Features

David Crawford investigates a promising development to counter the problem of fog in the Gulf States. Despite being a largely desert area with low rainfall, fog is a major driving hazard in countries on the Arabian peninsula, such as the UAE. The fog is the result of moist air moving across from the neighbouring Gulf during the afternoon and evening, and experiencing radiation cooling at night.

New regulations are set to standardise the process of awarding concessions across the European Union. In the wake of several inconsistent judgements at the European Court of Justice, the European Commission has approved new legislation that defines a concession. The basic demarcation from a public contract remains the same in that concessions include the right to exploit the work or services provided instead of payment. However, at the point of signing, the regulations impose an all-inclusive threshold of €

Canadian researchers Olivier Quirion-Blais, Martin Trépanier and André Langevin have developed an algorithm to determine the most efficient routes for snow ploughs and gritters. Snow plough routing has always been something of a ‘black art’: to direct a fleet of show plough to clear priority roads without having the same road cleared several times while others are left untreated. Increasingly, GPS is being used to track the routes the clearing vehicles have taken but until now it has not been possible to ta

Q-Free’s Frank Kjelsli talks to Colin Sowman about why video tolling could be the boost to efficiency and interoperability the industry is seeking. Like it or not, the principal of one person, one tolling account is likely to become a reality: be that in America with the 2016 interoperability deadline or the European EETS requirement. Multi-tag readers are being introduced and alliances are being formed to meet legislative requirements but as the debate continues about which systems and protocols to adopt,