News

The UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers has issued its 2014 State of the Nation: Infrastructure report, which focuses on the performance, capacity and condition of the UK's key economic infrastructure networks. The report finds that the UK approach to delivering and maintaining infrastructure requires attention and recommends that progress made to date should be built upon to ensure that the UK possesses world class infrastructure. It also finds that three sectors – energy, flood management and local tra

International Road Dynamics (IRD) is to provide the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) with equipment maintenance, software maintenance, and on-call service for their state-wide network of weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems at approximately 250 locations across the state. This new service agreement has a total value of US$4.7 million and provides for the maintenance of both Caltrans' commercial vehicle enforcement systems and traffic data collection systems from for the next three years.

Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD) has increased security and operational efficiency with a new 10-screen transportation control room at its recently-built headquarters building. The authority created a new safety and security system and images from any of the 300 cameras can be displayed on the new video wall which made up from 10 of Christie’s latest 55inch LCD screens. The cameras are installed at the busiest bus stops, at the Illinois Terminal Transfer Facility and in CUMTD’s maintenance and

Fleet planning solutions provider ORTEC has joined the TomTom Telematics Partner Programme of TomTom Telematics in a move that integrates ORTEC routing and the TomTom Webfleet platform to provide fleet operators with a dynamic routing and scheduling solution based on a vehicle’s location and its estimated time of arrival, keeping end customers updated on appointments and delivery times. “Fleet management can dramatically impact the overall customer experience, and we are always looking to collaborate ext

Argentina, which ranks poorly in transport infrastructure, according to the World Economic forum, has created a national transport institute (IAT) to develop a 50-year transport development strategy, as the country invests to revamp its railway network in an effort to overcome severe infrastructure deficits in the sector. Interior and transport minister Florencio Randazzo said that the newly created agency's mission is to establish long-term development plans and initiatives, and propose policies and reg

Belarus’ national road safety authority Safe Roads of Belarus has awarded Vitronic Nordic East a contract for 60 PoliScan laser-based speed enforcement units. The PoliScan systems use Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology, which works with an invisible infrared laser. According to Vitronic, the readings obtained are more reliable and fairer to drivers than those from conventional radar systems, while the maintenance costs for PoliScan systems are lower than those for conventional loop technolo

A study of cycle versus vehicle accidents carried out by the University of Colorado, Denver (CU Denver) has found that the chance of collision decreased with more cyclists. The risk of accident was relatively high at intersections with less than 200 cyclists per day. “Anywhere above this threshold is where we are seeing the largest safety benefits,” said co-author Wesley Marshall, PhD, PE, assistant professor of civil engineering at CU Denver’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. The reasons for

Two years after signing the Memorandum of Understanding, the five founder members of the Smart Ticketing Alliance formally launched the Alliance, putting it on a formal legal footing which will lead the way towards a single transport implementation specification for NFC phones across Europe and cross border acceptance, facilitating the implementation and deployment of NFC-enabled devices. Encouraged by endorsement from the EU’s Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, the Alliance has been busy setting up Wo

The search for a free parking spot will soon be a thing of the past in the Italian city of Pisa thanks to the launch of a smart city pilot project to test an intelligent parking system and analyse historical traffic data via a big data services. The system will help motorists in Pisa to find a vacant parking space more easily, as well as pay for it via their smart phone. The city has joined forces with Deutsche Telekom and its partner firm Kiunsys to install the new smart city service. Sensors on the f

McCain has appointed traffic industry veteran Donald M. Maas Jr as Director of Business Development of its traffic division. Maas joins McCain's executive team with nearly three decades of experience in the transportation industry spanning both product and project engineering. Maas will play a central role in promoting the company's intelligent traffic control solutions. Maas will also act as a liaison between sales and engineering to ensure product development goals align with customer needs. "Don is

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has issued an immediate cease-and-desist demand to Monkey Parking, a mobile peer-to-peer bidding app that enables motorists to auction off the public parking spaces their vehicles occupy to nearby drivers. A letter issued by Herrera's office to Paolo Dobrowolny, CEO of the Rome, Italy-based tech start-up, cites a key provision of San Francisco's Police Code that specifically prohibits individuals and companies from buying, selling or leasing public on-street pa

Crucial feedback on gas heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) has been provided by the Low Carbon Truck Trial, with the provisional results being detailed in a first report commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) which was published last week. Responding to the DfT report, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said that it supported the trials stating that they have put more gas powered HGVs on the roads, whilst identifying the operational challenges of running gas vehicles. According to the re