News

Leading Russian diversified transport infrastructure construction company Mostotrest and Kapsch TrafficCom have formed a joint venture, United Tolling Systems, to develop the strategy for the introduction of intelligent motorway management systems. Media reports suggest that the partners intend to bid jointly for the construction of a toll road in southern Russia.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is helping to inject private finance into the modernisation of Poland’s municipal transport system with a loan for the construction and operation of an underground car park in the historic part of Wroc³aw, Poland’s fourth largest city.

TomTom has announced it is expanding its footprint in Latin America to encompass coverage of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, French Guiana, the French Overseas Territories and Venezuela. By broadening map coverage in this strategic region, the company says it is equipping industry partners with high quality content to enable location-based services.

Speaking at an event organised by the IBTTA last week to an audience of federal and state transportation officials, policy experts, financial analysts, and representatives from engineering firms, technology companies, and transportation facility operators, Ed Regan of Wilbur Smith Associates articulated a clear case for giving states flexibility to toll existing interstate highways.

Microbus and Stemmer Imaging have established a new two-way distribution agreement for Europe which will see the companies combine their core strengths to provide their OEM and system integrator customers with a greater product offering.

Optotraffic has entered into a contract with Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, to provide a complete automated speed enforcement programme in a school zone on state highway 261. Town officials say they are responding to a long-standing issue of speeding in the resort town. “We selected Optotraffic because it is a well known Maryland company that uses an innovative technology, capable of enforcing in two directions simultaneously with only one piece of equipment,” said James L. Parent Jr., town administrator.

The organisers of the sixth Intertraffic Istanbul event, which took place from 25-27 May 2011 in Istanbul Expo Center Yesilkoy, say that this proved a successful business platform for the markets of Eurasia and the Middle East. The trade show for professionals in infrastructure, ITS/traffic management, safety and parking The event doubled in size and visitor numbers climbed by over 30% compared with the previous event, which attracted visitors and exhibitors from around the globe. “Intertraffic Istanbul was

A full scale major incident emergency exercise has been carried out in the UK’s brand new Hindhead Tunnel on the A3 in Surrey. Located just to the south of London, the A3 route carries heavy traffic volumes and the existing road link has been a major bottleneck for capacity as well as proving a safety risk for the area. The new tunnel, due to open soon will relieve traffic jams in the area and boost capacity.

Ford Motor Company says it is tripling production capacity of its electrified vehicle lineup through 2013, further boosting volumes of its all-new C-Max Hybrid and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, which begin production next year.

Ford Motor Company says it is tripling production capacity of its electrified vehicle lineup through 2013, further boosting volumes of its all-new C-Max Hybrid and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, which begin production next year.

Iteris has introduced Abacus 2.0, its next generation traffic incident detection and data collection product that provides traffic engineers and departments of transportation a software-based ‘force multiplier’ that leverages existing camera systems to collect real-time traffic data, rapidly identify incidents, and gain enhanced traffic flow information in a ready-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) format.

The cities of Salerno, Vienna and Gothenburg, working within the Cosmo project, have agreed to implement a test bed for various cutting edge technologies developed in recent research European programmes (Cvis, Coopers, Safespot). The pilots will mainly focus on eco-traffic management, but other types of services such as eco-driving support, co-modality, traffic sensitive street lighting, and access management will also be addressed within the project.

A pilot project which began last month and which saw trucks banned on toll roads in Jakarta city, Indonesia, has produced dramatic results. The ban helped to cut traffic congestion in the city by 40 per cent, while average speeds rose from 15-20 km/h before the ban to 60-80 km/h.

Ho Chi Minh City government in Vietnam is targeting traffic congestion and gridlocks by implementing a range of measures including hikes in parking charges in central zones, banning private vehicles on some streets at particular times, and increasing registration charges for cars and motorcycles. Moreover, Mien Tay and Mien Dong bus terminals will be relocated to outskirt zones, while other bus terminals will be improved and enlarged.