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The city of Madrid, Spain has been unanimously re-elected to be the president of the Polis network in 2015. Madrid has been promoting sustainable transport for many years, both locally and through cooperation across borders. Outstanding initiatives in the Spanish capital include the city's ambitious Air Quality Plan, the promotion of cycling and walking, Madrid's intelligent on-street parking scheme, its multimodal interchanges, and its pioneering urban consolidation centre for electric freight. "Wit

Beginning in 2015, some of Toyota Motor Corporation's new models will be compatible with advanced vehicle-infrastructure cooperative systems that use a wireless frequency reserved for intelligent transport systems (ITS). This compatibility will be offered as an option for the Toyota Safety Sense P active safety package that will be made available in 2015 on selected new models sold in Japan. The systems will use the dedicated ITS frequency of 760 MHz for road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communicati

UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced the UK Government’s biggest single investment in cycling, which includes US$179 million to secure funding to support the Cycling Ambition Cities Programme for the next three years in Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Oxford accelerate their development of local cycling networks, increase protection for cyclists at junctions and traffic hot spots and help prevent accidents. US$157 million will also be invested over t

International engineering group Egis has furthered its development strategy with the acquisition of Sao Paulo-based engineering firm Lenc. The acquisition allows Egis to become one of the foremost engineering firms in Brazil, offering a comprehensive range of services in urban development, regional planning and multi-modal transport, whilst also consolidating its international business activities in one of the most promising countries in the world. Established in 1975, Lenc is one of the leaders in th

A route enforcement and casualty reduction scheme on the strategic A14 in the UK has won a prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. The A14 route between the Midlands and East Anglia operates at the national speed limit of 70mph as a dual carriageway with central reserve and no hard shoulder. The average annual daily traffic figure is 74,000 and with no motorways or other high standard diversion routes along this corridor, journeys can be seriously delayed when congestion or collisio

Intelligent Transport Systems organisations and professionals representing industry, government and the research/academic community were recognised by their peers in Australia’s 2014 National Awards. Winners included: Intelematics Australia, which won the Industry Award for the Toyota Connected Vehicle Programs, a world market leading approach to in-vehicle connected technology.

Sanef, the French subsidiary of Spanish construction firm Abertis, is part of the consortium awarded the contract to improve the safety of the tunnels along the Boulevard Périphérique Nord de Lyon, along with the operation, maintenance and renovation of the toll road over 20 years. The contract also includes the management and maintenance of the road and its equipment over 20 years, including the management of the toll payment systems, for which Sanef will receive a fee of US$12.5 million a year. The

Automatic incident detection (AID) manufacturer Navtech Radar has ventured into the tunnels of Norway and has supplied its radar-based ClearWay solution for the sub-sea 4.5 km long Mastrafjord Tunnel and the 5.8 km long tolled Byfjord Tunnel near Stavanger in Norway as part of a recently-completed tunnel refurbishment project. Radar AID was specified by consultants Multiconsult and following a tender process, systems integrator Trafsys was the winning bidder with the ClearWay solution. Multiconsult s

Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, which will exhibit at the forthcoming Fuel choices Summit in Tel Aviv, is developing an electric bus charging system that would allow vehicles to boost their batteries at terminal stations. There, the buses would connect to supercapacitors that charge the buses quickly so that they can operate for precisely calculated distances, according to the Jerusalem Post. Elbit’s supercapacitors aim to power buses for one full route, allowing them to recharge in the span of le

A consortium led by Spanish engineering firm CAF and comprising partners Construcciones Ferrovías y Subsistemas, Thales, Corsan-Corvian Construcción, Isolux and Construcciones Urales has been awarded the US$993 million contract for the Mexico City-Toluca railway. The contract involves the provision of electric trains, rail and communication infrastructure, ticketing facilities and associated services. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 160km/h along the 57.7 kilometre route between Observatorio

PT Marga Utama Nusantara, a toll road management company in Indonesia is using Fujitsu’s SPATIOWL traffic information service, a cloud service that utilises location information, to collect probe data such as vehicle location, time and speed, and generates and accumulates traffic information, such as congestion conditions and their duration. Indonesia’s increase in traffic due to population growth and rapid economic development has intensified the problems of traffic congestion and frequent traffic accid

More than 12,600 street lights on Hertfordshire’s A-roads are being upgraded to LED lighting using Telensa’s PLANet street light central management system (CMS), which will allow the lights to be monitored from a central point. This will reduce inspection costs and make it easier to spot and repair any faults. The system will also allow lighting levels on the A-roads to be reduced during the night, rather than turning lights off completely. Once the new lights are installed, light levels will be reduced

Messaging solutions provider SESA recently signed an agreement to develop NTCIP compliant lane control signs (LCS) incorporating a conflict monitoring system as a vital design criterion. This system will automatically change lane signals that correspond to the counter flow mandate. In multi-lane counter flow commute lanes, if a green arrow is displayed on one LCS, the LCS on its reverse must display a red cross. Timing on all LCS signs will be identical. Additionally flashing red crosses will be in