News

Opened in November 2012, Toyota’s intelligent transportation systems (ITS) proving ground is being used to run a number of interactive tests between specially-equipped Toyota vehicles. Located at the company's Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre in Susono City, Japan, the ITS proving ground is a 3.5-hectare site that faithfully replicates a real urban environment, complete with intersecting streets, pedestrian crosswalks, and traffic signals. It is equipped with optical beacons, government-allocated 760 MHz trans

NEC Europe has received Frost and Sullivan’s 2012 European Vehicular Communications New Product Innovation Award for its vehicular communications systems. The 2012 Frost and Sullivan New Product Innovation Awards are based on an independent analysis of the European vehicular communication market, and the award recognises NEC’s leadership in this market throughout the past four years and its unique potential for the upcoming mass market introduction of products. Frost and Sullivan has recognised NEC’s vehicu

One of a number of recent improvements and developments that have been carried out in Wellingborough town centre as part of Northamptonshire County Council’s Highways initiative is the installation of an access control gate system that gives public transport vehicles sole access to a designated town centre route during peak times. The council hopes that the system, which uses long-range vehicle identification technology to allow only buses and taxis to enter the specified route between the hours of 0900 to

Thailand’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched a new intelligent transportation project to manage and improve the country’s traffic system. Announcing the project, called Smart Thailand via Intelligent Transport System Empowered by MOST, MOST minister Worawat Uea-apinyakul said that current technology helps facilitate better traffic and reduce cost. “Many intelligent transport systems (ITS) effectively solve traffic problems, reduce accidents, and help preserve the environment in several

Internet hosted street lighting software from Mayrise Systems is helping Essex Highways, a strategic partnership between the UK's Essex County Council and Ringway Jacobs, to ensure street lights are working, in order to maintain a safe environment for both road users and pedestrians. Mayrise for Street Lighting Online is core to all the activities carried out by the Essex highways street lighting team; it allows for the accurate capture of technical data in the field and delivers this information in an easy

The Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the vision and imaging industry’s trade association, has released the new USB3 vision camera interface standard and it is now available for free download on the AIA website. This easy-to-use standard is based on the prevalent USB 3.0 consumer hardware already in use. The AIA says vision component manufacturers have embraced the standard and are expected to widely adopt it; many components are already selling today. Based on the USB 3.0 interface (SuperSpeed USB), USB

According to Australia’s federal infrastructure and transport minister, Anthony Albanese, an Australia-wide electronic freeway management system has the potential to greatly reduce congestion and save Australian families and businesses more than US$500 million a year. Albanese said as much as he announced the US$21 million contract to deliver an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and communications infrastructure to the Westgate freeway managed motorway project in Victoria under the national smart managed m

Arizona’s traffic operations centre was built more than twenty years ago; the first traffic camera was installed over Interstate10 in 1990. That’s all changed now thanks to a recent US$2.1 million upgrade of the camera system by Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) which replaced cables with fibre optic lines, so the cameras now show fresh images every ten seconds rather than every five minutes. The upgrade has also replaced the 32 video screens in the traffic operations centre, enabling staff to sca

Schneider Electric is to use its expertise and experience in developing and implementing free-flow toll system management solutions and electronic toll payment solutions in the design, supply and installation of the tolling system back office for Australia’s New South Wales Government's Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). RMS is a delivery arm of Transport for NSW and is responsible for building and maintaining roads, conducting driving tests, issuing licences and registrations and overseeing harbours and wa

Following the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to open up additional spectrum for unlicenced wi-fi devices within the 5.9 GHz band which serves as the platform for connected vehicle technology, Scott Belcher, President and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), issued the following statement today: “ITS America supports the need to explore spectrum sharing in the 5 GHz band and appreciates the chairman’s commitment to a pr

MOBiNET, the new ERTICO-led project which plans to develop and run an internet of mobility, a platform that links transport services and end users, recently concluded its first meeting. By developing a set of common tools and standards (collectively known as MOBiNET), the idea is make to mobile transport services, such as journey planning, automated ticketing, billing and vehicle tracking more accessible and more usable. As a 'cloud based' system MOBiNET will make it much easier for software developers to c

As part of the Heart of Slough improvement project, new traffic intersections across seven key sites in and around Slough, UK have been equipped with a total of 162 Siemens WiMag wireless magnetometer sensors by Siemens to help improve the management of traffic using the A4 and travelling to and from the town centre. Complementing the company’s proven loop and radar detection solutions, the sensors provide the Heart of Slough project with an alternative traffic detection system that uses magnetic disturbanc

The first results of a smarter traffic pilot, conducted in the Dutch city of Eindhoven by IBM and NXP Semiconductors demonstrate how the connected car automatically shares braking, acceleration and location data that can be analysed by the central traffic authority to identify and resolve road network issues, say the companies. “The trial successfully showed that anonymous information from vehicles can be analysed by local traffic authorities to resolve road network issues faster, reduce congestion and impr

The US City of Greenville has begun phasing in new vehicle detection technology at its traffic signals. The state-of-the-art traffic sensors are expected to provide numerous benefits to motorists including improved safety, cost savings, greater mobility and increased productivity. The city’s 115 vehicle-activated signalised intersections currently have more than 900 in-road sensors that detect the presence of vehicles. The loop detectors, which have been widely used throughout the US for more than four de