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Time is running out for submissions to the ITS European Congress in Brainport, Netherlands, in June. ITS experts have until 11 January to submit special interest Sessions proposals and papers to be considered for presentation and publication at the event. Experts are invited to share ideas and discuss mobility challenges that cities face and how they can be addressed through ITS solutions. Draft papers should be a minimum of five pages for technical and commercial topics, and nine pages for scient

The US Department of Transportation (USDoT) is seeking public comment on how Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technology should be integrated into the transport environment. The organisation says it intends to maintain the priority use of 5.9Ghz spectrum for transportation safety communications. It points out that the automotive industry and local authorities “are already deploying V2X technology and actively utilising all seven channels of the 5.9 GHz band” and says that technology such as Cellular-V2X (C-V2

London could reduce congestion by emulating New York when it comes to open data, claims technology firm Karhoo. New York has publicly-available anonymised TPEP/LPEP75 data which allowed Karhoo to assess the impact of taxi and private hire (PH) movements on traffic flow, congestion and pollution, the company says. It adds that if Transport for London (TfL) were to follow suit, it “would be quick and relatively low-cost given that almost every licenced vehicle is connected to tracking systems already”. Tf

Init has opened a development centre in Ireland to develop software for ticketing systems and field devices. Currently, eight employees are working at the facility located in the town of Maynooth, Kildare. Future plans include the creation of 20 additional jobs. Matthias Kühn, director of Init Ireland, says: “This also is an opportunity to improve the service for our existing customers in Ireland.” Init has completed projects in Ireland which include the delivery of an integrated ITS solution to help D

The next generation of roads - the ‘fifth generation’ - will provide the world’s highway authorities with a big leap forward, delegates to the recent European Road Conference heard. Adewole Adesiyun, deputy secretary general at the Brussels-based Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL), said a paradigm shift is taking place, offering “solutions to existing and future problems with new ways to use smart, intelligent and dynamic technologies”. The first four generations of roa

AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Audi, is partnering with Luminar Technologies to deploy LiDAR products. Launched in March last year, AID has an autonomous vehicle (AV) test fleet in Munich and bills itself as the ‘centre of excellence’ for urban autonomous driving in the Volkswagen Group. Luminar LiDARs will be installed on the roof of the AVs to give a 360-degree field of view. “Perception remains a bottleneck today for autonomous mobility and we quickly worked to

A European accelerator programme that supports sustainable mobility solutions is now open. Free to enter, projects for the European Start-up Prize for Mobility (EUSP) will be judged on criteria such as innovation, market traction and ecological impact. The jury includes Karima Delli, chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee – who launched the award - and Violeta Bulc, European commissioner for transport. The public-private initiative was co-founded by Boston Consulting Gro

Lyft has established a dedicated zone at the west exit of the Cadillac Fairview Toronto Eaton Shopping Centre to help visitors get to and from the venue. Riders can then use Lyft’s app to choose specific pick-up and drop-off points around the shopping centre’s offices, shops and restaurants. The partnership says it will gather feedback and adapt the service to meet the needs of riders. Last month, Lyft entered an agreement with the Regional Transportation Commission of South Nevada to offer cheaper ride

Kyocera has installed roadside units to enable Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communications for a self-driving bus test in Japan. The Mobility Innovation Consortium, a group led by East Japan Railway (JR East), is organising the three-month trial to evaluate self-driving technology for bus transit applications. Advanced Smart Mobility will provide the bus, which will operate on JR East’s bus rapid transit (BRT) lines in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture. High-sensitivity magnetic impedance

A joint venture team of Fluor and Walsh Construction has been chosen as the preferred partner for phase one of the Red and Purple Line modernisation programme in Chicago. The Chicago Transit Authority is behind the $2.1 billion project, which is expected to improve infrastructure across both lines. The scope of the contract includes the development of new elevated tracks along a 1.9-mile section – featuring new bridges, support structures and existing tracks. Also, 3.2 miles of the signal system will be

More leading ITS innovators have been confirmed as speakers at ITS International’s fourth MaaS Market conference in London, UK, on March 20-21, 2019. Among them is Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of European association Ertico and president of the MaaS Alliance, the public-private partnership working to create the foundations for a common European approach to Mobility as a Service (MaaS). From the UK, Paul Campion, CEO of Transport Systems Catapult and Chris Lane, head of smart travel from Transport for West Midlan

Enterprise CarShare has launched a short-term car rental service aimed at University of Delaware (UD) students and staff. Delaware is the latest campus to sign up for the service, which targets people who typically need a vehicle for just a few hours. Richard Rind, UD’s director of auxiliary services, says: “Many UD students and community members don’t have access to a car to take them where they need to go.” The service, part of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, will initially cost UD members $5 per hour which in

Keolis Canada has ordered 12 electric Type C all-electric school buses from Lion Electric to transport hundreds of children in the Lanaudière region, Quebec. The fleet will operate alongside two other Type C e-buses which Keolis ordered in 2016. Overall, the service is expected to transport 700 school students as of 2019. A survey from Lion shows that public opinion is behind the move - more than 90% of the 907 respondents say they want schools and boards to promote the use of electric buses. Other fin

Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has opened the first tunnel in a planned network under Los Angeles to help ease congestion in the US city. The world’s media was invited this week to travel in the mile-long tunnel – built by Musk’s Boring Company under the Hawthorne district - in an electric Tesla vehicle. The trip was described as “almost a white knuckle ride” by the BBC: “A bumpy two-minute journey in a modified Model X through a concrete tunnel with a blue neon light in the ceiling.” A C

Aptiv has opened a technical centre in Las Vegas, US, to gather insights on its fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and to improve safety operator training. Aptiv says its AVs are supporting more than 1,600 destinations across Clark County and the city, including entertainment venues such as the Las Vegas Convention Center and City Hall. In May, Aptiv launched 30 AVs in the city to pick up riders using Lyft’s app and network. The new, 130,000 square-foot technical centre will facilitate vehicle opera

Conduent Transportation is to install a fare collection system in the Flanders region of Belgium which will enable contactless bank card payments and account-based ticketing. Conduent will also operate the system for ten years on behalf of Flemish transport company De Lijn. Commuters will be able to use bank cards based on cEMV (contactless Europay, MasterCard and Visa) or use a contactless public operator payment card by the end of 2019. An aggregated payment method which accumulates transactions over t

Here Technologies’ location platform is being used by Motion Auto to deliver user-based insurance policies to its customers. The platform will provide the insurer with information on speed limits and rules of the road as well as measurements of the road surface condition and variable data such as traffic conditions. Daniel Weisman, co-founder of Motion Auto, says Here will help the company understand the behaviour of customers and their relationships to routes, road conditions and traffic. Here’s ma

Engie and its engineering subsidiary Tractebel have installed a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Ivory Coast, a country in West Africa, to refuel 50 buses. The station has been built as part of the Ivorian government’s commitment to the Paris COP 21 agreement to reduce emissions. Engie’s CNG fuelling station is located at transport company Société des Transports Abidjanais’ (SOTRA) premises in Yopougon, a suburb within the city of Abidjan. Once fully commissioned, it is anticipated to have a

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved a statewide regulation which will require public transit agencies to gradually transition to fully zero emission buses by 2040. The Clean Transit regulation is expected to help transit agencies reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19 million metric tonnes, nitrogen oxides by 7,000 tonnes and particulate matter by 40 tonnes from 2020 to 2050. CARB says the regulation will improve air quality, especially in low-income communities. It could also help

Tolling specialist Q-Free has withdrawn from a tender process for an electronic road pricing (ERP) system in Jakarta, Indonesia, due to uncertainty on the tender timeline and outcome. This withdrawal decision is also based on uncertainty regarding project structure and financing and expected project profitability. The company says it intends to increase recurring revenues and reduce its reliance on single large projects, and will be more selective when it comes to which contracts it pursues. The