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Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) has preliminarily chosen Sanef, Verizon and telematics company Azuga as vendors in the nation’s first large scale pay-by the mile road usage charge (RUC) program, according to Michelle Godfrey, the program’s public affairs officer. Sanef was selected as the ODOT account manager to provide full turnkey mileage reporting and account management equipment and operations. The company served as the account manager in Oregon’s earlier pilot project. Verizon, alon

By 2020, there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road, enabling new in-vehicle services and automated driving capabilities, according to Gartner. During the next five years, the proportion of new vehicles equipped with this capability will increase dramatically, making connected cars a major element of the Internet of Things (IoT). Gartner forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 per cent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020. It also predicts

Transport for Greater Manchester has installed variable message signs (VMS) on some of the city’s busiest roads to provide motorists with live traffic information. Eight VMS are now fully operational on roads across the region, displaying live journey time estimates and details of road traffic incidents and disruption. A further 19 signs are expected to be operational by the end of March 2015. Each sign is carefully located near to a key decision point, such as the intersection of a main route, a park

A consortium comprising HDR, Plenary Group, Walsh Group and Granite Construction Company has been awarded the contract to replace 558 bridges as part of the Pennsylvania Rapid Bridge Replacement Project in the US. As lead design engineer for the construction joint venture, HDR will be responsible for bridge and roadway design services, environmental permits, right-of-way plan development and construction phase services. The team will begin construction in summer 2015 and complete all bridge replaceme

The City of Plovdiv has signed a US$25.6 million contract to modernise, develop and promote sustainable urban transport in the city. The project is being delivered by Bulgarian-German consortium Plovdiv Intelligent Transport Systems and is planned for completion by October 2015. As well as upgrading Plovdiv's entire transport system, the project includes the construction of a new centre for traffic management. The consortium will also conduct a study on traffic signage, upgrade infrastructure at impor

Kapsch has been selected to provide the TETRA radio infrastructure for a new metro line in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kapsch will provide four base stations, 30 in-train cab radios and 140 hand-held portable radios, as well as planning, design and deployment, to integration with existing communications systems on other metro lines. With 15 trains serving six major stations, the new Line 4 will take more than 2,000 cars off the road at peak times, helping to resolve some of the city’s worst traffic bott

Kapsch has been selected to provide the TETRA radio infrastructure for a new metro line in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kapsch will provide four base stations, 30 in-train cab radios and 140 hand-held portable radios, as well as planning, design and deployment, to integration with existing communications systems on other metro lines. With 15 trains serving six major stations, the new Line 4 will take more than 2,000 cars off the road at peak times, helping to resolve some of the city’s worst traffic bott

Brazil's national development bank BNDES has earmarked US$15.2bn for urban mobility works in the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro from 2015-18. The works include the construction of metro, monorail, bus rapid transit (BRT) and light rail transit (LRT) systems. The investments are part of urban mobility projects planned by the federal government under its growth acceleration plan, many of which will be carried out through public-private partnerships. Approximately US$10 billion is e

The Dutch government has given its approval to large-scale testing of autonomous cars on roads in the Netherlands, saying the technology could reduce congestion and smooth traffic flow. The cabinet has agreed to adjust road rules, which will enable the Dutch transport authority, RDW, to grant permission for testing. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the Netherlands has become a test-bed for autonomous vehicles, although until now tests have largely been carried out at priv

Ford’s newly opened Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto, US, will drive the company’s innovation in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data, it says. The new research centre will continue the company’s work on autonomous vehicles, including ongoing work with University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It will also expand collaboration with Stanford University that started in 2013 and will contribute a Fusion autonomous research vehicle to t

Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area (C-TRAN) has awarded a contract to Init for the delivery of a state of the art electronic fare collection system in Vancouver, Washington, US. C-TRAN will equip its fleet of more than 100 vehicles with PROXmobil ticket terminals that, when fully operational, will offer passengers both closed loop and open payment fare options. The agreement was made in cooperation with the transit agency of Portland, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Orego

MTR Corporation, the operator of Hong Kong’s metro network, has awarded Thales and Alstom a contract worth US$371 million to upgrade the signalling systems of seven metro lines. A maintenance option is also included in the contract. Thales and Alstom will be responsible for the replacement of the existing signalling system including automatic train supervision (ATS), interlocking, and automatic train control (ATC) in the control centre, trains and stations. Thales, as consortium leader, will provide its

Colombia has launched the second tender round for phase two of the country's US$25 billion 4G highway plan. The concession is valued at US$1.24 billion, according to vice president Germán Vargas Lleras. The project involves construction and repair work on the 447 kilometre Santana-Mocoa-Neiva highway, which will connect southern department Putumayo with Huila in the country's central region. The winner will build 22 kilometre of four-lane highway, 32 kilometres of two-lane highway and repair some 422

Private investment in infrastructure projects has grown significantly over the past decade in Latin America's six largest economies, with the exception of Mexico and Argentina, according to a Standard & Poor's report. In Mexico the retraction in private investment is explained by poor planning and execution of projects on the part of the government. Meanwhile in Argentina, the dip is explained by government intervention, according to the report. Outside the two regional powerhouses, private sector par

Inverclyde Council has selected solar-powered parking terminals from Parkeon to help manage growing visitor numbers in Greenock, resulting from a major town centre investment and re-development programme. The local authority has specified Parkeon’s environmentally-friendly Strada Transfer terminals to help deliver a low carbon parking strategy that will boost economic activity by easing traffic congestion. The natural energy source of the coin-only Strada Transfer terminals means there is no need f

A recent report from Navigant Research, Electric Vehicle Market Forecasts, provides a comprehensive overview of the overall light duty vehicle (LDV) and the light duty electric vehicle (EV) markets, including global forecasts for annual vehicle sales and vehicles in use through 2023. It indicates that worldwide sales of light duty EVs are expected to increase from 2.7 million in 2014 to 6.4 million in 2023. The use of EVs, which now account for a small but growing share of the world’s LDV market, has bee

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research. The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising saf

Brazil's civil aviation minister Eliseu Padilha has given the thumbs up to include the international airport of southern Santa Catarina state capital Florianópolis in the next round of airport concessions, following lobby efforts by mayor César Souza Júnior last year. The project calls for the expansion of Hercilio Luz international airport by expanding the airport's flight line and taxiway as well as building a new parking lot with 1,800 spaces. A second project involves expanding the airport's passenge

Alstom has been awarded two contracts worth over US$73 million by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to supply signalling, telecom and electrification solutions for the new Kochi metro line. The projects will be implemented in early 2016 and commercial service is scheduled to begin in March 2016. The contracts include 25 Alstom Metropolis trains which will circulate on the new Kochi metro line which is 25 kilometres long and includes 22 stations. These trains will carry up to 15,000 passengers per hour

Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, republicans are indicating that they are open to compromising with the president on increasing US transportation funding, although neither side has offered specifics on how they would pay for new construction projects. According to The Hill, Obama has called for Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan, including using savings from tax reform to pay for transportation projects, although he stopped short of calling for an increase in the fe