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Queensland, Australia, is to deploy fixed and mobile automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to catch thousands of unregistered cars on the state’s roads. From October, eight fixed and fifteen mobile cameras will scan about 600,000 registration plates every week. The cameras will record thousands of plates a day and send the information back to a centralised database for cross-referencing with registration records. Owners of unregistered plates will automatically receive fines in the mail. P

UK business secretary Vince Cable has announced two new measures today that give the green light for driverless cars to take to UK roads from January 2015. UK cities can now bid for a share of a US$16.9 million competition to host a driverless cars trial. The government is calling on cities to join together with businesses and research organisations to put forward proposals to become a test location. Up to three cities will be selected to host the trials from 2015 and each project is expected to last

Siemens' central research department and electric vehicle manufacturer StreetScooter are to equip an electric car with an innovative electronic and software architecture as part of the Robust and Reliant Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars (RACE) project. For the first time ever, the architecture will make it possible to retrofit functions such as electrical brakes and systems such as lane-keeping assistants using a plug-and-play process like on home PCs. The two companies plan to incorpora

Radio engineering specialist Simoco has announced has begun rolling out critical communications technology for VicRoads, Australia, to improve the efficiency of its mobile radios and safety of its vehicles and drivers. The move sees the supply of an in-vehicle P25 upgradable solution, specifically designed to address the needs of the emergency services, to the Victorian State Road Authority. Simoco project partner Retrolooms has already installed a number of customised SRM9000 mobile radio solutions whi

Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed the award of its Electra ticketing and fare collection contract, starting in August 2015, to Cubic Corporation’s UK subsidiary Cubic Transportation Systems following a competitive tender. The seven-year contract is valued at over US$700 million and includes an option to extend the contract for a further three years, giving the contract an expected value of over US$1 billion. The announcement means the continuation of the partnership between TfL and Cubic which ha

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted Rheinbahn, the public transport authority in the Düsseldorf region of Germany a multi-million euro loan to become more efficient and environmentally friendly. Rheinbahn operates in an area of over 520 square kilometres, with more than a million people living within the Greater Düsseldorf area. The US$201.6 million loan will fund a four-year investment programme, including the purchase of 40 new trams and 87 new buses, measures to improve accessibility an

The review of transport resilience recently published by the UK Government today (has been welcomed by the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT). The report looks at the resilience to extreme weather events of roads, railways, ports and airports across England and makes over 60 recommendations for action. David Bishop, President of ADEPT, said: “This review highlights the very real danger to our economic recovery from inadequate resilience in key aspects of the na

Constructed over the harbour, Copenhagen’s Cykelslangen, or Cycle Snake, is the city’s newest elevated cycle path. The orange cycle lane is the latest addition to Copenhagen's innovative approach to cycling infrastructure and connects to the harbour bridge, leaving the ground level free for pedestrians. The 220 metre long Cykelslangen was opened on 29 June, after eight years of planning and construction. Copenhagen is renowned for being a cycling city, as some 36 per cent of daily commutes are undert

Urban transport operator RATP Dev, through its RDMT subsidiary, has inaugurated its first tramway service in the US. The 3.9 mile long Sun Link Tucson Streetcar began operation in Tucson, Arizona, on 25 July, connecting the University of Arizona campus to the Mercado District, Arizona Health Sciences Center, the city’s main shopping artery, downtown Tucson and the convention centre. The tramway offers connecting services with the Tucson bus station and Tucson’s extensive bus network. RATP Dev will o

Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a contract for more than US$8 million to convert existing paper magnetic fare card vending machines to sales and reload devices for SmarTrip, the contactless smart card for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The project is part of the agency’s plan to eliminate paper ticketing from its fare system to all contactless media by spring 2016. Cubic will upgrade more than 500 machines with hardware kits including smart card readers and re

Navtech Radar’s AdvanceGuard radar based perimeter intrusion detection system (PIDS) for airports is ideally suited to the challenge of the wide perimeters of most commercial airports. Its frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) 76GHz technology and the robust design of the radars, coupled with the ability to operate 24 /7 in all light and weather conditions, even in dense fog, make AdvanceGuard the preferred technology for the challenges faced by airport operations and security services. With lo

Millions of customers are set for easier and more convenient journeys from 16 September, when Transport for London (TfL) will introduce contactless payments for all pay as you go customers on the Tube, London Overground, DLR and trams in addition to the capital's buses. The new option means that passengers will no longer be any need to top up Oyster card balances because fares are charged directly to payment card accounts. Contactless payments - credit, debit, charge or pre-paid cards or devices - work i

Ticketing technologies company Parkeon is playing a key role in a multi-million dollar public transport project in Perth that will provide real-time journey tracking for passengers, along with Australia’s first underground dynamic bus stand allocation system. The real time tracking system (RTTS) forms a significant part of the contract awarded by the Western Australia Public Transport Authority to Downer EDI Engineering Power. It is being delivered by Parkeon as part of its latest ticketing platform and

The Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) and I-69 Development Partners reached financial close on section 5 of I-69 Section 5 from Bloomington to Martinsville. The 142-mile I-69 corridor is divided into six sections. The first three sections opened for business in November 2012 and construction is underway on all 27 miles of I-69 Section 4 between Crane and Bloomington. I-69 Section 5 involves repairing and upgrading 21 miles of the existing, four-lane State Road 37 to interstate standards. I-69 Developmen

Vysionics’ SPECS3 Vector average speed enforcement camera, the latest addition to the company’s successful SPECS family of average speed enforcement devices has achieved UK Home Office Type Approval. Unlike earlier SPECS platforms, SPECS3 Vector is a fully integrated camera unit with all the camera, processing and communications modules built into a single, elegant housing. This increased flexibility makes the device suitable for all current average speed enforcement applications, as well as a range of n

The tender for Bogota, Colombia’s decades-long and much-delayed first metro line has been pushed to the first quarter of 2015 following expansion of the US$3.6 billion project. The original project included the construction of the first line of Bogota’s 26.5 kilometre long metro, which would have 28 stations and be used by around 600,000 people a day. This is the first of four lines planned to be built in the next 30 years. The metro will complement the existing urban transport system by handling 50 p

The UK Government has published its updated National Infrastructure Pipeline, which shows that planned infrastructure investment has now increased to £383 billion up to 2020 and beyond. The Pipeline, which is converted in to an interactive map format by leading construction intelligence specialists Barbour ABI, has increased from more than £375 billion when it was last updated in December. It is designed to increase the visibility of future infrastructure investment in both the public and private sectors

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) today announces that General Motors CEO Mary Barra is to kick off the 21st World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) on 7 September in Detroit, Michigan with an opening keynote speech that will address the changing transportation environment around the world as well as the rapidly evolving technology of connected, autonomous, and electric vehicles. “Connectivity may drive more positive change for customers than any other te

Bellevue City Council, Washington has approved an expansion of the city’s photo enforcement program, supplied by American Traffic Solutions, from three red-light cameras and two school-zone cameras to six red-light cameras and three school-zone cameras. In an effort to improve traffic safety at busy intersections and school zones, the city in 2009 and 2010 installed cameras to catch red light runners and school zone speeders. Police data show that the cameras now in place generally have changed driver

Budapest transport operator BKK Centre for Budapest Transport has introduced new ticket vending machines which accept both cash and card payments, enabling all passengers to buy tickets round the clock. The company has added an English language instructional video and interactive demo to its website (link www.bkk.hu/tvm) and the vending machine menus are available in Hungarian and English, with German, French, Spanish, Romanian, Slovak, Chinese and Russian to follow shortly.