News

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is concerned by the lack of investment by the EU in the transport sector. According to regions and cities, very little progress has been made also in integrating the European transport market in the last four years. These concerns were debated by CoR members at the 16 April plenary session, which saw the adoption of the opinion on the implementation of the 2011 European Commission White Paper on Transport, aiming to create a single European transport area. The

SES America has added its single line, full colour embedded digital message sign (DMS) to the Florida Department of Transportation’s TERL-approved product listing. According to SESA, the addition of full colour embedded DMS to its already approved product line continues to build out the offering of high-quality, energy efficient dynamic message signs the Rhode Island-based company manufactures for installation on highway projects across the US and Florida. Each embedded DMS is able to display standard

As Traffex 2015 event partner, Siemens will be exhibiting products from across its extensive range, from innovative traffic controllers, signals and detection solutions, to the very latest traffic management, electric vehicle charging and traffic enforcement systems. Siemens new Service Operations Centre, which is being launched at Traffex, is a dedicated traffic management and support service which brings together the company’s existing Field Service Contact Centre, Systems Support and its Poole-based C

International engineering and technology company Ricardo has announced an agreement to acquire the business, operating assets and employees engaged in the businesses of LR Rail, from Lloyd's Register Group. The acquisition will be materially complete on or before 1 July 2015 and the business will operate as the core of a new international rail business within Ricardo and combined with Ricardo's existing rail industry expertise, to be branded Ricardo Rail. Current LR Rail managing director Paul Seller wi

According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, most traffic signals in the US are only retimed every two to five years (or longer), largely due to the expense associated with retiming efforts. However, over the past several years, University of Minnesota researchers have developed and refined its SMART Signal system to make it easier and less expensive to retime signals. The system, developed with funding from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), not only collects traffic and si

TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network has announced the provisional results from the first pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon, carried out on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 April. So far, a total of 122,581 speeding offences were detected exceeding speed limits between 6am on Thursday and 6am on Friday. 17 out of 22 countries have now provided data. Of these, 116,479 were detected by police officers, with 6,102 detections using automatic devices. A total of 4,253,386 vehicles wer

Transport infrastructure specialist Colas will be exhibiting its latest innovations in traffic management, intelligent transport solutions, safety barriers and integrated infrastructure at Traffex 2015. The company is also launching a new generation of full colour, scaleable matrix signs. Colas’ safety barrier and a scale model of its impact protection vehicle, which features advance warning radar, will also be on display. The company’s team will also be available to discuss the principle of integrated

D’Artagnan Consulting has been awarded a four-year contract to support the US Western Road Usage Charge Consortium (WRUCC), a voluntary group of twelve state Departments of Transportation. D’Artagnan will undertake collaborative research into policy and system development of new transportation funding methods that involve collecting a road usage charge (RUC) from drivers based on distance travelled on the roadway network. The company will investigate, develop, and potentially demonstrate various aspec

Parts of the European Commission’s proposals for the European Fund for Strategic Investments, which foresee the reallocation of US$3.5 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility to provide a part of the US$17 billion for the guarantee fund should be deleted, Transport MEPs suggested in their opinion approved on Tuesday. This target amount should instead be met by gradual budgetary commitments to the guarantee fund to be decided in the frame of the annual budgetary procedure, they add. Instead of cuttin

The US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has awarded eight grants totalling more than US$21.2 million to invest in highway-rail grade crossing safety, positive train control (PTC) implementation and passenger rail. The eight grants were awarded in states across the country and feature a wide array of projects, including: Grade crossing safety and passenger rail planning grants to California department of Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation; Transportation Technology Center PTC

San Diego, California and Jacksonville, Florida are to trial new GE Lighting technology designed to help them become more intelligent and efficient. The GE LED solution uses LED street lighting installations to connect, collect and analyse data being generated, harnessing the power of the industrial internet to help each city run better while providing new services and conveniences for residents and visitors. In addition to piloting the intelligent-city enabling solution, Jacksonville will also pilot. Li

Gridsmart Technologies returns to Traffex this year to discuss its new innovations and international approvals, especially the UK Highways Agency and RTA Victoria certification for its Gridsmart single-camera, tracking-based vision solution for actuation and data collection at intersections and on highways. With the release of Gridsmart 5.0, the company is introducing Gridsmart Cloud, which allows traffic professionals to use laptop computers to design, organise, configure and manage intersections exact

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has responded to the BBC story this morning suggesting the number of drivers given penalty points for using mobile phones at the wheel fell by 24 per cent last year in England and Wales. In addition to the BBC’s findings, an earlier study by the Department of Transport showed 1.1 per cent of drivers in England and Scotland were observed holding a phone in their hand with a further 0.5 per cent observed holding the phone to their ear – this is potentially more tha

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of US$162 million from the Department's Federal Highway Administration to finance the East End Crossing section of the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project. At the total cost of US$1.27 billion, the East End Crossing includes the East End Bridge and its connecting roadways. The bridge spans the Ohio River eight miles to the north connecting the east end of Louis