on vehicle design and safety system performance and their contribution to the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy. This sets a target to achieve zero road collision deaths involving buses in London by 2030.
All TfL buses conform to regulatory requirements. TfL already uses a more demanding specification when contracting services and this requires higher standards in areas including environmental and noise emissions, accessibility, construction, operational requirements, and more. Many safety aspects are covered in the specification such as fire suppression systems, door and fittings safety, handrails, daytime running lights, and others. However, the new BSS goes further with a range of additional requirements, developed by TRL and their partners and peer-reviewed by independent safety experts.
Good direct and indirect vision alone will not eliminate all casualties in manoeuvring collisions; the driver must still be looking in the right direction at the right time. Systems that give the driver additional information about the hazards around the bus, or warn of an imminent collision, still have an important role to play. How this information is communicated to the driver is critical to their success and a draft standard accounting for different functionalities, the avoidance of false alarms, and the appropriateness of the human machine interface (HMI) has been developed.
