News

Case Systems, which develops and maintains innovative reliable wireless technologies for the transportation and parking industries, will use the ITS America Annual Meeting to highlight its roadside call box technology and parking systems.

Visitors to the ITS America Annual Meeting will have an opportunity of seeing a new wireless roadway detection system from Trafficware. Operating under a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) patent in an exclusive license agreement, the company’s engineers developed the Valence Pod, a wireless system that uses roadway sensors to detect the presence of vehicles. The device can be used individually for a smaller zone or grouped with other Pods to create a larger, smarter detection zone. The omni-direct

Wavetronix is using its 10th appearance at the ITS America Annual Meeting to bring attention to its application-based detection systems and will invite visitors to “tame” their traffic with Wavetronix. For the first time, the company is shifting its focus from individual products to comprehensive applications that use the accuracy of digital wave radar to give departments of transportation more control over their traffic. “The accuracy and reliability of our products have been proven at locations around the

Switzerland based ABB has launched the Terra SmartConnect (SC) fast chargers for electric vehicles (EV) in North America. Terra SC will be available with support for the CHAdeMO fast-charging standard, with SAE/combined charging system and will be made available in the Americas in second quarter of 2013. According to the company, the Terra SC can fully charge an electric car in thirty to 120 minutes and charge the battery of currently available EVs from 30 per cent to 80 per cent in about half an hour. The

The New South Wales government (NSW) in Australia has introduced six mobile applications for train users in Sydney to track arrival of trains in real-time using satellite information. State Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian unveiled the updated apps that will have the real-time capability, making use of markers on stations that will receive information from trains, and then pass it on to the apps. Funded by the state government, one of the apps gives voice-over notification to remind users to exit

In an effort to reduce congestion and improve passenger flow at railway stations in the Netherlands, Danish software company Blip Systems and Dutch railway consultants NPC have teamed up to monitor passenger movements using Bluetooth and wi-fi tracking. In an eight-week study at Groningen railway station, Blip Systems has installed 22 of its BlipTrack sensors which anonymously detect wi-fi and Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones and laptops. The sensors will monitor passengers and transmit the

US traffic information provider AccuWeather is to integrate Inrix real-time traffic and incident information, travel times and traffic camera images into its StoryTeller traffic app. AccuWeather customers receive the same traffic information used by leading vehicle manufacturers, commercial fleets, departments of transportation and news organisations worldwide. The Inrix traffic intelligence platform analyses real-time data from over a hundred sources including traditional road sensors, official accident an

Finnish consulting and engineering company Pöyry is to provide design services for the eight kilometre Western Metro extension in Espoo, the third largest city in Finland. It will be part of the metro system in the Helsinki capital region. The US$8.25 million contract, awarded by Länsimetro Oy, will bring the metro within the reach of 50,000 people in south-western parts of Espoo, and is expected to be complete by 2018. Pöyry has also provided track engineering, rock and geotechnical engineering, architect

The Highways Agency is to deliver a further twenty-two schemes in the UK’s north-west to boost the economy, reduce congestion and improve safety in the third, and final, stage of its pinch point programme. The schemes, representing an investment of US$47.7 million, will remove bottlenecks and keep traffic moving on England’s motorways and major A roads. Nationally, this stage of the programme comprises 58 schemes, worth US$151 million, that will be delivered by March 2015 and will bring an estimated US$2.1

In line with its maxim ‘infrared everywhere’, thermal imaging camera supplier FLIR expects to increase its sales within the automotive sector, particularly to companies like Audi, BMW and Rolls Royce, in order to boost manufacturing numbers and cut per unit production costs. The company has developed a new initiative with Mercedes Benz in which many of the car maker’s new S-Class vehicles will contain a FLIR thermal imager that will scan the road ahead, during the darkness of night, and alert when it sees h

A new source of traffic information will shortly be available to drivers on the central expressway in Collin and Dallas counties, Texas, with the implementation of the 511 system which will provide travel information by telephone and on the web. The system is due to be tested from the end of April and will be formally launched in the summer. The project involves several cities and transportation agencies that are combining their information for the first time. "The idea of pulling it all together at one l