Schoolchildren in Glasgow have been given the ability to literally stop traffic to help them cross the road safely on their bikes, in what is believed to be a UK first.

A mobile wireless transmitter has been developed for the city’s council which allows the user to send a signal to a traffic light at a busy junction, so it stays red for longer than usual.

This allows a large number of children riding bikes and scooters to pass through Shawlands Cross junction in the city’s south side safely, without having to rush through before the lights change.

The innovation is being used by the Shawlands Bike Bus initiative, which escorts a large group of children – sometimes as many as 50 or 60 – to Shawlands Primary School every Friday morning.

Also known as “cycle trains”, bike buses allow large groups of people to ride together on a set timetable. In Shawlands, banners have been placed along the route to inform drivers.

The new transmitter has been mounted to the lead rider’s bike and uses a military-grade encrypted signal that, when pressed on approach to the junction, sets a specially timed traffic light cycle in motion to hold traffic for 45 seconds.

The group had previously experienced problems with crossing the junction in time, with frustrated drivers moving too close to the children and sometimes sounding their horns.

The traffic delay signal is only accepted by a unit mounted on a traffic pole at the approximate time it is needed on Friday mornings, meaning it cannot be used in other parts of the city to stop cars at different times.

The bike bus scheme has proved so successful that Glasgow City Council is in talks with parents from six other schools in the city hoping to create similar cycling initiatives.

Gareth Johnson, one of the organisers of the Shawlands Bike Bus, said: “Ultimately we’d like safe segregated cycle infrastructure so all children in Glasgow that want to can safely cycle to school, but in the interim, we are extremely grateful to the council for providing this new bit of technology.

“The junction is really busy, and with a lot of young children on our bike bus, giving us that little bit of extra time to safely navigate the junction is a game-changer for us.”

Councillor Angus Millar, the city’s climate convenor, added: “This bit of kit is a fairly simple solution to a road safety problem that is probably experienced in cities up and down the country.

“I hope that what we’ve developed for Glasgow can be replicated to help similar bike bus schemes.”

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