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Q-Free has further expanded its advanced traffic management systems and road user charging business, with the acquisition of US company Open Roads Consulting. Q-Free says Open Roads Consulting's software solutions will be a valuable addition to its own ATMS solutions in the US and internationally. Established in 2000, Open Roads Consulting has 74 employees and operates mission critical traffic deployments and video based surveillance of critical assets in 30 states in the US. “We are happy to close t

Victoria Banks and Neville Stanton [1] of Southampton University’s Transportation Research Group examine the real impact of creeping driver automation. Safety research suggests that 90% of accidents are thought to be a result of driver inattentiveness to unpredictable or incomplete information and the vision is that highly automated vehicles will lead to accident-free driving in the future.

Tolling may be the way forward for paying for the roads of the future - but where will concessionaires find the money and do they need funding or financing? Increasingly, governments around the world are concluding that they can no longer pay for new roads and are turning to the private sector for help.

David Crawford investigates a promising development to counter the problem of fog in the Gulf States. Despite being a largely desert area with low rainfall, fog is a major driving hazard in countries on the Arabian peninsula, such as the UAE. The fog is the result of moist air moving across from the neighbouring Gulf during the afternoon and evening, and experiencing radiation cooling at night.

Idaho leverages the increased capability and reliability of its road weather sensor network to reduce costs and prevent accidents. Weather-related accidents can form a significant chunk of an authorities’ annual road casualty statistics. While authorities cannot control the weather, the technology exists to monitor the road conditions and react with warnings to motorists and the treatment of icy or snow-covered roads. However, with all capital expenditure now placed under the microscope of public scrutiny,

A mobile road weather sensor is providing authorities with new options for monitoring road conditions and winter maintenance operations. Road and traffic engineers know the vulnerable points in their network – cold spots where ice forms first, high-banked roads where snow accumulates, fog pockets… Traditionally, most authorities will position weather stations at these points to detect and monitor road conditions during bad weather events.

ASECAP debated the impact of the financial crises on Europe’s tolling companies and considered the future in diverse economies. Colin Sowman picks some of the highlights. This year ASECAP (Association Europeenne des Concessionnaires d’Autoroutes et d’Ouvrages a’ Peage, with members in 21 countries managing 46,000km of roadway) held its annual Study & Information Days in Athens, Greece – one of the country hardest hit by recent economic problems. While the theme of the conference, Ensuring Sustainability in

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The value of the blind spot detection system market is projected to grow US$2.8 billion and adaptive cruise control system market to grow US$6.1 Billion by 2019 at a healthy CAGR of 22.8 per cent and 16.9 per cent respectively from 2014 to 2019, according to the latest report from Research and Markets. The report, Blind Spot Detection (BSD) System and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) System Market for Passenger Cars; by Geography - Trends and Forecasts 2014-2019, says that automotive adaptive cruise contr

Network Rail, which owns and operates the UK's railway infrastructure, has extended its long-term partnership with HaCon for a further five years and will continue to use their train planning system TPS. The system enables train planners can create and adapt optimal train schedules across the complex railway infrastructure, constantly responding to the ever-increasing demands of passenger and freight needs across the country. Up to 300 train planners can use TPS to plan over 21,000 train services per da

‘The delay of the introduction of free-flow tolls at Dartford River Crossing disappointing as it may present additional costs to industry’ is the message from the Freight Transport Association (FTA). The Association has voiced its concern in response to the announcement by the Highways Agency (HA) that the planned technology to allow motorists to use the crossing without having to stop at barriers and pay is to be delayed by up to four weeks. Originally planned to be in place by the 28 October 2014, th

RedSpeed International is to supply around 600 speed and red light safety cameras to Transport for London (TfL). The award is the result of a process which started in August 2012 and will see the company’s SpeedCurb and RedSpeed products progressively installed with a completion date of October 2016. The installation of the RedSpeed digital red light camera replacement in London has already started. The cameras not only enforce against red light running, but also monitor and enforce against vehicles brea

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) is embarking on a fully automated transportation system to help reduce highway traffic congestion by as much as 18 per cent, officials say, taking as many as 40,000 automobiles off the road and replacing them with a fleet of four-car trains that can accommodate up to 800 passengers. Said to be the first fully automated wide-scale urban transit system in the United States, the $5.2 billion Honolulu Rail Transit Project features a 20-mile elevated rai

The administration of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has proposed investments of US$4.23 billion to improve the country's highway network in 2015. The investments would fall under the PAC growth acceleration plan. The bill calls for transport infrastructure department DNIT to manage US$4 billion in highway maintenance and upkeep, including highway BR-381 in the state of Minas Gerais between highway junctions BR-116 in the city of Governador Valadares and state highway MG-020. Other large investments

Established in 2011, Indian technology and infrastructure company Vaaan has been awarded two major projects valued at around US$25 million from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through its highway operations management agency, Indian Highways Management Company (IHMCL). The company is to deploy electronic toll collection (ETC) on 164 dedicated lanes across 82 public funded toll plazas in a bid to to reduce traffic congestion and commuting time. In addition, in a move to identify which h

More than 128,000 taps using contactless payment cards and devices have been made since Transport for London (TfL) launched the new option to pay across the London transport network on 16 September. The first day saw contactless used at more than 600 train stations across the Tube, DLR, Overground and National Rail stations that accept Oyster. Contactless payments have been available on the bus network since December 2012. This week has seen a further significant rise in the number of taps on buses w

North Yorkshire County Council continues to invest in improved parking facilities for residents and visitors, with the installation of 19 new Parkeon Strada Transfer terminals in Northallerton High Street. The council is also investing for the first time in the Parkeon Parkfolio parking information and management system, with each terminal connected to the cloud-based platform, enabling the local authority to monitor the terminals remotely. Parkfolio generates alerts and provides access to financial info

A new report, released in advance of United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit on 23 September, claims that more than US$100 trillion in cumulative public and private spending could be saved and 1,700 megatons of annual carbon dioxide (CO2) - a 40 percent reduction of urban passenger transport emissions - could be eliminated by 2050 if the world expands public transportation, walking and cycling in cities. The report, A Global High Shift Scenario, from the Institute for Transportation Development

Mercedes-Benz is expanding its research activities in the US, now that it has received a licence permitting it to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California. The company says it now plans to take autonomous driving to a new level in the US, despite the differences between US and German traffic systems, which it says are vast. While motoring in Germany commonly takes place on narrow roads, the roads in the USA are frequently wider and may have more than six or even eight lanes. Traffic lights

Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS) and the creator of the Intellicone temporary work zone safety system, Highway Resource Solutions (HRS), have teamed up to create the Safelane automated traffic management system and the Multisafe Smart VMS. The companies say these are the first temporary road maintenance safety solutions to combine industry-leading modular electronic perimeters and variable message signs (VMS), providing a cost-efficient method of improving the safety of both road workers and road