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Jaime Lerner, visionary urban planner from Brazil and pioneer of globally successful public transport ideas, is the winner of the first Leadership in Transport Award, created by the International Transport Forum, at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector that comprises 52 member countries. The award was conceived to honour public figures that have, through exceptional vision and leadership, made a lasting positive impact, resulting in major advances for transport.

Bombardier Transportation has signed a contract with Saudi Arabian construction company, Saudi Binladin Group, to design, build, operate and maintain a Bombardier Innovia APM 300 automated people mover system for the King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) development project in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The total value of the contract is US$96 million.

Toyota is launching a new, advanced safety research centre that will collaborate with leading North American universities, hospitals, research institutions, federal agencies and other organisations on projects aimed at reducing the number of traffic fatalities and injuries on America's roads. Toyota's new Collaborative Safety Research Centre (CSRC) will be based at the Toyota Technical Centre (TTC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and will involve Toyota researchers and engineers from North America and Japan. The com

A new advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), developed by Iteris in partnership with Audiovox Electronics, has been unveiled at the 2011 International Consumer Electronic Show being held in Las Vegas this week. The new system, which is expected to be available later this year, provides consumers an opportunity to benefit from life-saving features that were previously only available on new premium cars or commercial Class 8 trucks. It incorporates Iteris’ proven AutoVue Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Fo

For the first time ever, the number of road deaths in France fell under the threshold of 4,000 in 2010, a 6.5 per cent drop year on year, the Interior ministry announced yesterday. According to provisional data from the road safety department, 3,994 people were killed in road accidents in 2010, the equivalent of almost 300 lives saved on 2009. After years of decline, road deaths reached 4,273 in 2009. Road injuries in 2010 also recorded a sharp fall, down by 13.1 per cent.

AT&T has announced an agreement with BMW to wirelessly deliver an enhanced suite of safety and infotainment services to future BMW models. These enhancements build on BMW's existing portfolio of connected services – known as BMW Assist – which includes, among others features, direct access to emergency and concierge call centre services, traffic information and an online portal for weather forecasts, fuel prices, and news.

US Traffic Corporation has been awarded a procurement contract by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC-DOT) to provide advanced solid-state traffic control devices to expand system upgrades across the city. The agreement calls for the company to supply traffic control cabinets, intersection signal controllers, as well as related software and hardware over the next several years to replace aging electromechanical controller systems throughout New York City.

Cellcontrol, a specialist in technology to stop distracted driving, is actively addressing the growing domestic and international demand for reliable distracted driving technology by pursuing and receiving regulatory approval to market its solution in Europe and other geographies. After extended testing by independent organizations, Cellcontrol received the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) E11 Certification last week. This VCA certification is required for EU market participation and validates that Cellco

Canadian company Streetlight Intelligence, a leading developer of adaptive street light control and monitoring technology, and National Semiconductor Corporation have entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to integrate SLQ's Lumen IQ adaptive street light control systems and National Semiconductor's LED driver technology and assess further business opportunities that may arise. The companies' intentions are to develop and promote future integrated LED driver and intelligent control and

According to the Moscow government, the introduction of ITS, currently being deployed, will increase the capacity of city's roads by 20 per cent. Pre-commissioning of the system is scheduled to begin in April. Moscow government plans to ingrate management of parking spaces, install cameras in traffic lights, and equip passenger land transport with Russia’s Glonass navigation system. Installation of a Glonass device is estimated at just over US$1,000 for a city bus and about half that amount for private flee

In a bid to narrow the state's budget gap, lawmakers in Connecticut are considering the reintroduction of toll roads. The state is facing a budget shortfall of US$3.5 billion – around 18 per cent of its total spending, and the proposal would see the introduction of electronic tolls around the state's entry points. According to a Cambridge Systematics study, annual toll revenue could reach $600 million with a fee of $5 to cross tolling points. It is thought that the move may be accompanied by a gas tax reduc

According to research produced by Utrecht University in the Netherlands and published in the Journal of Sleep Research, just two hours of continuous nocturnal driving is sufficient to produce driving impairment comparable to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05%. After four hours, driving impairment corresponded to a BAC of 0.10% - well over the drink drive limit for most countries.

The number of global users of telematics smartphone applications will increase from 3.2 million in 2011 to 129 million in 2016, with North America as the dominant region, according to the latest ABI Research forecasts. Practice director Dominique Bonte comments: “The integration of smartphones and smartphone applications into vehicles represents nothing less than a renaissance of the interest in both consumer and commercial telematics markets. Car OEMs, automotive Tier Ones, telematics service providers and

Cobra has announced that it is to supply Renault UK with the NSV Bluetooth Handsfree System which will be available as a Renault approved accessory across the complete range of Renault cars and light commercials.