Twenty year vision for Birmingham city transport
A white paper setting out Birmingham’s 20-year vision for improving transport across the city is set to be unveiled today.
Birmingham Connected aims to make the city safer and easier to travel around by reducing congestion and promoting more sustainable forms of transport.
Initiatives in the plan include the completion of a US$1.9 billion public transport network within 20 years and the development of Green Travel Districts to enable people to walk, cycle or take public transport safely. A feasibilit
Colombian highway sees ITS tested to the extreme
One of the most challenging road construction and ITS projects currently underway is the upgrading of the road from Bogota to Villavicencio. Currently it takes four hours to make the 86km journey between Bogota and Villavicencio using the existing single lane in each direction road which passes through some very challenging terrain. It is the only ground connection between central Colombia and the eastern region which represents 40% of the country’s territory.
eCall Interoperability challenges – e-call testfest reports
Organised by Ertico-ITS Europe and ETSI, the third eCall testfest was held at CTAG in Spain at the end of October, joined by new IVS (in vehicle system) and PSAP (public safety answering point) vendors from all over the world.
The event was supported by CETECOM, the European Commission and the HeERO2 project.
During the five days of the event, hundreds of pairing sessions were organised. Each session, lasting two hours, allowed one IVS unit to test with one PSAP unit or against a test system. This set
PTV Group launches add-in marketplace
PTV Group has launched the PTV Vision traffic add-in marketplace (link vision-traffic.ptvgroup.com/en/add-in), where its developers and users can discuss and learn about new features and functions of the company’s PTV Visum and PTV Vissim products and contribute their own add-ins.
"In the last few years, a secondary market has built up around our transport planning software, where users of PTV Visum and PTV Vissim offer valuable functional extensions," said Dr Klaus Nökel, vice president Traffic Softwar
A future vision for transport in Wales
A new report by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Cymru Wales, Vision 2035: Cymru Wales, looks to the future and visualises how transport and logistics in Wales would develop, taking account of population changes, technological developments and social and political change.
By 2035, Wales will be making decisions on all aspects of transport, including air passenger duty, rail franchising and road policy. There will also be greater government involvement in public transport operatio
Seattle opts for smart parking
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has partnered with the IPS Group, the city’s new parking pay station vendor in a project to replace all the city’s parking pay stations with new technology in 2015-2016.
The US$20 million contract runs for seven years and will replace 1,500 older pay stations with new IPS MS1 pay stations, and retrofit 700 of the city’s newer pay stations with new technology and components.
Available in pay-by-space, pay-and-display and pay-by-plate models, the solar-pow
SAP, Shell, Volkswagen collaborate
SAP, Shell and Volkswagen are to collaborate on a co-innovation pilot to investigate how connected vehicles would interact with the world around them. The ongoing pilot in Hannover, Germany, aims to lay the foundations for a range of services including an integrated system for connected fuelling.
The three companies are piloting an end-to-end scalable solution with the aim of delivering a hosted cloud-based solution that saves time and delivers new, exciting customer offers through connected vehicles tha
Swarco installs sleek new parking system for US casino
Swarco Traffic Americas is to install new parking guidance technology in a ten-level parking garage for Monarch Casino Black Hawk in Black Hawk, Colorado.
The system involves a combination of single space monitoring as well as indoor and outdoor garage variable message signage. Each parking space will be monitored by 1,265 state of the art ultrasonic sensors above each parking space to detect vehicles as they park. Vacant spaces are indicated by LED lights. Space availability data from the sensors will t
Vehicle detection with speed, class and count in a single loop
Global Traffic Technologies (GTT), has added speed, class and count capabilities to its Canoga 9000 series, using a single width four-channel traffic management card in place of the traditional two cards system.
Telensa enhances street light control
Telensa has enhanced its PLANet SmartGrid street light control system by adding an on-board GPS module and the new NEMA 7-pin connector to its telecell options.
Flir expands Marseille’s tunnel vision
Marseille’s city authority has added the monitoring of a second tunnel to the existing network with a new approach towards video management. Measuring 1.5km in length, the double-deck Prado Sud tunnel extends Marseille’s existing 2.5km Prado Carénage tunnel towards the southern part of the city. While it was logical to use a common control room and to use the latest detection and monitoring systems in the new tunnel, it was deemed too disruptive and costly to completely upgrade the existing tunnel.
iMobility Challenge event
The next iMobility Challenge event, "Intelligent Mobility, Smart Cities" takes place in Brussels on 18 November 2014.
Experts from innovation companies and researchers will share the latest ideas and developments in the field of intelligent mobility, sharing insights into how we will move forward in cities tomorrow, and what future vehicles will look like.
Confirmed keynote speakers include John Baekelsmans, CTO at Cisco; other key speakers will be Rupert Fausset, Principal Sustainability Advisor at F
New UPS to protect Siemens traffic control systems
Siemens has teamed up with uninterruptible power supply (UPS) specialist, Harland Simon UPS, which has created a new range of UPS systems for Siemens the company to offer critical protection within key traffic control systems, reducing the chances of accidents and traffic congestion in the event of power failure.
The high specification solution is based on the Harland ProtectUPS-T, which can be adapted to meet specific demands that are available in 500W, 1000W and 2000W versions. The system is equipped w
EU to invest in studies on Timisoara airport development
The EU's TEN-T Programme is to co-fund studies for the construction of an intermodal terminal at Timisoara International Airport in Romania with the aim of promoting the integration of freight transport within the air, rail and road TEN-T network.
The project includes a feasibility study and technical, economic and environmental studies that will form the basis for the terminal's design and construction. Once completed, it is expected to contribute to the intermodal growth of freight transport, thus pro
Helping to keep the power on in Tennessee
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation (MTE), the largest electric cooperative organisation in Tennessee is using Nedap Identification Systems’ Transit Standard long-range RFID readers on its Murfreesboro site entry and exit lanes to offer fast, convenient and secure vehicle access control to their facility.
Transit Standard readers were installed at the entry and exit lanes of the facility, taking advantage of the system’s directional read characteristics that eliminate crossover reads and let
SolaRoad opens in the Netherlands
The world’s first solar powered cycle road officially opens today along the N203 at Krommenie, north-west of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Developed by TNO, the Province of North-Holland, Ooms Civiel and Imtech Traffic&Infra, the SolaRoad pilot project is a road surface that acts as a solar panel, converting sunlight into electricity.
Prime Minister’s ‘roads revolution’ good news for industry
Responding to the UK Prime Minister’s announcement which outlined a ‘roads revolution,’ the Freight Transport Association (FTA) has said that plans to deliver roads improvements across the country are good news for the freight and logistics industry.
David Cameron stated that plans for the biggest road building programme for almost half a century will be unveiled in next month's Autumn Statement and would contain a US$24 billion overhaul of 100 of Britain's busiest roads and motorways by the end of the
BMW tests street light EV charger
BMW is to run a pilot project in Munich to test a newly-developed an electric car charging station which the company says can be can be grafted straight onto the existing local authority street lighting infrastructure.
BMW said it has made two prototype ‘Light and Charge’ street lights which combine efficient light emitting diodes (LED) with the company's ChargeNow recharging stations for electric cars.
"Seamless charging infrastructure is essential if we want to see more electric vehicles on the road
Technology partnership aids road safety
A new technology partnership between UK traffic enforcement systems supplier Videalert with digital video recording and video management software provider Wavestore will add to the level of interoperability between Videalert’s intelligent digital video platform and Wavestore’s video management software.
Developed for civil traffic enforcement, traffic management and community safety applications, Videalert’s intelligent digital video platform combines ANPR with video analytics using additional intelligen
Arkansas opts for ClearPath winter weather forecasting
The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has selected Iteris’ cloud-based maintenance decision support system (MDSS), ClearPath Weather, to provide state-wide weather forecasting services for improved winter road maintenance response.
ClearPath Weather will provide AHTD with web-based access to high-resolution pavement weather forecasting and treatment alternatives at designated locations around the state during winter weather events. Additionally, AHTD will have available use of I