TRLnews

Creating

the future of

transport

For the last 75 years RRL / TRRL / TRL has been at the forefront of
developing efficient and effective knowledge-based solutions
that have resolved the transport issues of the passing decades.

Today, TRL plays a leading role providing expert advice and

consultancy, using new technologies and innovative techniques
to meet the demands of the 21st century.
JULY 2008

www.trl.co.uk

2 TRLnews

RRL 1933 TRL 2008

On 1 April 2008, TRL celebrated its 75th Anniversary. To mark the
occasion, this special edition of TRL News focuses on our history
and some of our achievements.
In 1925, the Roads Improvement
Act permitted the Ministry of
Transport (MoT) to conduct
experiments or trials for the
improvement of the construction
of roads... The Ministry formed
an experimental branch, and
in February 1930, opened
an Experimental Station at
Harmondsworth, near Heathrow.
In 1933, the Experimental Station
moved from the MoT to the
Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research (DSIR) a move
supported by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer Neville Chamberlain,
who was definitely of the opinion
that the balance of advantage lies
in bringing it into closer cooperation
with other research activities As
a result, it was renamed the Road
Research Laboratory (RRL).
From the start, our work centred
on finding efficient and effective
knowledge-based solutions. For
example, in 1938 our Director,
Reginald Stradling wrote that:
The objective of all the research
work at the Road Research
Laboratory is to accumulate that
body of scientific knowledge
which is an essential factor in
the economical and efficient
construction and maintenance of
our roads. Practical application
of the results must be the aim
throughout.
In 1939, RRL was allocated war
research. This involved experiments
with explosives and projectiles and
the rapid construction of roads
and airfields using locally produced
materials.
Work in the 1940s included
studies of accident data, traffic
flow, junction design, pedestrian
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crossings, street lighting and vehicle

safety. In 1946 RRLs Road Safety
Division was established at Langley
Hall near Slough.
RRLs Colonial Research Section
was formed in 1955 and in 1965
RRL was transferred back to the
Ministry of Transport, closer to those
responsible for transport policy. The
Crowthorne office opened in 1967
bringing all the staff together in one
location. Over the years our name
has changed several times; in 1972,
we became the Transport and Road
Research Laboratory (TRRL); and
in 1992, the Transport Research
Laboratory (TRL) when we became
an Executive Agency. TRL was
privatised in 1996 and is now based
in Crowthorne House, its purpose
built Head Office with state-of-theart research facilities.
Throughout this time, our work
has depended on close working
relationships with our customers
and partners. These include
Government Departments
and Agencies (especially the
Department for Transport (DfT),
Highways Agency (HA), and their
predecessors), highway authorities,
universities, other research
organisations, trade associations,
manufacturers, consultants,
contractors and motoring
organisations.
The following pages illustrate some
aspects of our work. Over the
course of this year information on
our history will be added to our web
site at www.trl.co.uk/75

All the photographs in this

edition of TRL News are from
our image library.

Front under-run guard development (c 1990)

Development of the bouncing bomb, 1942
Bridge parapet development, 1970
Efficiency of snow clearing, 1953
Channel tunnel shuttle test rig, 1971
Evaluating masonry arch bridge strength, 1988
Automatic vehicle guidance, 1961

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TRLnews 3

Developing Better Roads

RRLs early work in the 1930s
concentrated on road materials and
methods of construction. Post war, it
expanded to include the mechanisation
of road building, bridge and tunnel
construction, earthworks, and
drainage. Three aspects of our
work on road design and testing
are highlighted below.
Skidding resistance
Work on skidding resistance began at the
National Physical Laboratory in 1927 before being
transferred to the Ministry of Transport in 1930
and to RRL in 1933. Our work has included:
l

many other similar experiments were conducted.

At about the same time, we developed weigh-inmotion (WIM) devices which allowed us to relate
the deterioration of the road to the weights of
vehicles.
In 1960, we drew together all available information
in Road Note 29 A guide to the structural design
of flexible and rigid pavements for new roads. We
have regularly updated design guidance since then
as data from experiments and experience became
available, with LR1132, The Structural Design of
Bituminous Roads, in 1984, TRL 250 Long Life
Pavements for Heavy Traffic in 1997, and TRL 615
Development of a more versatile approach to
Flexible and Flexible Composite Pavement Design
in 2004. A fundamental re-look at the approach to
pavement design is on-going.

 eveloping methods of measuring skid

D
resistance. For example, an instrumented
motorcycle and sidecar was developed
in 1929 to measure the Sideways-Force
Coefficient (SFC) a measure of the
co-efficient of friction. The same basic
method is still in use today in the form of
SCRIM (Sideways-force Coefficient Routine
Investigation Machine).

During the 1990s, we demonstrated that

deterioration of thick asphalt roads generally starts
at the surface as cracking and rutting, rather than
(as previously assumed) from the base of the
bound layers. This told us that, provided the surface
is maintained, these long-life roads should be
serviceable well beyond the current design periods,
thus reducing maintenance costs and disruption
from road works.

Investigating the relationship between

skid resistance and accidents, materials
and traffic flow. This has led to identifying
materials with resistance to skidding and
developing the UK standards for their use,
leading to reduced accidents and injuries.

Contactless measurement
of road characteristics
In the past, road characteristics (such as rutting,
cracking, profile and deflection) were measured
either manually or using slow-moving machines.
During the last 30 years, we have developed laser
and image collection equipment to make these
measurements more reliable and cost effective
without disrupting traffic. Examples include
the Laser Profilometer (mid 1970s), High-speed
Road Monitor (1980s), and HARRIS (Highways
Agency Road Research Information System, 1990s
onwards). HARRIS records the 3D road profile using
lasers and can detect cracks as small as 2mm wide
using digital video images.

Road design
Until the mid 1950s, limitations in capital
investment made it difficult to build full scale
experimental roads. In 1957, RRL began its first
major experiment, monitoring the performance of
a 2.25 mile stretch of the A1 at Alconbury, which
was built using a range of materials of different
thicknesses and strengths. In the following years

With a need to keep the road network running

as smoothly as possible, survey vehicles that can
measure the structural strength of roads at traffic
speed, are set to become the way forward. TRL is
developing for HA the Traffic Speed Deflectometer
(TSD), a contactless method of measuring road
deflection. The existing Deflectograph vehicles
measure the deflection of the road at a speed
of about 2.5 km/hr. The TSD, based on Danish
technology, uses Doppler lasers to continually
measure the deflection velocity of the road surface
under its heavy axle, potentially at up to 80 km/hr,
thus eliminating any disruption to the traffic flow.
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A1 Alconbury with WIM Sensors, 1965

SFC Motorcyle and Sidecar, 1948 model
Laser Profilometer, 1975
Harris2
Traffic Speed Deflectometer

4 TRLnews

Tackling Congestion
After the war, the scope of RRL
widened to include traffic and safety.
This included investigating the
capacity of roads and junctions.
Our work has identified the
fundamental factors affecting
capacity and has led to the
development of tools to assist
engineers in the design of roads and
junctions. Some examples are given
below.
Roundabouts
Work on roundabout capacity began in the
mid 1950s. At that time there were no rules
defining driver behaviour at roundabouts. As
a result, they tended to lock under heavy
traffic as vehicles entering the roundabout
blocked those leaving it. RRL demonstrated that
the introduction of the offside priority rule
(requiring vehicles entering the roundabout
to give way to vehicles already on it) would
eliminate locking, increase capacity, reduce
delays and more importantly reduce accidents.
This rule was introduced in November 1966.
1

After 1966, we developed smaller roundabout

designs, including mini roundabouts, and
in 1980, we published a unified formula for
predicting roundabout capacity. This was based
on studies of 35 different layouts on our test
track and 86 roundabouts on public roads. We
also developed the ARCADY (Assessment of
Roundabout Capacity And DelaY) computer
programme which is still used today to test
roundabout designs for vehicle capacity, queues,
delays and safety.
Traffic lights
Following the introduction of traffic light
controlled junctions, RRL developed area traffic
control, starting in 1967 with experimental
central computerised control of 80 traffic signals
in Glasgow. We have also developed a number of
other traffic light control tools, including:
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T RANSYT (TRAffic Network StudY Tool), a

software program to find the most appropriate
fixed time plans for the coordination of a
network of traffic signal controlled junctions,
which made linked signals much more
effective. Originally developed in the late
1960s, versions have been distributed to some
45 countries.

S COOT (Split, Cycle & Offset Optimisation

Technique), an urban traffic system to
coordinate traffic signals at networks of
junctions. It responds automatically to traffic
fluctuations, making it particularly effective in
areas where traffic flows are unpredictable, and
is used in over 200 towns and cities worldwide.

 OVA (Microprocessor Optimised Vehicle

M
Actuation), an adaptive control system
for traffic signals at isolated junctions.
Depending on traffic demand, it
intelligently moves between delay
-minimising and capacity maximisation
modes, and is used at nearly 3,000 sites
around the UK.
4

Managed Motorways
For many years we have studied motorway traffic
flow, and worked with the HA to optimise journey
time. Recent projects include:
l

 25 Controlled Motorway (variable speed

M
limit) scheme, which included establishing the
traffic flows at which different speed limits
should be switched on and off, and monitoring
the effectiveness of the scheme (including
traffic characteristics, safety, noise, exhaust
emissions and driver reactions).

 42 Active Traffic Management (ATM),

M
including hard shoulder running. We
recommended the location for the scheme
and evaluated a range of potential operational
regimes. We also helped to develop the
scheme and monitor its effectiveness.

A valuable tool in our work on motorway traffic

flow is Motorway Traffic Viewer (MTV), which was
developed by TRL to tackle congestion problems
by identifying and evaluating congestion
hotspots. MTV analyses traffic and signal data
from MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and
Automatic Signalling) loops. Earlier this year, TRL
introduced the Costain Traffic Manager (CTM),
a web-based application tool which enables
informed decisions to be made on managing
carriageway capacity through roadworks. Both
tools have proved invaluable in meeting the
current challenges of increasing traffic demand
and the need to keep traffic moving.
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Traffic light capacity trial, 1970

Simulator view of lane signals on the M42
Mini roundabout trial at TRL, 1977
RRL roundabout experiment at Northolt
Airport, 1955
5 New generation vehicle activated sign

TRLnews 5

Improving Safety
Road safety depends on the interaction of many factors. These include: the
road surface; road alignment; junction design; vehicle design and maintenance;
roadside furniture (including barriers, lamp-posts and signs); driver / rider /
pedestrian training, behaviour and impairment; warning and communication
systems (signs, navigation systems, etc); and the environment (ice, rain, etc).
Over the years, our work has covered all these factors.
The number of people killed in road traffic
accidents in the UK increased from 5,012 in 1950
to a peak of 7,985 in 1966 but then fell to 2,943 in
2007. Over the same period, road traffic increased
to 9.5 times the 1950 level and the fatality rate
per 100 million vehicle kilometres fell to just 7% of
that in 1950. TRL has been involved in many of the
initiatives that led to this reduction in casualties.
Accident Investigation
Reliable information about accidents is vital to our
work on road safety. Over the last 60 years we
have conducted many studies, including analyses
of national statistics, investigations into particular
measures (such as the introduction of the Zebra
crossing and drink-driving studies), and On-theSpot (OTS) accident investigation. Our OTS work
began in 1956, with a team attending accidents to
record information about damage to vehicles, road
conditions and vehicle manoeuvres, etc. Where
possible, this was linked to information about the
injuries sustained in the accidents. These studies
have helped us to identify how accidents and
injuries have occurred, leading to the development
of effective countermeasures.
Urban Safety
Many projects have been undertaken to reduce
road casualties in urban areas. These include
the Slough experiment (1950s), the Urban
Safety Project (1980s) and the Gloucester Safer
City (1996-2001). In the 1980s, we developed
Urban Safety Management (USM). This looks at
travel patterns across an area and aims to reduce
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accidents by defining the appropriate road

hierarchy, managing traffic onto the right roads,
managing traffic speed, and coordinating all
measures that influence road safety.
The DfT contracted us to assist in the development
of the Gloucester Safer City project and to monitor
its results. The USM approach was successfully
used, leading to an estimated 24% net reduction in
injury accidents.
Safety Quality of Road Networks
Work on the safety of inter-urban roads has
included projects for the HA to help them develop
their safety strategy and to define Key Performance
Indicators. More recently, we coordinated research
with European partners to produce EuroRAP
(European Road Assessment Programme), a
Europe-wide method of assessing road safety.
EuroRAP uses information from accidents and
on-road inspection of safety features to provide
a relative risk rating of main interurban roads. It
identifies the highest risk roads and indicates the
size and content of the improvement programme
required to achieve casualty reduction targets.
In March 2000, the Government set a national
target for reducing the number of road accident
casualties in Great Britain by the year 2010. The
target figures were based on casualty rates forecast
by us and the principal challenge is to achieve
a significant reduction in road deaths. TRL will
continue to work closely with the DfT to monitor
the UKs progress towards casualty reduction.

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Installing a Zebra Crossing, 1948

Seat Belt Experiment, 1965
Drink Drive Survey, 1965
Pedestrian crossing markings, 1948
Early Driving Simulator, 1976
Accident investigation today

Safer Vehicles
TRL is well known for its extensive work in vehicle safety: work that has encompassed braking,
skidding, vehicle lighting (head-lights, brake lights, indicators), windscreen glass, driver
vision, seat belts, airbags, child seats, pedestrian protection, helmets, heavy goods vehicle
safety and modified vehicles.

Frontal Impact Test, 1961

Euro NCAP Frontal Impact Test

As car ownership increased after the war and with it

the rising cost in terms of occupant fatalities and
injury, RRL turned its attention to occupant protection.
From analysis of hospital records and accident
investigation data during the late 1950s, evidence
emerged of the high incidence of head and chest
injuries (for example, from an unrestrained driver
hitting the steering wheel). Three-quarters of single
vehicle impacts were to the front of the car.
This led to TRL conducting its first full-scale frontal
impact tests in 1961, with cars impacting a 114
tonne block at 60 70km/hr. Three years later, our
work had clearly demonstrated the importance
of wearing seat belts and the need to coordinate
the design of the seat, seat belt, passenger
compartment and crushable front of the car in
order to minimise the deceleration experienced by
the occupants.
Cars were
generally
designed
with adult
passengers in
mind and the
responsibility
of protecting
children was left
to their

parents. TRL has played a major role in the

development of child restraint systems since the
early 60s when they were primarily forward facing,
and were either bucket shell seats with integral
straps or independent harness systems.
As our knowledge and expertise in crashworthiness
expanded, TRL became involved with developing
representative European front and side impact
tests. Real accidents tend to involve only part of the
front of the car colliding with an object that yields
(such as the front of another vehicle). As part of a
European working group, TRL helped to develop
an offset frontal impact test (only 40% of the car
overlapping the barrier face) into a deformable
barrier, producing results very close to those seen in
car-to-car collisions.
Similarly, we participated in the working group that
developed a side impact test and helped to design
the European Side Impact Dummy, EuroSID. The
new front and side impact EU Directives came into
force in 1998.
In parallel, in 1994, we proposed to the DfT that
it should consider starting a New Car Assessment
Programme (NCAP) based on the new European
impact test methods. This led to the formation of
Euro NCAP, which gives star ratings for a cars safety
performance. TRL became the first centre
to conduct such tests.

Most recent research has included looking at the

issues of compatibility - how vehicles interact with
each other at the time of impact, collision avoidance
technology and electronic stability control (ESC). TRL
is also developing an on-line resource for the DfT to
collate information on the developments of vehicle
based safety systems. Known as Technology Watch,
TRL will flag the most pertinent data, allowing the
Department to draw up a shortlist of technical areas
or products which will potentially have the most
effective impact on road users.

Pedestrians currently
account for about one
in five of the nearly three
thousand killed and
28,000 seriously injured
each year in road traffic
accidents in the UK.
Research at TRL has looked at how vehicles can
be engineered to make them less injurious to
pedestrians, research which has benefited other
vulnerable road users such as pedal cyclists and
motorcyclists. In April this year, TRL launched
SensorLegTM, a new biofidelic leg impactor for
use in testing and developing sensor technology
employed in active safety pedestrian systems.

TRLnews 7

Reducing Environmental Impacts

TRLs Centre for Sustainability (C4S) leads our knowledge and understanding in environmental performance, strategic
environmental assessment and sustainability, covering a broad range of disciplines that have evolved and emerged
over time, keeping pace with changing needs.
As traffic volumes increased in the 60s and 70s,
there was a corresponding increase in the amount
of noise generated. In the 1970s, RRL led the
consortium that developed the first prototype QHV
(Quiet Heavy Vehicle) to meet the current European
noise limit. In the mid-90s, TRL developed methods
for assessing the influence of road surfaces on traffic
noise, paving the way for the development of lownoise road surfaces. This helped the HA to effectively
mitigate the noise from high-speed roads. More
recently, TRL has played a major role in developing
the methodology used for mapping UK road and
rail noise.
Our streets make up a huge proportion of readily
accessible public space and it is important that
vulnerable road users are protected. TRL has
developed the HA vulnerable road user audit
guidance, helping to ensure that the needs of
vulnerable road users are taken into account
throughout the design and implementation of
road schemes. TRL has also looked at the needs
of pedestrians and on behalf of Transport for
London and the London Boroughs has developed
the Pedestrian Environment
Review System (PERS) which
audits and reviews streets to
assess how well they meet
the needs of pedestrians
and identifies priorities for
investment.

In 2006, TRL took the leading research role in the

DfTs Manual for Streets helping to ensure the
necessary components to street design were
sustainable, reduced traffic speeds and accidents
and contributed to an enhanced sense of place.

The issue of sustainability, the desire to use recycled

and secondary materials wherever possible and
the need to minimise waste, has been strongly
championed by TRL. Emanating from early work in
the mid-90s, TRL has developed specifications and
guidance for a range of recycled and secondary
aggregates, including construction and demolition
waste. In 2006, working for the Waste & Resources
Action Programme (WRAP) and the construction
industry, we developed and implemented a
template for Site Waste Management Plans (SWMP)
for general and civil engineering projects. With the
introduction of new SWMP regulations in April of
this year, TRL is able to help organisations by offering
training and assistance with the implementation of
their plans.

Air quality is another key area of work for TRL.

In the 1970s we developed and deployed the
UKs first continuous mobile ambient air pollution
monitoring unit and developed the air pollution
impact assessment methodology used in the
Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB). In
parallel, we devised the UKs road transport emission
factors which are still widely used in modelling and
forecasting work.

Climate change will arguably have one of the

greatest impacts in the future. We are actively
engaged in adaptation and mitigation work to
provide an effective response to this challenge.
For example, in work for the DfT, TRL has looked
at the impact of climate change on local authority
roads and identified actions that could be taken
to minimise the effects. We help organisations
respond to the challenge of climate change, by
providing advice, practical applications and training.

Quiet Heavy Vehicle, 1976

8 TRLnews

Improving Transport
in Developing Countries
Our involvement in developing countries began in 1955 and has two main
elements. Firstly, investigating the particular problems of transport in developing
countries, and secondly, disseminating information through courses and
publications. For example, the annual Tropical Roads Course has been held in the
UK and at various venues around the world for over 30 years. The Overseas Road
Note (ORN) series of guidance documents, introduced in 1981 can be found in
the offices of thousands of transportation professionals around the world.
These and other key documents are now available as downloads from the web.
We have contributed to world-wide
knowledge in a number of key areas:
Road design and construction
The soils and road-building materials in
tropical countries are significantly different
to those in temperate zones. As a result,
research on materials properties has
always been an important part of our
work. This has led to the development of
appropriate material tests and standards.
A key publication is ORN31 Guide to the
Structural Design of Bitumen-Surfaced
Roads, which is now in its fourth edition,
and is the standard design tool in many
countries.
Road planning
We undertook ground-breaking research in
Kenya that, for the first time, established the
quantitative link between vehicle operating
costs and road deterioration. This enabled us
to develop the first of the life-cycle cost models
now in use as HDM-4. Our contribution has
been fundamental to the world-wide adoption
of a standard tool for road planning and
investment decision-making.

Road maintenance
The work that led to HDM-4 also identified
the key importance of road maintenance
because of its impact on the rates of return
of different types of road investment. Good
road maintenance depends on the multidimensional issues of attitudes, finance,
staffing, management and institutional
arrangements. Our ORN1 Road Maintenance
Management for District Engineers was one of
the worlds first documents to recognise that
the management issues were more important
and difficult than the related technical issues.
It is now in its third edition and over 10,000
copies have been issued in three languages.
Safety
Road safety is a key area where our work
has had a huge impact world-wide. Our
research was among the first to identify
the catastrophic traffic accident rates in
developing countries, with the consequent
physical and social costs. Addressing
accident problems requires complex multidimensional institutional measures as well as
improved physical traffic engineering. Our
landmark publication Towards Safer Roads
in Developing Countries has provided key
guidance on traffic engineering measures.
Another important area of work was the
development of MAAP (Microcomputer
Accident Analysis Package), which provides
tools for collecting basic accident data and
for processing this to identify appropriate
countermeasures. MAAP is widely used by
police forces and traffic accident teams all
around the world.

Creating the future of transport

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Compiled quarterly by TRLs Communications Team