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Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has developed new vehicle safety standards which it claims will save 25,000 lives and assist European countries in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Matthias Seidl, senior researcher - vehicle safety & regulation at TRL, says the advanced safety measures will protect all road users. “Intelligent speed assistance and drowsiness and distraction recognition will support drivers in their ongoing tasks, autonomous emergency braking and emergency lane keeping wi

Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) is acquiring a 75% stake in Utrecht-based Truck Parking Europe with the aim of improving safety for truck drivers in the Netherlands. Truck Parking Europe - a PTV company - offers a range of services for truck drivers, planners, dispatchers and parking operators via a free app for Android, iOS and the web. These services allow users to filter and find truck platooning locations, connect with other truck drivers, the possibility to claim and secure parking locations a

The European Parliament and Council Romanian Presidency negotiators have agreed to strengthen the road infrastructure management rules to help improve road safety in the European Union. The rules require road safety audits to be carried out during the design and construction of infrastructure projects and when roads are in use. The agreed rules extend these requirements beyond the Trans-European Transport Network roads to motorways and primary roads. Rapporteur Daniela Aiuto, member of the Europe of

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and non-profit organisation Partnership for New York City have announced six finalists for the inaugural Transit Tech Lab programme. The eight-week project will allow the technology companies to introduce products to New York’s transportation agencies which are expected to improve subway and bus services. Participants will employ predictive maintenance to help reduce cost and subway delays, deploy a platform for transit network planning, utilise comp

Ford has joined forces with geocoding start-up What3words to offer its drivers in North America and Europe with more precise navigation. What3words, a global addressing system, divides the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigns each a three-word address made up dictionary words. Ford says its drivers will be able to enter destinations by voice or text for any location, including destinations without an address. Ford drivers will be able to connect the company’s SYNC 3 infotainment plat

Tonnjes Card is to build a production plant for vehicle number plates to help authorities in Senegal identify drivers. The €1 million plant will be in the West African country’s capital, Dakar. Tonnjes will work under the name of Afriplaque to produce and supply blank plates in the local area. Once finished, the number plates will be issued by 20 licensed printing shops. Tonnjes says its reflective security number plates contain a machine-readable code to make the supply chain traceable and to help remov

Air Liquide has entered into a joint venture called HysetCo to boost the number of hydrogen fuel cell taxis in the Île-de-France region to 600 by 2020. The company says HysetCo will make it easier to roll out hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their recharging infrastructure. It will also aim to cut emissions for taxis and chauffeur car providers to zero by the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. HysetCo members include energy and environment services company Idex, hydrogen taxi firm Société du Taxi Électrique Parisi

Here Technologies is extending its suite of location services to China following an agreement with NavInfo, a provider of digital maps and location services. Peter Kürpick, chief technology officer at Here, says: “By simplifying the sourcing of mapping and locations services, we can also help customers to reduce development time and save costs.” The services include map data (including map rendering and 3D maps), routing (for vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and public transit as well as traffic-enabled r

Congestion costs would drop by more than a quarter if automated vehicles (AVs) account for 30% of kilometres travelled, says Alan Tudge, Australia’s minister for cites urban infrastructure and population. Speaking at the Australia-New Zealand Cities Symposium in Sydney, Tudge revealed findings from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. “They estimate it would drop from $37 billion of avoidable congestion to $27 billion,” Tudge says. A 30km freeway journey in Melbourne has increas

UITP, the international organisation for public transport, has partnered with Metropolis, the world association of the Major Metropolises, to cooperate on sustainable mobility. Metropolis is a global network of major cities and metropolitan areas which allows members to connect and mobilise on a range of issues. It comprises 140 cities and metropolitan areas including the German city of Berlin and the US state of Atlanta. The partners will share information on urban transportation policies, planning, man

US space agency Nasa is moving into the final phase of its four-year programme to prove that it can safely control drones flying over urban centres. Drones, less commonly called unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), are likely to form an increasing proportion of the transportation mix for future cities, but questions remain over their safety – particularly in built-up, heavily populated areas. Nasa will test them in two areas – the gambling hotspot of Reno, Nevada, and the Texan city of Corpus Christi.

Artificial intelligence (AI) company Stage Intelligence has linked up with a consortium in a bid to make a Paris bike-share scheme more efficient. Stage is partnering with Smovengo – a grouping which consists of Smoove, Moventia, Mobivia and Park Indigo - to deploy its Bico AI optimisation platform across Smovengo’s Vélib bike-share system in the French capital. The company says its system allows users to collect, manage and visualise data and turn it into actionable insights; it has already been used in

Up to 40% of drivers are willing to help reduce air pollution when provided with alternative routes on ThinxNet’s Ryd platform, says Siemens Mobility. The partners worked with air quality specialist Hawa Dawa in a four-week project in Munich to prove that intelligent traffic control can help cities become more sustainable. Siemens says initial results for more than 1,600 drivers in the German city showed savings of 83 kg of carbon dioxide and 114 g of nitrogen oxide as well as a reduction of 633km driven

Nortech is to exhibit its upgraded detector range at Parkex 2019 in the UK which it says now offers detection technology packaged in a slimline housing. The company claims its 8 Series range of single and dual channel detectors will facilitate ‘plug and play’ installation while allowing full-site configuration using the DU800 diagnostics device and mobile app. Plug and play is a combination of hardware and software support that enables a computer system to recognise and adapt to hardware configuratio

Keolis Downer has started operating a light rail service in the Australian city of Newcastle, which will serve as part of a multimodal transport network. The Australian subsidiary of Keolis was awarded the multimodal contract in 2016. It covers the operations and maintenance of the light rail service as well as buses and ferries for a ten-year period. In 2017, the company started operating the bus and ferry services and a year later introduced a real-time, on-demand transport service, powered by Via, a

Scania has joined forces with public transport operator Nobina to trial autonomous buses on public roads in Stockholm. Two Scania Citywide LF electric buses will operate in the Barkaby area of the Swedish capital, around 20km from the centre. Both buses will operate along a dedicated 5km route with four stops. , Initially, they will be run in autonomous mode without passengers for a distance of 1km, while second stage tests are expected to carry up to 300 commuters per day. A safety driver will remai

Moscow is the most gridlocked city in the world, according to a survey of snarl-ups by Inrix. The company’s annual Global Traffic Scorecard found that road users in the Russian capital lost 210 hours last year because of congestion. Inrix weights the data for population, and found that the next four cities on the congestion roll-call were Istanbul, Turkey; Bogota, Colombia; Mexico City; and São Paulo, Brazil. Brazil had another entry on this unwanted list, with Rio de Janeiro in seventh place. Russ

Australian-Israeli company Electriq Global has partnered with Dutch firm Eleqtec to bring its water-based fuel to the Netherlands to power electric mobility solutions. Electriq Fuel is expected to be suitable for mobility applications for trucks, barges and mobile generators. Electriq says it is is comprised of 60% water and achieves a greater range and lower cost than green energy solutions like lithium-ion batteries or compressed hydrogen. The energy density potential of the technology is up t

The Dallas Entrepreneur Center Network (DEC) – backed by tech giants AT&T, Cisco and Microsoft - is launching an initiative to help regional companies and entrepreneurs develop urban technologies. The DEC says its Innov8te Smart Cities Incubator will support technologies which seek to improve mobility, citizen engagement, inclusion, infrastructure, governance and public health as well as public safety and sustainability. The incubator - located in the Dallas Innovation District and Smart Cities Livin

Flir has upgraded its thermal traffic sensor and detector with traffic data collection features. The company says ThermiCam2 uses thermal energy emitted from road users – rather than light - to detect vehicles and vulnerable road users at night, over long distances and in harsh weather conditions. According to Flir, the solution can be used to detect vehicles and bicycles approaching an intersection, detect wrong-way drivers, count and distinguish vehicles from bicycles and collect traffic data using