News

French road operator APRR (Autoroute-Paris-Rhin-Rhône) has opted to replace obsolete sodium lamps with LED lighting in the 3.3km Chamoise Tunnel. The LEDs have four times the lifespan of high pressure sodium bulbs and are expected to cut energy use by 45 per cent, or some or 400,000kWh. Moreoever, APRR says the LED units also make lighting more uniform and colours are truer to their normal values, which helps drivers and the cameras that record incidents. Each tube of the tunnel will have 600 LED lamps, cos

German company myTaxi, which has revolutionised the European taxi market in less than a year, has extended its group of current investors. Daimler AG subsidiary company Car2go joins the board of the Hamburg-based company acquiring a minority stake. Lars Hinrichs, founder of XING and Hackfwd, is also added to the group of myTaxi shareholders. The existing investors T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, and KfW Bankengruppe, all contributed to the capital increase to promote the rapid growth

Idle Free Systems, a leading provider of year-round idle elimination solutions for trucks and school buses, has announced a new business partnership with AmeriQuest Transportation Services through which the Idle Free electric APU system will be the first electric idle-elimination solution to be available directly to AmeriQuest members. AmeriQuest Transportation Services, with more than 1,500 customers representing 700,000 vehicles, is a privately-held transportation services company. As Jim Sweeny, VP of ca

Writing in the newsletter of TISPOL, an organisation established by the traffic police forces of Europe to improve road safety and law enforcement on the roads of Europe, Danijel Kumberger, National Traffic Police Unit, Slovenia, has revealed how smart the force has had to become to catch law-breaking truckers. As he points out, with automotive technical progress, it is vital to keep in touch with innovation because in modern vehicles, it is all about electronics, data sharing and processing of all kinds of

RouteMatch Software has been selected by Nebraska Department of Roads (NDoR) to become the state's primary ITS partner, providing a standardised and integrated passenger transportation management technology platform for 13 Nebraska rural public and tribal transit agencies. The technologies address NDoR's primary goals of improving mobility management and creating seamless, consistent transit coordination amongst these agencies. The RouteMatch partnership will also allow NDoR to closely facilitate paratransi

Peter Aylward has been appointed by the Hoeft & Wessel Group as managing director of the Metric subsidiary, headquartered in Swindon, in the UK. He will be responsible for the business activities of one of the world´s leading producers of car park terminals, reporting directly to the board of management. In addition to the parking division, Aylward also remains responsible for all business activities for Almex ticketing systems in Great Britain. This will help to lay the foundations for further extension of

Sumitomo Corporation of America, in conjunction with its car builder partner Nippon Sharyo, has received a contract award from Virginia Railway Express (VRE) for 50 Gallery-type Bi-level passenger cars. The base order is to supply eight cars at a contract price of $21 million and is scheduled to be delivered in 2014. This contract includes an option for VRE to purchase up to an additional 42 cars. If the option is exercised, the total contract would amount to $119 million. VRE will use the cars procured thr

Ford has upgraded its state-of-the-art Virtual Test Track Experiment simulator with improved image rendering technologies and capabilities to study driver performance, helping in the development of safety and driver aid technologies. The company says the simulator has helped in the development of heads-up displays, drowsy driver alerts and lane departure warning technology soon to be available on the all-new Ford Fusion.