Yunex Traffic is backing the TOPAS campaign for local authorities to ensure they only use equipment on their highway networks that meets approved standards.
Writing for Highways News, TOPAS’s Kealie Franklin wrote that: “It is not much of a stretch of the imagination to picture a local authority procurement officer faced with shrinking budgets, triumphantly announcing a £50,000 saving by purchasing non-TOPAS (Traffic Open Products and Specifications) compliant traffic controllers from an overseas manufacturer.
“Six months later, that same council is haemorrhaging money on emergency callouts, custom integration work, whatever the opposite of what turn-key might be called. The “bargain” equipment can’t communicate with existing infrastructure, the promise of AI features turns out to be marketing samoflange and when something goes wrong, as it will, as it does, guess what? no accountability, no support, and no recourse.”
Yunex Traffic and fellow supplier SWARCO are both supporting Ms Franklin’s stance, with Yunex posting a comprehensive post on the matter written by Gavin Trimnell, Sales Director, Yunex Traffic UK.
He points out: “At Yunex Traffic, we’ve long championed the role of robust, independently-assessed standards like those defined by TOPAS (Traffic Open Products & Specifications). They don’t slow innovation, they unlock it. They don’t add unnecessary cost, they prevent hidden and unpredictable ones. And above all, they ensure that every piece of infrastructure we deploy is safe, reliable and future-ready.”
His post includes comments that “standards are the foundation of a safe, modern transport network,” how “Innovation needs stability and standards provide it” and that adhering to standards is “a shared industry responsibility”.
He then lists the costs of not using standards, and explains how they are higher, and Yunex’s commitments.
(Picture – TOPAS)
