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Last year (2015) was a record-breaking year for toll road, bridge and tunnel usage according to a new report from the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA). The National Toll Facilities Usage Analysis found that drivers' use of toll roads increased by seven per cent between 2014 and 2015, a record-breaking rate of growth that puts tolling usage on pace to double in less than ten years, says IBTTA. The analysis was compiled by collecting data from 31 toll-operated facilities acros

From 4 April 2016 Clearview Traffic Group and its brands, Astucia and Golden River will unite under the single brand of Clearview Intelligence. Commenting on the change, managing director Nick Lanigan said that the global financial challenges of the past few years have brought with them significant change to the company’s customer base. As a result, its proposition has evolved, offering customers even greater flexibility in solutions. He said the company continues to innovate with its core technology, bu

The ITS America 2016 San Jose Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Student Essay Competition will be sponsored again this year by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The annual prize, to be awarded at ITS America 2016 San Jose on 12 June during the ITS America Board of Directors meeting, encourages post-secondary students to take a leadership role in advancing transportation technology by sharing their own unique concepts and ideas, as expressed via an original essay. The contest is aimed at undergradu

The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the opportunity to apply for approximately US$266 million in competitive grant funding for bus programs nationwide. The funding consists of US$211 million in grants for buses and bus facilities projects, as well as US$55 million specifically for FTA’s Low and No Emission (Low-No) bus program, which promotes technologically-advanced and environmentally-friendly buses. These investments will help advance the President’

The Orange County Transportation Authority, California, is seeking proposals from a shortlist of firms for the design and construction of the I-405 Improvement Project, an important step toward building a better freeway that is intended to improve travel times for those driving the corridor between Costa Mesa and the Los Angeles County line. The OCTA Board of Directors has unanimously approved the criteria for selecting a firm to design and build the freeway improvements and approved issuing the final re

The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) has announced that it is seeking comments on two Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to develop and operate the third generation of its electronic toll-collection systems. It has now issued a Request for Comments via eMaryland Marketplace to solicit feedback on the procurement of its toll system and its Customer Service Centre system. The new toll system will include replacement of the existing toll-lane terminals and all associated hardware and software, while the

A research project that gathers information on vehicle emissions in Birmingham got under way last month as part of the UK Government’s ongoing efforts to meet EU air quality targets. In December 2015, the UK Government announced plans to introduce Clean Air Zones in cities, including Birmingham, by 2020. These zones will not affect private car owners, but would aim to discourage the most polluting vehicles, such as old buses, coaches and lorries, from entering the zone. The new project, developed by B

The City of Houston has awarded Trafficware Group a contract to upgrade the city’s central traffic management system, a project that also includes converting all 2,500 intersections from older technology to Trafficware’s Patriot V76 traffic control software and upgrading to its transportation management platform, ATMS.now. The new ATMS.now software platform will allow the City to integrate a number of devices so they no longer have to operate as disparate systems and can react quickly to incidents and c

The Frost & Sullivan webcast on 5 April at 1500 BST will present the 2016 truck market outlook and will investigate the evolving global connected truck telematics industry discussing top market, technology and regional trends impacting market dynamics in 2016. Besides truck OEMs, after-market telematics providers, tier-1 suppliers, start-ups become considerable stake holders in the connected truck value chain. Start-ups focusing on mobile-based freight brokering, ELD (Electronic Logging Device) hardware and

Luxembourg’s national railway operator CFL has awarded Kapsch CarrierCom the contract to implement a countrywide railway communication network based on GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway) for the country’s railway network. The contract, which is scheduled to be complete at the beginning of 2017, includes operation and service support for the first three years. Kapsch will be installing an end-to-end railway telecommunication network based on the GSM-R standard, including a modern IP

Spanish technology company GMV has been awarded a contract by the Malta Public Transport (MPT) to provide the advanced fleet-management and video surveillance system (SAE-CCTV) and the electronic fare-collection system for the modernisation of Malta’s buses. MPT has purchased 143 new low-floor buses for the modernisation process; these feature an advanced fleet management system along with a state-of-the-art ticketing system. The SAE-CCTV is GPS, 3G and wifi-enabled, with door sensors, connection to a

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has announced its intention to award Q-Free an order for the extension of the ongoing contract for operation of Norway’s central toll collection system. The contract is valued at around US$20 million (NOK 170 million) over three years.

Metropolitan EAD, the metro operator in Sofia, Bulgaria, has commissioned a consortium of Siemens and the Polish train manufacturer Newag to equip the new metro line 3 in the city, which will create an 18 kilometre east-west link that will serve 18 stations. The order, valued at around US$158 million (EUR140 million), comprises the delivery of 20 Inspiro type metro trains and the Trainguard MT automatic train protection system, using wireless CBTC technology (communications-based train control) to provid

A recently-released report from MarketsandMarkets indicates that the global vehicle surveillance market is expected to grow from US$49.93 billion in 2015 to US$103.21 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 11.1 per cent between 2016 and 2022. Factors such as regulations in different countries for compulsory driver assistance or passenger safety products, the wide range of advantages of in-vehicle surveillance systems, increasing sales of premium cars and the increase in traffic fatalities demand greater traffic c