News

A pioneering bus scheme in Bristol will be more than doubled thanks to a huge US$41 million grant from the government, UK Transport Minister Baroness Kramer has announced. The MetroBus network uses dedicated busways to provide new express bus services into the city. The infrastructure will also boost existing bus services, which can use the busways to beat congestion. The new money will support the second phase of the Bristol MetroBus scheme and see the construction of another 3.1 miles of busways in th

Iteris is presenting its Big Data Analytics for Congestion Management Programs webinar on Wednesday, 28 January 28at 11 am PST. Traditionally, transportation system performance and congestion monitoring has been limited to using floating car surveys and traffic count data. Data from these conventional methods covered a limited number of observations. With technological advancements, massive traffic data from infrastructure sensors and vehicle probes have become increasingly available. This new and rich d

Since it launched on 30 November last year, Dart Charge has already helped to speed up journeys by removing the need to stop at a barrier to pay the Dartford Crossing charge. To get the most benefit from the changes, the UK Highways Agency has developed a new way of identifying and managing over-height vehicles and dangerous loads before they enter the tunnel, a job that until now was carried out at the payment barriers. All major tunnels have rules about what substances can be taken through them an

Executive director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), Patrick D. Jones, has made a statement on the State of the Union Address, saying: “In his State of the Union Address tonight, President Obama said that Republicans and Democrats must work together to make critical repairs and improvements to our long-neglected transportation infrastructure. As the economy starts back on the right track, Congress can rescue this vital part of our economic engine from further d

International Road Dynamics (IRD) has been awarded a US$1.7 million contract by Chippewa Concrete Services of Wisconsin to supply, install and maintain a weigh-in-motion (WIM) sorting system at the Douglas County Safety and Weight Enforcement Facility (SWEF). The project is to be completed by the summer of 2016. IRD will supply and install its patented WIM scales, iSINC electronics, video verification system, vehicle movement compliance system and associated operational software. The system will allow

The European Commission has published nine studies on the state of play and the development needs of the Ten-T core network corridors. The studies have identified infrastructure development needs which represent approximately US$811 billion of financial investment until 2030. They highlight the importance of optimising the use of infrastructure along the corridors, notably through intelligent transport systems, efficient management and the promotion of future-oriented clean transport solutions. This is the

Göteborg, Sweden, city officials are looking at alternative ways to improve air quality in the city after a proposed congestion charge was rejected by citizens in a referendum last September. A study commissioned by the City Executive Office has been examining the impact of a number of different initiatives, including more accessible, free or reduced-price public transport, and speed restrictions. “There is no other single measure that has the same effect on the environment and congestion that the cha

Solar dynamic message sign (DMS) manufacturer SES America (SESA) recently opened a new manufacturing facility in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. The new site creates greater capacity for SESA to develop progressive solutions in DMS transportation signage by tripling the work space capacity, including new handling equipment for physically managing the largest of ITS DMS signage available as well as supporting tooling to fabricate the best-of-the-industry NTCIP transportation signage. In addition to incre

Czech Republic railway infrastructure manager SŽDC has awarded Kapsch CarrierCom a further project worth around US$17 million to install state of the art GSM-R technology on the 185 kilometre third rail transit corridor in the country. The project is due to be completed by autumn 2016. Kapsch has already successfully implemented this technology in the Czech Republic on several sections of rail lines. The new line connects Prague with the West-Bohemian cities and ends at the German border. Kapsch will

Colombia is due to award all the tenders for the second phase of the country's US$25 billion 4G highway plan by July this year, according to the country's vice president Germán Vargas Lleras. The next phase of 4G highway concessions will involve ten projects and require a total investment of US$7.96 billion. Offers are due to be received in May. So far five firms have prequalified for the first tender round: Spanish construction firms Sacyr and FCC; Mexico's ICA and Tradeco; and Chinese company Sinohy

Just one year after the introduction of the reduction of the speed limit from 80 km/h to 70 km/h on the Paris ring road, reports from the City Hall paint a positive picture of the results of this controversial measure. Accidents on the ring road are said to have reduced by 15.5 per cent, from 742 in 2013 to 627 in 2014, while the number of injuries has reduced from 908 in 2013 to 776 in 2014. Ironically, the reduced speed limit has resulted in an increase in the morning average speed from 32.6 km/h in

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, including the Municipal Railway (Muni), today announced that it will pilot a new smartphone application (app) for purchasing and using transit fares across the Muni system. With the new app, riders will no longer be required to have exact change or rely on fare vending machines to ride. The pilot is expected to begin in the summer of 2015. The SFMTA will be partnering with GlobeSherpa, a leading prov