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Planning for the road ahead is something the New Mexico Department of Transportation (DOT) takes literally, as the department oversees the planning, design, construction and maintenance of 30,000 lane miles of highways, 3,500 bridges as well as the state's transit and rail operations, while keeping costs and environmental concerns in mind during the planning stages. To assist with the development of infrastructure projects, the department will roll out cloud-based building information modeling software late

US-based Perceptics, the company that performs most of the US government licence plate camera reads at the land borders, is to present its Build, Own, Operate and Maintain (BOOM) model for Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems at an Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI) webinar scheduled for 16 January. Perceptics claim BOOM will be an industry-first for e-tolling operators and integrators, helping to expedite new technology implementation in the field as an alternative to transponders, whil

New safety technology being installed along some rail lines across the US, including Central Minnesota, aims to prevent deadly train crashes caused by human error. The technology is designed to automatically stop or slow a train to prevent accidents such as a collision with another train or a derailment caused by excessive speed. The changes stem from federal legislation passed in 2008 after a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train in California, killing twenty-five people and injuring 135. An

Siemens’ new energy saving LED pedestrian crossing wait indicator retrofit solution allows both Siemens and Peek 48 volt incandescent wait indicators to be upgraded to the latest Central Light Source (CLS) LED technology, says the company. Siemens claim the low power consumption the solution offers power savings typically in excess of 70% and represents a highly cost effective upgrade option for existing wait indicators, particularly when undertaken alongside a wider LED traffic signal upgrade program. The

Catching the next airport bus is expected to be a lot simpler for Citybus’s Cityflyer airport bus passengers. The IT and network technology provider NEC Hong Kong recently developed a fleet management system (FMS) that uses GPS-based technology to monitor airport buses and predict their arrival times at upcoming bus stops. Available at Citybus’ web site and as a smartphone mobile app, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) service covers around 300 bus stops of all Citybus A routes and the accuracy of predicti

In a response to a move to remove unnecessary clutter in cities and rural areas, more than 9,000 road traffic signs have been taken down in England, where local councils have been urged to think more creatively about the number and location of their location. Ministers have warned that excessive signs can be a distraction to motorists and make roads appear unattractive. In October 2011, the requirement for certain road signs was lifted; the government plans to give councils more discretion over where they p

Traffic police in Singapore are planning to implement an average speed enforcement system, to be trialled along the pan-island expressway and Changi coast road. The average speed enforcement system works by recording the time a vehicle takes to travel between two points to calculate its average speed, which the police say means that speeding motorists cannot evade the law even if they slow down before or speed up after the cameras. Speed detectors placed at the start and end points - to be determined in c

As part of the award of a frame agreement worth US$12.8 million for the supply of toll tags, Q-Free is to supply tags to the value of US$4.1 million to Centro Gestao Meios de Pagto (CGMP) in Brazil. Tags valued at US$8.4 million have already been supplied under the agreement. Q-Free says its OBU610 is the most advanced universal toll tag of its kind, designed to blend into the interior of any modern vehicle, small enough not obstruct the driver’s view, and yet powerful enough to support all applicable CEN

In an effort to gather information on the number of walkers and cyclists using pedestrian routes in Angoed and Treforest in Wales, sustainable transport charity Sustrans has installed Eco-Multi counters from UK company Traffic Technology. The counters have been installed on national cycle networks routes in Angoed and Treforest, which provide mainly traffic-free routes, enabling cyclists, walkers and horse-riders to enjoy healthy, affordable and scenic travel to work, school or the shops, or for leisure. T

More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK. The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies. The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations. The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be comp