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APT Controls will rebrand as Swarco UK from 1 June. Swarco acquired APT in 2014. Sean Dunstan, head of the company’s parking and e-mobility division, says: “By centralising group services such as finance, IT and HR and consolidating investments in research and development and health and safety, we can ultimately offer a better service to our customers.”

A three-point plan to help countries reduce road deaths and serious injuries has been unveiled at the International Transport Forum (ITF) in Leipzig, Germany. The keynote address by Prince Michael of Kent, a member of the UK’s royal family, was presented to transport ministers at a summit focused on transport safety and security. Outside of the ITF, Prince Michael is known for establishing an award scheme that recognises innovation in road safety worldwide.

Mott MacDonald is collaborating with Transport for London (TfL) on a cycling demand model called Cynemon. The forecasting tool is intended to help present the case for cycling infrastructure investment in the capital. Additionally, the partners will utilise the model to provide evidence for cycling studies which could include patterns of cycling trips and how these would change through new cycling schemes. The tool forms part of the healthy streets approach of the Mayor’s transport strategy, which ai

Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase has called on urban authorities to embrace multimodal transport in a bid to improve mobility.“The value of a car-dominant city has reached its zenith,” she says in an interview with ITS International. “The city regulatory and physical infrastructure has been built on a personal car-dominant infrastructure. We have spent the last 100 years making car travel in cities the most convenient and cheapest way to the exclusion of everything else.” That creates problems, she

The government of Estonia is planning to make public transport free across the whole country.

Automated vehicles (AVs) could make driving more dangerous – that is the stark suggestion from a new report by the International Transport Forum (ITF). The report - Safer Roads with Automated Vehicles? – casts doubt on claims that 90% of road deaths could be avoided because the introduction of AVs would eliminate human error. ITF says such claims are at best “untested”.

A road junction in Merseyside, UK, has become a hotspot for life-threatening incidents to construction workers, says Highways England. Contractors have reported 23 incidents in two months where their safety has been put at risk by drivers ignoring overnight closures. Road users have driven into roadworks for the £3m improvement project at Switch Island, where the M57, M58 and three A roads all join. One lorry driver travelled through the construction area without stopping - forcing workers to get out

TISPOL has welcomed a package of measures announced by the European Commission (EC) to help reduce the 25,000 deaths that occur on EU roads annually. Ruth Purdie, general secretary of TISPOL, says: “Today’s announcements could represent the biggest step forward in road safety in Europe since the introduction of the seat belt." Antonio Avenoso of the European Transport Safety Council said the EC’s announcements require backing from EU member states and the European Parliament. They should not give in to

Finnish technology company Teleste’s on-board solution will be utilised on rail group Stadler's Merseytravel Metro trains, due to be delivered to Liverpool by 2020. The device will be installed on 52 vehicles to help improve safety for passengers. Teleste’s system comprises Ethernet network, intercommunication and passenger counting, public address system, passenger information system and high-quality LED and side-by-side thin-film transistor LCD displays for information delivery and advertising.

Over 85% of road transport professionals at the Microlise Transport conference believe measures to improve air quality will have a negative financial impact on their businesses. The findings come from a poll of 1,200 delegates at the road transport event in Coventry, UK. In addition, 92% think the needs of the transport industry are either not being considered, or only partially, in relation to the introduction of clean-air and low-emission zones. Three-quarters of respondents believe the government is

Motorists travelling over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge are set to pay an extra 25 cents per trip from 1 July. According to a report by Marin Independent Journal: “The onslaught of toll increases at the Golden Gate Bridge is not likely to subside as span authorities face looming budget deficits.” The bridge board will need to decide if more toll hikes are needed in a discussion scheduled for this autumn.

Volvo Buses will deploy two of its 7900 electric buses to operate in Lillehammer, Norway, for public transport company Opplandstrafikk. The transaction is part of Oppland municipality’s aim to become climate-neutral by 2025. The vehicles will be tested for two years on routes 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the city and will be delivered during the second quarter of 2019. Bus company Unibuss will operate the vehicles, which are expected to run alongside regular traffic after the trial. Volvo is selling the vehicles as

Citizens of Gothenburg can travel on a self-driving bus between Chalmers University of Technology’s main entrance and its library until 1 June. The trial is intended to assess the technology and user behaviour to examine the potential of self-driving vehicles. The project is part of the Swedish government’s co-operation programme called Next Generation Travel and Transport which seeks to modernise current systems for transporting people and goods. The self-driving bus service is partly funded by government

Irdeto has appointed Niels Haverkorn general manager for connected transport. His remit is to expand the company’s security offering for OEMs, tier 1 suppliers and fleet operators. He will also help develop future business models based on security.

An all-electric bus fleet is coming to San Francisco by 2035. The commitment stems from an agreement between mayor Mark Farrell and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates Muni – the city’s public transit system. Muni manages a fleet of zero-emission electric trolley buses and a fleet of low- emission electric hybrid vehicles. The SFMTA is rolling out new electric buses with higher capacity battery systems that supply power for its vehicles along several hybrid routes.

Lime, formerly Limebike, will make its Segways available to citizens in Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area next month. The company says the models come with highly visibility lighting and a maximum speed of 18mph.

Parking and transit technology company Passport has made two new appointments. Meredith Cage will be vice president of product, while Duncan Mapes becomes vice president of engineering. Cage was previously senior vice president of product strategy and analytics at clinical surveillance company PeraHealth and led global product and marketing initiatives at Johnson & Johnson. Mapes was most recently platforms and development operations senior technology manager at the Bank of America, where he worked on a

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) is taking part in a seat belt enforcement programme to boost safety for car drivers and passengers in the state. The Click It or Ticket initiative will run until 3 June. Pennsylvania law requires drivers and passengers younger than 18 to wear seat belts when inside a vehicle. Older drivers and passengers must wear a seat belt when behind the wheel or in the front passenger seat.

Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions has launched a retrofit plug-in sensor device which aims to deliver precise event data such as driving behaviour and crash detection for telematics, fleet management and insurance applications. Called the Telematics eCall Plug (TEP), it registers car crash severity and is said to enable faster emergency response times. Additionally, the data can also help to improve safety and allow more personalised behaviour-based insurance by rewarding safe drivers with discounts on

Clearview Intelligence (CI) has launched two free to use return on investment (ROI) calculators to assist highway professionals in showing the benefit of improving road safety on their network. The tools are said to demonstrate how road safety schemes pay for themselves during their lifetime as well as quantifying the number of lives saved and injuries prevented. Designed for both SolarLite Active Road Stud installations and for combination road safety solutions, the tools use the official costs of accident