Pittsburgh 2015 call for papers now open
Co-hosted with ITS Pennsylvania, ITS America’s 25th Annual Meeting and Exposition takes place in Pittsburgh on 1-3 June 2015 and is expected to attract more than 2,000 top transportation and technology policy-makers, innovators and engineers, investors, researchers and business leaders.
The call for papers is now open and the ITS America Annual Meeting Program Committee is looking for high-quality papers for the technical program, ‘Bridges to Innovation’. The eight main program topics are: Safety; Sustai
Toyota to roll out brand new active safety packages
Toyota Motor Corporation is to launch a newly-developed set of active safety technologies from 2015. These are designed to help prevent or mitigate collisions across a wide range of vehicle speeds and will be offered in the form of two Toyota Safety Sense packages, to be rolled out across most passenger models and grades in Japan, North America and Europe by the end of 2017. Both packages will be made available at price levels chosen to encourage widespread use.
Two packages will be available depending o
Two consortia bid for Colombia airport concession
Colombia's government has received two economic bids for the US$160 million Ernesto Cortissoz airport concession in Barranquilla.
Consortium Aeropuertos Colombia, comprising Valorcon, Equipo Universal and Inversiones Millenium Azipo and Consortium Estructura Plural Pavimentos Colombia y Graña y Montero which includes Pavimentos Colombia SAS and Graña y Montero (Perú), both bid US$27 million for the tender.
Airport works include the refurbishment of the runway and taxiways; construction of a perimeter
China launches nation-wide ETC
China is to launch a national unified electronic toll collection (ETC) system in 2015 in a bid to solve freeway congestion, save logistics cost and cut emissions.
The national ETC network will be primarily completed by the end of 2015 based on a regional system that will cover 14 provinces by this year end, said Xu Chengguang, spokesman of the Ministry of Transport (MOT).
The ministry expects around 25 percent of passenger cars to be equipped with transponders and all toll stations along major express
Real time passenger information now available
New York State’s Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) Board of Directors is to roll out a real time passenger information (RTPI) pilot program for its fleet of fixed route buses, using automatic vehicle location (AVL) software to determine bus location and speed.
Customers will be able to access real time transit information for CDTA fixed route services through the free CDTA iride mobile application for Apple and Android devices, through Google Maps’ mobile apps and maps.google.com, through
‘Biggest upgrade to roads in a generation’
An ambitious US$23.5 billion plan to triple levels of spending by the end of the decade to increase the capacity and condition of England’s roads was announced to Parliament today by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.
The government is investing in more than 100 new road schemes over this parliament and next, 84 of which are brand new today.
Over 1,300 new lane miles will be added by schemes being delivered over the next parliament on motorways
Sanef its wins two Eurotunnel contracts
Sanef its has been awarded two major contracts by Eurotunnel, to redesign the HGV parking facility in Coquelles, in the Pas-de-Calais, France and to reorganise the Eurotunnel freight terminal both in France and England. Sanef its, which won the ten-year design, build, operate (DBO) contract to redesign the HGV parking facility, will design, integrate and install all the toll equipment enabling drivers to pay and access the terminal 2015 secured HGV parking facility.
Other Sanef companies of the Sanef
North Yorkshire to get county-wide ITS
Siemens is to supply North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) with its new Stratos integrated highways management solution.
The new contract, with the largest county in England, will deliver real time UTC and SCOOT adaptive control for 43 sites in Harrogate and a further 10 sites in Scarborough by means of a hosted UTC SCOOT service, whilst sign and car park management will be provided for both towns by the cloud hosted Stratos car parking management module.
The project will also deliver a new IP commun
Connected cars market expected grow by a third globally by 2020
A new report by Allied Market Research, Global Connected Cars Market (Technology, Connectivity Solutions, Application, Products & Services and Geography) - Size, Share, Global Trends, Company Profiles, Demand, Insights, Analysis, Research, Report, Opportunities, Segmentation and Forecast, 2013 - 2020, indicates that the global connected cars market is forecast to reach US$141 Billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 32.7 per cent during the period 2014 - 2020.
The integrated connectivity solutions segment
Ford to make electric cars 'attainable to the masses’
Mark Fields, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company, said on Monday that it intends to mass-produce affordable electric vehicles. Fields, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, emphasised that Ford has the capability to make electric cars with a strategy different from that of Tesla Motors.
Revealing the company’s intentions to produce reasonably priced electric cars, Fields pointed out that the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has a full line of electric vehicles that have performed well in the market p
City of Madrid elected as Polis president 2015
The city of Madrid, Spain has been unanimously re-elected to be the president of the Polis network in 2015.
Madrid has been promoting sustainable transport for many years, both locally and through cooperation across borders. Outstanding initiatives in the Spanish capital include the city's ambitious Air Quality Plan, the promotion of cycling and walking, Madrid's intelligent on-street parking scheme, its multimodal interchanges, and its pioneering urban consolidation centre for electric freight.
"Wit
Toyota to fit selected new cars with advanced automotive safety system
Beginning in 2015, some of Toyota Motor Corporation's new models will be compatible with advanced vehicle-infrastructure cooperative systems that use a wireless frequency reserved for intelligent transport systems (ITS). This compatibility will be offered as an option for the Toyota Safety Sense P active safety package that will be made available in 2015 on selected new models sold in Japan.
The systems will use the dedicated ITS frequency of 760 MHz for road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communicati
UK investment to make it easier and safer to get on your bike
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced the UK Government’s biggest single investment in cycling, which includes US$179 million to secure funding to support the Cycling Ambition Cities Programme for the next three years in Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich and Oxford accelerate their development of local cycling networks, increase protection for cyclists at junctions and traffic hot spots and help prevent accidents.
US$157 million will also be invested over t
Egis expands in Brazil
International engineering group Egis has furthered its development strategy with the acquisition of Sao Paulo-based engineering firm Lenc.
The acquisition allows Egis to become one of the foremost engineering firms in Brazil, offering a comprehensive range of services in urban development, regional planning and multi-modal transport, whilst also consolidating its international business activities in one of the most promising countries in the world.
Established in 1975, Lenc is one of the leaders in th
Road safety award for average speed scheme
A route enforcement and casualty reduction scheme on the strategic A14 in the UK has won a prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award.
The A14 route between the Midlands and East Anglia operates at the national speed limit of 70mph as a dual carriageway with central reserve and no hard shoulder. The average annual daily traffic figure is 74,000 and with no motorways or other high standard diversion routes along this corridor, journeys can be seriously delayed when congestion or collisio
Data applications shine in Australia’s National ITS Awards
Intelligent Transport Systems organisations and professionals representing industry, government and the research/academic community were recognised by their peers in Australia’s 2014 National Awards. Winners included:
Intelematics Australia, which won the Industry Award for the Toyota Connected Vehicle Programs, a world market leading approach to in-vehicle connected technology.
Sanef consortium wins upgrade contract in Lyon
Sanef, the French subsidiary of Spanish construction firm Abertis, is part of the consortium awarded the contract to improve the safety of the tunnels along the Boulevard Périphérique Nord de Lyon, along with the operation, maintenance and renovation of the toll road over 20 years.
The contract also includes the management and maintenance of the road and its equipment over 20 years, including the management of the toll payment systems, for which Sanef will receive a fee of US$12.5 million a year.
The
Norway implements radar-based AID in sub-sea tunnels
Automatic incident detection (AID) manufacturer Navtech Radar has ventured into the tunnels of Norway and has supplied its radar-based ClearWay solution for the sub-sea 4.5 km long Mastrafjord Tunnel and the 5.8 km long tolled Byfjord Tunnel near Stavanger in Norway as part of a recently-completed tunnel refurbishment project.
Radar AID was specified by consultants Multiconsult and following a tender process, systems integrator Trafsys was the winning bidder with the ClearWay solution.
Multiconsult s
Supercapacitors boost electric bus charging
Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, which will exhibit at the forthcoming Fuel choices Summit in Tel Aviv, is developing an electric bus charging system that would allow vehicles to boost their batteries at terminal stations. There, the buses would connect to supercapacitors that charge the buses quickly so that they can operate for precisely calculated distances, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Elbit’s supercapacitors aim to power buses for one full route, allowing them to recharge in the span of le
Consortium wins Mexico rail project
A consortium led by Spanish engineering firm CAF and comprising partners Construcciones Ferrovías y Subsistemas, Thales, Corsan-Corvian Construcción, Isolux and Construcciones Urales has been awarded the US$993 million contract for the Mexico City-Toluca railway.
The contract involves the provision of electric trains, rail and communication infrastructure, ticketing facilities and associated services.
The trains will travel at speeds of up to 160km/h along the 57.7 kilometre route between Observatorio