News

At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.

Redflex shareholders rejected the bid by US-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group and Australia's major investment bank Macquarie Group to take over the traffic enforcement products and services specialist. Despite the Redflex board having unanimously recommended acceptance of the offer, which was AU$2.75-a-share, valuing the company at $303.5 million, the bid remained unsuccessful.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines in Canada’s British Columbia has announced the Greenhouse Gas Reduction regulation that advances the adoption and deployment of natural gas vehicles in BC. The regulation permits a utility to spend up to $62 million on vehicle and ferry incentives, up to $12 million on compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling stations and up to $30.5 million on liquefied natural gas stations, for a total of $104.5 million.

Ford's industry-exclusive rear inflatable seat belts - one of the 2011 Explorer's breakthrough safety innovations that helped nearly triple the vehicle's March sales - earned the 2011 Traffic Safety Achievement Award from the New York International Auto Show's World Traffic Safety Symposium.

Road tunnels are a particularly dangerous environment. Not only do fires burn more violently in enclosed environments, as happened in the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, the low lighting and confined reaction space mean accidents are more likely to happen. Authorities must, therefore, be easily and quickly alerted to accidents, breakdowns and equipment must be working at all time.

International Road Dynamics (IRD) has received a contract valued at approximately US$1.22 million from Canada's Prince Edward Island Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (PEI DTIR). The contract is for the supply, installation, and maintenance of a mainline weigh-in-motion (WIM) sorter system, and will complement the weigh station operation located 1 km east bound of the Confederation Bridge. Installation is scheduled for completion by the end of June 2011.

Euro NCAP (the European New Car Assessment Programme) has awarded the 100% electric Nissan Leaf the highest five star car safety rating following its performance in the independent organisation's stringent crash tests. It is the first electric vehicle ever to earn this distinction.

A day after ITS International published details of a report from The Mobility Collaborative - $4 per gallon gas won't alter driving behaviour, claims national study - the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and Building America's Future (BAF) has released a study which draws the opposite conclusion and predicts that record numbers of Americans will turn to public transportation as a cost-cutting measure in the face of volatile gas prices.

The wait is almost over. In just a few days time, the 22nd ITS America Annual Meeting and Exposition opens at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC, and delegates are in for a real treat. The importance of this event cannot be overstated. Located just across the Potomac River, the Annual Meeting is bringing the case for ITS directly to legislators on the federal, state and local levels. It will capitalize on the momentum generated by the 18th World Congress

Navteq has launched a free online tool which calculates the potential savings delivered by using navigation systems. The service has been designed to cover both private and professional drivers and can be used, for example, by fleet managers to estimate the impact in relation to a group of vehicles or by car dealerships and PND manufacturers to demonstrate the savings to consumers at the point of sale.

GarrettCom, a provider of premium industrial networking products for specialty and stressed applications, has named Lee House as general in charge of all aspects of GarrettCom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Belden. House, who joined the company in 2008 as VP of engineering, most recently served as GarrettCom's executive VP and CTO, where he has been instrumental in leading the development of the company's next generation line of switches, routers, and software products. He was a member of the joint transitio

To many, Xerox is nothing more than the ‘copy company’. For those who know better, they are now the largest provider of transportation services to governments around the world. Xerox is appearing in all sorts of unexpected places after their acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) in 2010 and dropping the ACS name earlier this year. To help establish the company as a key player in the intelligent transportation world, Xerox chairman and CEO Ursula Burns will be the featured speaker at the 2012 ITS

Mobileye has announced that Nissan showrooms in China will propose Nissan's Teana model (sold as Nissan Maxima in North America) will be equipped with ‘Eagle Eye’, Mobileye’s C2-270 collision prevention system. Buick, Cadillac and Acura showrooms already offer Mobileye C2 as an optional accessory in showrooms in South China; however Nissan says it will be the first to offer a particular model with Mobileye as standard safety fit all over China.

To many, Xerox is nothing more than the ‘copy company’. For those who know better, they are now the largest provider of transportation services to governments around the world. Xerox is appearing in all sorts of unexpected places after their acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) in 2010 and dropping the ACS name earlier this year. To help establish the company as a key player in the intelligent transportation world, Xerox chairman and CEO Ursula Burns will be the featured speaker at the 2012 ITS