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Nodes, New Tools for Design and Operation of Urban Transport Interchanges is a three-year European research project, focusing on providing and demonstrating tools for better transport interchanges to support a more efficient urban transport system. Toulouse, Reading, Budapest, Rouen, Rome, Thessaloniki, Osnabrück, Coventry and the Dutch Railways will all implement new solutions for a new generation of interchanges which will contribute to better transport services and an improved experience for travellers.

Trimble is to supply its Quantm alignment planning system to the Russian High-Speed Rail Authority to investigate alternatives for two high-speed rail lines. The technology will allow the Rail Authority to rapidly view a wide range of alternatives, considering the social, environmental and design constraints and present preferred options to stakeholders for public consultation during 2013. The Russian study is examining the feasibility of two 1,600 kilometre high-speed rail lines. The first line would conne

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier, will use location data from its 61.5 million subscriber devices to build a platform that monitors traffic conditions across the country. DoCoMo said it will use its access to massive amounts of location data to build a cloud platform of traffic information on which services can be built. The company will target individual consumers with products like navigation and drive recording services, and corporate clients such as car insurance companies with traffic monitor

Sluggish peak-hour traffic on Melbourne's busiest road, the Monash Freeway, will flow about 20 km/h faster when new technology is introduced, thanks to a US$78.2 million cash injection from the Australian Government to help improve traffic flow, with the money to go towards installing and upgrading intelligent transport systems on a 34.5-kilometre stretch of the road in Melbourne's east. The commitment is intended to be matched by the Victorian government and will go towards technology such as variable spee

A new stereo vision sensing (SVS) system developed by automotive safety systems supplier Autoliv will, says the company, help vehicle manufacturers meet the new test criteria that EuroNCAP recently announced to promote autonomous emergency braking, intelligent speed assist, lane departure assists and pedestrian protection. The system has a field of view of 50 degrees and can recognise objects within 120 metres. To provide the best view, the stereo vision cameras are mounted high on the front windshield behi

Spanish company Trafficnow and Isbak are working together to help in taming the congestion in Istanbul, one of Europe’s most congested cities. They are to install 250 DeepBlue Bluetrack sensors along all the major corridors and access points of the city, together with the DeepBlue core centralised system. The sensors use the signals emitted by Bluetooth-enabled devices such as GPS navigation systems and mobile phones to track vehicles and calculate travel times. With up to ten lanes of traffic, the city aut

Jumping a red light caused eleven per cent of traffic accidents in Abu Dhabi in the first quarter of this year, new traffic statistics show. Col Jamal Salem Al Ameri, head of public relations at Abu Dhabi Police's Traffic and Patrols Department, said accidents from jumping red lights often had serious consequences and put motorists in danger. In the first phase of a plan to enhance traffic monitoring across the emirate, state-of-the-art triple-function traffic cameras were recently installed at forty juncti

The US Department of Transportation has released a memorandum that helps to create an affiliation of 5.9GHz dedicated short range communications (DSRC) infrastructure device makers, operators of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) installations, and developers of applications that use V2I communications. The objective is to harness the collective abilities of these members to transition the technology toward full deployment by allowing for the exchange of information, the sharing of deployment lessons learned,

Arcontia International, Swedish contactless smart card products supplier, is to supply 1,000 of its contactless smart card readers for integration into the Handheld Nautiz eTicket Pro PDA for e-ticketing and fare collection. Arcontia works closely with Swedish PDA manufacturer Handheld, supplying the public transport industry with ruggedised PDAs with high performance contactless smart card readers.

US-headquartered Siemens Mobility and Logistics has partnered with Iteris in an agreement that means that Iteris will now distribute the complete Siemens intelligent traffic product across the state. The contract ensures Siemens a strong position in the state and offers Iteris a significant expansion of its traffic and intelligent transportation portfolio. “This agreement allows both Siemens and Iteris the opportunity to better provide solutions to the many traffic challenges US cities face,” said Frank LoP

Queensland company Tritium has launched Veefil, an electric vehicle (EV) fast charger, designed to take up minimal space, allowing several to be installed in a small area. Developed in Australia as part of a US$2.3 million project funded with matching support from a federal government grant, the company claims Veefil can charge an EV around twenty times faster than a conventional wall outlet, accommodates two plug styles and is weather sealed for outdoor use. Tritium claims that a ten minute charge can prov

Three members of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) have been honoured by the White House as 2013 Transportation Champions of Change. The 2013 White House Champions of Change event recognises individuals and organisations that have embraced the concept of “Transportation Technology Solutions for the 21st Century” across the country. Michael Pack from the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory (CATT Lab), Dr Thomas Dingus from the Virginia