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Three-quarters of UK residents do not believe driverless cars will improve road safety, even though 90% of accidents are caused by human error. In a survey of 2,000 respondents, insurance firm Axa says only a third of UK residents believe driverless cars would be better for the environment and only 25% think the technology will improve safety for pedestrians. Axa emphasises that motorists are confused by the definition of a driverless car as well as by what sort of autonomous technology is available in mo

Three-quarters of UK residents do not believe driverless cars will improve road safety, even though 90% of accidents are caused by human error. In a survey of 2,000 respondents, insurance firm Axa says only a third of UK residents believe driverless cars would be better for the environment and only 25% think the technology will improve safety for pedestrians. Axa emphasises that motorists are confused by the definition of a driverless car as well as by what sort of autonomous technology is available in mo

ITS Australia has appointed Professor Majid Sarvi from the University of Melbourne to its board of directors. Sarvi, the founder of transport technology programme AIMES, is the first academic to join the board. AIMES (Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem) includes the university’s live test bed on Melbourne’s streets, and has close links with Michigan Department of Transportation. Sarvi described it as a “great honour to be elected by my peers in the ITS industry and to have the opportunity t

A project to avert transport chaos in hurricane season and a programme which led to a huge reduction in road crashes were among the big winners in a new US awards scheme. The US National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE)’s inaugural Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards were open to cities, counties, metropolitan or rural planning organisations, state departments of transportation (DoTs) and private companies.

The political pressure on transit organisations was starkly highlighted by the distinguished former boss of Michigan Department of Transportation at a UK conference this week. Kirk Steudle, who joined Econolite recently after a career in the public sector, said he often felt as though there was “a trapdoor under your seat” while he was in charge of state transportation. Talking about the development of ITS solutions at regional authority level, he said: “The ability to move forward is largely dependen

The political pressure on transit organisations was starkly highlighted by the distinguished former boss of Michigan Department of Transportation at a UK conference this week. Kirk Steudle, who joined Econolite recently after a career in the public sector, said he often felt as though there was “a trapdoor under your seat” while he was in charge of state transportation. Talking about the development of ITS solutions at regional authority level, he said: “The ability to move forward is largely dependen

London has the best public transport system in the world - but the UK capital’s roads are among the most congested, says a new report. Here Technologies’ Urban Mobility Index ranked transit efficiency in 38 cities based on their public transport frequency, density and coverage as well as how public transport performs against car speed. Just behind London are Zurich, Toronto, Washington, DC and Stockholm. However, London was ranked 34th for congestion. The top five least-congested cities are: H

Conduent Transportation has appointed John Peracchio to the newly-created role of general manager, mobility solutions and strategy. Based in Detroit, Peracchio will identify emerging technologies as well as seek new business opportunities for the company. Conduent CEO Mick Slattery says Peracchio has more than 30 years of experience and has most recently focused on how intelligent transportation products and technologies are deployed. "These include connected vehicle technologies, tolling innovat

More than a third of UK councils say they receive inadequate funding for parking and public transportation programmes, according to software provider Passport. This figure is from Passport’s report - Solving the UK’s Traffic Challenges – which was discussed at a roundtable event in London this week. It took findings from two independent studies which Passport carried out as part of its launch in the UK. One polled 1,000 UK motorists while the other surveyed over 50 council employees working within p

Teledyne e2v has launched its Emerald 5M CMOS image sensor which it says provides higher resolution images of objects in motion with no distortion. The solution is expected to be suitable for machine vision, automated optical inspection and factory automation applications. Emerald 5M features a global shutter and MIPI CSI-2 interface which allows it to utilise image signal processors available for mobile applications. According to Teledyne e2v, the sensor comes with digital functionalities such as subsa

Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) is extending Sydney’s contactless payment system beyond light rail and ferries to include the Australian city’s train network. The technology allows commuters to pay for ticketing via credit cards, smart watches and other electronic devices, alongside the Opal card. CTS’s Asia-Pacific team and Transport for New South Wales initially made the contactless system available for the city’s Manly ferry service in 2017. In March this year, the contactless system was ext

The Driven consortium, led by software provider Oxbotica, hopes to trial a fleet of autonomous vehicles (AV) in London before Christmas following successful ongoing tests in Oxford. The vehicles will map streets in the London Borough of Hounslow as part of the consortium’s plans to run a fully autonomous fleet between both cities in 2019. Oxbotica has equipped the vehicles with its autonomous software, radar, lidar sensors and onboard computers and cameras. The fleet will gather data on the contents of

ITS professionals must ensure they are responding to customer needs and not simply being blinded by the possibilities of technology, warn ITS experts. This was among the main messages from ITS (UK)’s 2018 summit this week. “Don’t deploy technology for technology’s sake – that’s just having a toy,” said Kirk Steudle, former boss of Michigan Department of Transportation, in his keynote speech at the event in Bristol, UK. “Just because the technology is clever, it doesn’t mean it’s any use,” warned ITS (

Teleste says its smart bus stop in Espoo, Finland, uses video surveillance and 5G to help security personnel respond to incidents. Teleste’s bus stop is being tested as part of the Nokia Bell Labels LuxTurrim5G project, which seeks to demonstrate the fast 5G network based on smart light poles, with integrated antennas, base stations, sensors, screens and other devices. The bus stop is located within Teleste’s Connected Zone – an area which utilises alarms, built-in cameras and dynamic information solutio

Teleste says its smart bus stop in Espoo, Finland, uses video surveillance and 5G to help security personnel respond to incidents. Teleste’s bus stop is being tested as part of the Nokia Bell Labels LuxTurrim5G project, which seeks to demonstrate the fast 5G network based on smart light poles, with integrated antennas, base stations, sensors, screens and other devices. The bus stop is located within Teleste’s Connected Zone – an area which utilises alarms, built-in cameras and dynamic information solutio

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $411,578 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) grants to Hawaii to help curb pollution from diesel vehicle sources. The EPA’s West Coast Collaborative administers the DERA programme. This partnership, which combines the EPA’s Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions, utilises public and private funds in a bid to reduce emissions. The Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) intends to use the grant to replace two diesel transit buses with batter

ITS International has announced its 2019 MaaS Market Conference. Under the new tagline of Optimising multimodal mobility, the 2019 event will examine the latest developments in the fast-changing Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) sector. Returning to the Inmarsat Conference Centre in London on 20 and 21 March, the conference will explore the increasing digitisation of transport as a driving factor behind the rise of MaaS, the legislative and technological requirements to operate MaaS and the business models be

The UK’s readiness to use a ride from a driverless car depends on gender, age and where you live, says a new report from Fujitsu. In a study of 2,000 members of the British public and 600 senior business decision makers, Fujitsu has discovered that transport is second only to education as the sector people are most keen to see transformed by technology. Despite this, there remains some ‘discomfort’ surrounding autonomous vehicles (AV). Less than a third of respondents would be happy to be picked up by a

Nova Bus has delivered 55 hybrid electric buses to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in Canada in a bid to reduce emissions. The deployment is part of a larger order of 325 buses which was made last year. Nova says the buses feature electric motors from BAE Systems which reduce maintenance costs and emissions. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning are fully electrified along with the doors and power steering. Adam Vaughan, member of parliament for Spadina-Fort York, in Toronto, says: “

The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia has chosen Flowbird Transport Intelligence as the prime contractor for its multimodal smart card scheme, SmartRider. The contactless electronic ticketing system uses RFID technology to provide Perth’s metropolitan region with access to bus, train and ferry services. Flowbird will provide ongoing support services for the daily running of SmartRider on all three modes. The company says it will establish “an enhanced service and support base” in Perth to s