Carmanah Improves Pedestrian Safety in California with Solar LED Crosswalk Beacons

3 min. read
April 20, 2011

Carmanah has received an order from the City of Santa Clara, CA, for three units of its new R820C solar-powered LED pedestrian crosswalk beacon. These initial units will be installed at an uncontrolled, marked crosswalk in the city as part of its pedestrian safety improvement program.

The City of Santa Clara, located in the Silicon Valley, prides itself on its excellent public services, well-maintained infrastructure, and a strong sense of community. Public safety is a top priority for the City and it recently implemented the “City of Santa Clara Pedestrian Safety Improvement Program” to study specific locations where pedestrian safety issues required addressing. As a result of this program, some uncontrolled marked crosswalk locations in the City were identified as needing enhancements for pedestrian safety. The City selected Carmanah’s technology for one location with an uncontrolled marked crosswalk on a four-lane roadway where high vehicle speeds put pedestrians at higher risk.

The R820C features a modular design for a range of installation configurations. For this particular application, the City of Santa Clara has installed one dual head R820C on the median, and two single-head units on either side. With this configuration, drivers from both approaches to the crosswalk can see a beacon on the median island and on the shoulder, alerting them to pedestrians entering the roadway.

About the R820C Pedestrian Crosswalk Beacon

The R820C builds upon the established reputation and field-proven capabilities of Carmanah’s self-contained R820 solar flashing beacon, but is smaller, lighter, more energy efficient and available at a lower cost. Like its predecessor, the R820C utilizes Carmanah’s patented MICROSOURCE™ Energy Management System to automatically adjust to prevailing solar conditions for reliable year-round operation under all weather conditions.

Drawing on Carmanah’s innovative new compact control module or “solar engine,” the R820C can be mounted high above the sidewalk, out of the path of pedestrians and out of the reach of vandals.

Significant long-term cost savings are also achieved by the R820C, as it requires no external grid power. Other key operational benefits included no bulbs to replace for the life of the unit, as well as no scheduled maintenance or servicing for up to 5 years, at which point only the battery pack may need exchanging.

The R820C is the only self-contained, solar LED pedestrian crosswalk beacon that uses ITE* compliant LED modules and meets all MUTCD** requirements for flashing beacons.

* The International Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) facilitates the application of technology and scientific principles to research, planning, functional design, implementation, operation, policy development and management for any mode of transportation.

** Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is the standard for signs, signals and pavement markings in the USA.

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