News

Oregon Department of Transportation has chosen the Intelligent Mechatronic Systems (IMS) platform to enable their next generation Road Usage Charge Pilot Program (RUCPP). This key component of Oregon's Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) will be rolled out to other states in the near future. This trial is the second for IMS, with work already underway for a road charging program for a federal government in the Far East.

Toronto public transport passengers will soon be able to use a single-fare Presto card to get around on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) or seven other municipal transit systems in Ontario. Transit and government officials say the Presto fare system will be in place throughout the entire TTC system, subway stations, buses and new streetcars, by 2016. Bob Chiarelli, Ontario’s minister of transportation and infrastructure, said Toronto transit passengers have been requesting the electronic fare system fo

Metric Parking has been successful in winning orders for their pay and display parking machines in the UK and is to supply three local authorities in the south-west of England with their popular Elite pay and display machines. Bristol City Council has ordered the machines for on-street resident parking schemes in the city, using coin operated machines which will have an alpha numeric keypad for vehicle registration entry and will be networked through the Metric ASLAN web back office system.

From 2013 electric cars and cars with four or more passengers will be allowed to use the public transport lane on Lithuanian roads. Lithuania's authorities have passed an amendment to the traffic rules, to encourage people to cooperate during the rush hours and share cars. The new road traffic rules will be updated with three road signs for electric cars. They will sign electric car charging sites, cases when road signs do not apply to electric cars, and a parking space for electric cars and other electric

VeriFone Systems has installed its open-architecture vehicle tracking TransitPAY system on more than 1,000 buses serving the Bronx, following the award of a US$8.5 million contract by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York. The Bronx contract award follows a similar contract in 2011 for the Staten Island fleet component of the MTA Bus Time system, which uses VeriFone on-board systems to generate location data that is communicated wirelessly to the Bus Time server that passengers can acc

According to research carried out by Keypoint Consultancy on behalf of Winterswijk town council in the Netherlands, the search for a parking space in the town has reduced significantly as parking spaces are better utilised since a new parking guidance system was introduced earlier this year. Research carried out in 2008 by Keypoint indicated that the town was affected by the increasing parking pressure and reduced accessibility at peak times, causing considerable inconvenience to residential areas and redu

A critical milestone was reached in July 2012, when the US Congress passed, and President Obama signed, legislation reauthorising the nation's surface transportation programs, breaking a nearly three-year log-jam which had blocked critical transportation reforms and delayed much-needed infrastructure projects. In a town where compromise is sometimes considered an endangered species, Republicans and Democrats came together during a months-long series of negotiations and hashed out a bipartisan agreement that

The vision of Austria’s transport experts of implementing a comprehensive integrated transport network is about to become a reality with Traffic Information Austria (VAO). Launched at the ITS World Congress, VAO is scheduled to go live in late spring 2013, using technology provided by software companies PTV Group and Haco, in partnership with Austrian motorway operator ASFINAG, the Austrian transport association organisers ARGE ÖVV, ITS Vienna Region, ÖAMTC, Ö3 traffic editorial staff, the City of Graz, th

After more than a decade of delays, the New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia is to begin trials of the Opal electronic ticketing system on select ferry routes, with a trial set to commence on Sydney ferries in December. NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said that commuters would be able to use a single card to pay for tickets on ferries, trains, buses, and light rail by 2015. The Opal card will be available on all Sydney ferries and some trains in 2013, with buses and light rail to come on

A report by the Local Government Association (LGA), the organisation representing councils in England and Wales, predicts road tolling or pay as you drive road pricing could be introduced by 2018. With traffic predicted to nearly double over the next 25 years, the LGA believes the Government will have to consider tolls or even pay as you drive road pricing to raise the money it needs.

Work has begun on the long-awaited integrated traffic management system (ITMS) for Chennai in India. The new system is designed to help police monitor traffic violations more efficiently, as well as creating an automatic intelligent traffic control system to give priority to police cars and ambulances. The system, that includes high powered surveillan¬ce cameras, number plate readers and wi-fi at junctions, is to be first insta¬lled by local IT company Purple Infotech.