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In the US, the Texas-based Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is operating a connected vehicle affiliated test bed in cooperation with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The DOT test bed project facilitates information exchange as well as access to tools and resources across other test bed facilities to support and encourage consistent future deployment of connected vehicle technologies. The project aims to advance the technology for full deplo

Robot Nederland, part of Jenoptik’s Traffic Solutions division is to supply over 130 stationary roadside speed measurement systems to the Central Justitieel Incassobureau (CJIB) in the Netherlands. The deal includes an eight-year operations and maintenance contract and is part of the EG100 framework agreement. Roll-out is expected to start in the first half of 2014.

Datalogic, a global leader in automatic data capture and industrial automation markets, expects a surge in next generation advanced data collection devices, which will intelligently edit and communicate data and play a critical role in providing improved business analytics, termed ‘big data’. This vision for future market growth was delivered by Bill Parnell, President and CEO of Datalogic ADC, the division focused on the global automatic data capture market, speaking during ID World Rio de Janeiro, the

Global transportation consultants Cambridge Systematics and ICRA Management Consulting Services (IMaCS) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate in providing consulting services to the transportation sector in India, across Asia, and in Africa. IMaCS and Cambridge Systematics will offer a broad mix of consulting services to public and private sector clients in the transportation sector. “We are pleased to sign this MoU with a quality consulting firm like IMaCS, and we are excited ab

Public Transport Victoria (PTV) of Australia has launched a preliminary tender call to upgrade its bus tracking system after the existing system was found to be not cost effective. The system will provide real-time information on the location of buses, and the information can be used to provide customer information and to improve performance. PTV spokesman Adrian Darwent says the organisation undertook a review of the projects it is delivering, including the rollout of the current bus tracking system.

Moody’s Investor Services have up-rated the outlook for US toll roads from negative to stable. They think traffic should grow 1.5 per cent on a median basis in 2014, which they describe as a “sustainable comeback” from the three per cent decline since 2009. They think toll revenues should grow to a “mid-single digit percentage range” in 2013 and 2014 which we guess means 4 per cent to 6 per cent. They note such an increase in toll revenues is a slowdown from 2012 when big toll rate increases boosted r

Among the transport announcements made by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in his Autumn Statement, he promised tax relief for motorists, including a freeze in fuel duty for the remainder of this Parliament. He also confirmed the abolition of the paper road tax disc, ‘removing an administrative inconvenience for millions of motorists’ from October 2014. This move is expected to save the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) around US$5 million a year. It will also save fleet own

New York’s state Thruway Authority has installed Doppler radar-enhanced LED signs to alert wrong-way drivers before they enter exits in Buffalo and Nyack, Rockland County, where wrong-way derivers have been involved in crashes. The radar can detect vehicles travelling the wrong way, setting off the LED sign and alerting the rest of the Thruway system. “New York is the first state in the nation to utilise this sophisticated technology to enhance traffic safety and save lives,” Governor Andrew Cuomo sai