Highways England confirms executive appointment
Highways England has appointed David Picton as interim executive director for commercial and procurement on the 13 March. He will take over from David Poole who is leaving the company on the 16 March.
Picton has led safety and supply chain development at Carillion as well as sustainability strategies over the past six years. He was previously a director at Sky and Motorola and also spent 20 years in senior strategic and operational leadership roles as a wing commander in the RAF.
Emovis replaces gas tax with pay per mile charge in Washington pilot
2,000 Washington-based volunteers are taking part in an Emovis project which will replace the gas tax with a pay-per-mile travelled charge. The results of the year-long trial will help shape the state’s future transportation funding policy. Called the Washington Road User Charge Pilot Project, it will also test multi-jurisdictional charging by relying on the location-aware capabilities of on-board mileage recording devices. The simulated charges applied to trips will vary depending on the location of each
StreetLight Data reveals longest commutes to work across US
Commuters in the US state of Maine travel 9.8 miles to work on a daily basis, a 72% longer journey than the 5.7-mile median commute in Wyoming, according to the latest report by StreetLight Data. The transportation analytics company conducted its study on nearly 30,000 ZIP codes in areas with over 1,000 residents as part of a strategy to help encourage businesses and governments to start fixing the accessibility gap.
The inquiry also highlighted the longest and shortest commutes in each state by ZIP cod
ITS (UK) Apprentice Essay winners receive awards
Winners of the ITS (UK) Apprentice Essay have collected their awards from the Society’s president Steven Norris, at a ceremony in London. The competition set out to encourage and recognise talent in the next generation of transport professionals. Dan Johnson, apprentice transport planning technician at the Suffolk County Council and Leeds College of Building, won the award with his driverless vehicle essay Chummy Saves Christmas, based on the children’s TV show Brum. Joel Shevlin, apprentice transport
Public invited to take part in Greenwich driverless pod trial
Members of the public are invited to trial a fleet of driverless pods operating on a 3.4km route around Greenwich Peninsula as part of the £100m ($139m) Gateway project’s final phase. The pilot aims to understand the public acceptance of, and attitudes towards, driverless vehicles. The four pods will use advanced sensors and autonomy software to detect and avoid obstacles while carrying passengers. The vehicles, developed by Westfield Sportscars and Heathrow Enterprises, have no steering wheels or typical
Newham installs Videalert platform for bus lane and traffic contraventions
The London Borough of Newham has installed Videalert’s CCTV-based system to provide unattended enforcement of bus lanes and moving traffic contraventions with a focus on box junctions. The open network video interface forum Profile S certified digital high definition cameras and processing units are based at 22 locations that have high levels of driver non-compliance. Newham has also invested in additional data storage capacity to accommodate future system expansion at other sites that need enforcement
US parking tools refreshed
The US Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and National Parking Association have agreed to work together on updating their respective Parking Generation Manual and Shared Parking tools, last revised in 2010 and 2009. Fresh analyses in the former will differentiate levels of demand in rural, general urban/suburban, dense multi-use urban and core city centre locations, said ITE CEO Jeffrey F Paniati
C-roads will soon be ‘a reality’
Cross-border C-ITS-enabled roads (C-roads) will start becoming a reality in 2019, with safety as the driver, according to AustriaTech/ITS Austria's Martin Bohm. He made the comment during a recent Brussels workshop run by the European ITS and C-roads platforms to assess results of road corridor pilots. The latter is a joint initiative by EU member states and road operators to test and implement C-ITS services for universal harmonisation and interoperability. We can, he continued, deploy systems
Essex and Hertfordshire councils trial smart city services
Telensa will assess the potential quality-of-life and economic benefits of a range of smart city technologies in partnership with Essex County Council (ECC) and Hertfordshire County Council. The potential to monitor issues remotely, according to Ian Grundy, ECC cabinet member for highways, will save taxpayers money and help fix issues before they become a problem.
Both councils are now assessing the suitability of three sites in Hertfordshire and Essex towns for a two-month pilot in March.
The smart
Q-Free receives tag order from The Expressway Authority of Thailand
Q-Free will supply tags to The Expressway Authority of Thailand in a contract valued approximately ฿68m (£1.5m). Håkon Volldal, CEO of Q-Free, said: “This order confirms the high technical performance of Q-Free’s tags and our ability to supply significant volumes on short notice.”
The Traffic Group acquires ANPR supplier Mav systems
UK-based The Traffic Group (TTG) has acquired supplier of automatic number plate recognition cameras Mav systems (Mav) to provide a more extensive range of traffic solutions. It will also extend Mav’s international partners with a broader product portfolio from other TTG companies and present opportunities to cross-sell their market solutions to new regions.
Steve Walker, co-founder and managing director of Mav, said: “In joining forces with TTG we are already seeing opportunities to develop enhanced pro
US Bus manufacturer Proterra orders 57 fast chargers from Tritium
Proterra has ordered 57 Veefil-RT DC 50kW fast chargers from Australia-based Tritium to power its Catalyst buses. The agreement is intended to help support the expansion of US manufacturer in the transportation market. After trialing the chargers, Tritium has collaborated with Proterra to provide a series of modifications to the software to meet the company’s requirements. Matt Horton, chief commercial officer at Proterra, said: “We aim to partner with like-minded companies. Proterra needed to resource
Goodyear showcase intelligent tyre prototype at Geneva Motor Show
Goodyear has exhibited the latest advances on its intelligent tyre prototype at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show. The shared mobility product is designed with the intention of providing continuous connectivity and real-time data sharing for safer and more cost-efficient mobility. The solution is an information system that includes a tyre, sensors and cloud-based algorithms.
The sensors work with the vehicle and third-party information to provide real-time data to Goodyear’s proprietary algorithms.
Health and care organisation adopt Spark EV AI-based technology
UK-based health and care organisation Provide has adopted Spark EV’s artificial intelligence-based technology with the intention of removing range anxiety for drivers in its electric vehicle (EV) fleet rollout. The technology is said to enable the cars to complete 20% more journeys between charges. Called Spark, the system collects live driver, vehicle and other data sources through an in-car sensor. It uses cloud-based machine learning algorithms to provide more accurate journey predictions for EVs.
Hurunui implement EV charging stations for Culverden Service Hub
New Zealand's Hurunui District Council (HDC) in partnership with Chargenet and Mainpower has implemented an electric vehicle (EV) charging station as part of the near completed Culverden Service Hub. The facility is expected to provide a resource for the community and ensure that visitors are provided with up to date services. The hub is funded by grants obtained from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s regional mid-sized tourism fund. ChargeNet’s new station in the Countdown Amberley
Clearview provides wireless charging for UK's North East region
Clearview Intelligence's (Clearview) M100 product range will be used on traffic signal controls managed by Newcastle City Council as well as those around the UK's North East region, following a tender issued by Gateshead Council. The technology will provide wireless vehicle detection with the intention of reducing roadworks and cutting congestion and providing safer working environments for highway engineers.
The solution is said to offer a cost-effective alternative to inductive loops. It features a sma
RIPTA install fare management platform for bus fleet
The Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority (RIPTA) has selected Init to implement an account-based electronic fare and back-office revenue management system on their fixed-route fleet of over 240 buses. The platform is intended to allow passengers to board faster and receive more convenient fare options. Once completed, the solution will allow passengers to pay fares by tapping their card or mobile device on a validator. Init’s Mobilevario will calculate the fare, validate the transaction against the
Here Technologies: location data sharing needs fundamental rethink
76% of 8,000 individuals surveyed across eight countries feel stressed or vulnerable about sharing their location data, according to a new study by Here Technologies (Here). The report highlighted concerns that companies are abusing public trust in how they gather and use location data, which it claims will mean a fundamental rethink is necessary to help consumers embrace new services such as autonomous cars. The respondents stated that insufficient controls for management of personal data along with
Here Technologies launches platform for end-to-end tracking
Here Technologies (Here) has launched a cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) to help maximise logistics efficiencies for shipping companies. The technology is said to provide real-time tracking of goods, devices and people, as well as helping users to maintain an accurate record of items.
Called Here Tracking, it is built on the company’s Open Location Platform and combines several technologies to supply industry-grade maps for indoor venues and outdoor environments with geo-coding capabilities. In addition,
GigE Vision cameras from IDS with extended functionality
IDS has extended the functional range of its GigE vision industrial camera models with a set of additional features including Auto Exposure, Auto Gain, Subsampling, Black Level, LUT and Gamma. New standard pixel formats are available as well as simplified bandwidth management, to enable users to manage conveniently the available bandwidth in a multi-camera system. Cameras equipped with the new features are available immediately. Users who already own a GigE Vision from IDS can install the extra