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Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has been awarded a contract worth US$7.6 million (AU$10.2 million) from Transport for New South Wales to deliver a trial of an open loop payments ticketing technology to Sydney, Australia’s largest city. The trial, to begin in 2017, will allow Sydney commuters using participating payment schemes to tap their contactless bankcard directly on Opal readers at the trial site to pay for travel. According to Tom Walker, senior vice president and managing director of Asia

Australia’s Victorian government is to begin a trial to look at how automated vehicles can interact with Australian road infrastructure. VicRoads will work with industry to seek feedback on the government’s Future Directions Paper, which outlines the need for regulatory changes to allow testing of highly automated vehicles on public roads. The consultation will focus on how to ensure road safety during testing on public roads, what constitutes a driver ‘being in control’ and understanding how the changi

Investors are racing to claim a stake in the potential multibillion-dollar ridesharing market. Advances in Technology that aid in the adoption of ridesharing, while governmental policy support, such as high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and toll-fee waivers, are bolstering market evolution, says Frost and Sullivan. The North American and European ridesharing market will see strong growth, with rideshare operators rolling out new business models to target niche customer segments. And in the European marke

According to researchers at the University of Michigan, the 2022-2025 fuel-economy (CAFE) standards for light-duty vehicles, which were reaffirmed by the EPA on 30 November 2016 in the midterm evaluation of the standards, will substantially reduce future fuel consumption and emissions, even if the future vehicle mix (cars vs light trucks) does not change. However, in addition to these direct benefits, indirect benefits can also be expected via the influence of more stringent standards on the future mix o

Eton Community Association has commissioned the charity, the Outdoor Trust, to develop a promotional Walkway for the town in Berkshire in the UK. In advance of the launch in spring 2017 two Eco Pyro pedestrian counters, supplied by UK company Traffic Technology, have been installed in the town to study footfall along the High Street. Results indicate that on most days people are using the bridge as the main gateway to the town but that only 60 per cent of people crossing the bridge travel the distance o

Public contracts to supply domestic passenger rail services in EU countries will have be put out to tender under new rules backed by the EU Parliament this week. Under the new rules, which also aim to boost investment and the development of new commercial services, rail companies will be able to offer their services in EU domestic passenger rail markets in two ways. First, where national authorities award public service contracts to provide passenger rail services, bidding for public service contra

In autumn 2017, the state of Washington in the US is to begin a pilot road user charging (RUC) program, involving 2,000 volunteers across the state. During the pilot period, the state will track their mileage in several different ways including odometer readings and a smart phone app. Another option will be charging drivers a flat fee. Drivers will report on the positive and negative impacts of the road usage fee. US company D'Artagnan Consulting prepared the detailed state-wide RUC demonstration impleme

The Volkswagen Group is to become a shareholder in the Hubject eRoaming electric vehicle (EV) charging platform and plans to push ahead with the digital interconnection of charging stations for EVs, starting in early 2017. Hubject, founded in 2012 by BMW, Bosch, Daimler, EnBW, innogy and Siemens, provides EV drivers with easy access to charging stations as well as payment solutions. Almost 40,000 charge points on three continents are already available on the platform. In 2013, Hubject launched ‘inter

TomTom and Microsoft have formed a partnership that aims to bring enterprise-grade location-based services to Microsoft’s Azure platform, based on TomTom’s maps, traffic and navigation software. TomTom plans to integrate its services into Azure to make it even easier and more flexible for developers to build and manage enterprise, mobile, web and Internet of Things applications that are location aware.

Two routes that have previously been given the title of ‘most dangerous’ roads have received Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards for their significant casualty reductions. The average speed installation on the A537 Cat and Fiddle road operates in ‘rear facing’ mode, allowing motorcycles to be monitored by cameras viewing their rear number plates. The latest figures for the A537 show a 77 per cent reduction in Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) casualties. The A9 enforcement system has ca

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) has been awarded supplier status for its traffic pre-emption solutions on the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service Traffic Management 2 (TMT2) framework agreement. TMT2 provides public sector customers with access to traffic management solutions. The framework aims to deliver local, regional and national traffic management technologies through a qualified supply chain, ensuring reliability and resilience. TMT2 allows direct and standardised procurement of small compo

Audi's top-selling model released excessive toxic diesel emissions in results from lab tests run by the European Commission and seen by Reuters, raising suspicions of wrongdoing at Volkswagen's luxury division. The results threaten to embroil Audi in the scandal that has engulfed the company since it admitted cheating US emissions tests with software to mask nitrogen oxides (NOx). The lab tests run by the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) in August showed the latest Euro 6 diesel gener