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TomTom has released the latest version of TomTom Traffic which now includes an innovative ‘jam ahead warning’ feature, which pinpoints the precise location of a traffic jam and sends an early-warning alert so that drivers can safely reduce their speed. Available automatically to all existing users, TomTom Traffic also includes new features that further improve routeing accuracy. TomTom Traffic now detects road closures and road works automatically on more roads. A new ‘predictive flow feed’ can more accurat

Vaisala’s Windcap ultrasonic wind sensor WMT700 now includes an option for full-body heating of the unit, making it the ideal choice for monitoring wind conditions in extremely cold climates with heavy snow and ice. The sensor body, arms, and transducers can all be heated to minimise snow and ice build-up, to ensure high quality data acquisition and reliable operations. The device is a professional meteorological instrument that utilises ultrasound to determine wind speed and direction. There are no movin

Tapco BlinkerRadar driver feedback signs utilise K-band (24.15GHz) direct-sensing radar and can be integrated into an intelligent transportation system (ITS) to offer a solution that alerts drivers of their speed to promote road safety and encourage drivers to adhere to posted speed limits. Available in a range of character display height models and other options the signs are suitable for temporary and permanent traffic applications, including residential, city, rural streets and highways, school and pede

David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.

Telematics technology may be a game changer for the automobile insurance industry but it comes with some caveats as Colin Sowman discovers. James Bielak, (P&C) program manager at the US office of ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), has an unenviable job: to devise a standard form of communicating vehicle data between telematics providers and insurance companies. To that end he has gathered together a group composed of insurers, telematics providers and other intere

UK enforcement agency VOSA is using a combination of ANPR and weigh-in-motion technology to detect and target overweight trucks on some of the busiest motorways. Overloaded vehicles pose a potential danger to drivers, other road users and pedestrians.

UK enforcement agency VOSA is using a combination of ANPR and weigh-in-motion technology to detect and target overweight trucks on some of the busiest motorways.

According to recent analysis by American Traffic Solutions (ATS), driver behaviour at St Louis red-light safety cameras monitored intersections continues to change. The study found that the number of red-light running violations captured at ATS monitored intersections has fallen significantly as drivers have become more accustomed to increased red-light enforcement. The analysis found that fewer and fewer vehicles are being issued multiple violations; 84 per cent of vehicle owners who received and paid

Research by the traffic management company TomTom has found that over the past year, congestion levels have become more severe in eleven of the UK's seventeen largest cities, including London, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Brighton, Belfast and Newcastle It states that on average, the overall amount of time that commuters spent stuck in traffic was nine working days. Congestion levels remained static in Glasgow, Bristol and Birmingham. In contrast, congestion levels fell in Nottingham, Leeds, Brad

To meet its goal of ensuring traffic safety and efficiency by providing accurate up to date traffic information, the City of Colorado Springs in the US has ordered 35 full colour dynamic message signs (DMS) to be installed on public right of ways throughout the city. The signs, supplied by Skyline Products, utilise a Kynar 500 coated aluminium mask over polycarbonate glazing for a 20mm pixel pitch. The red, green and blue LEDs in the pixels are vertically aligned to maximise the cone of legibility withou

Paraguay plans to carry out 33 priority road projects, totalling US$2.44 billion, with the aim of having 8,000 kilometres of the national road network paved in the next ten years, according to the public works and communications ministry (MOPC). The projects fall within MOPC's strategic road investment plan for 2013-18, which aims to improve internal connectivity as well as prioritise the development of roads that connect with neighbouring countries. In addition, MOPC aims to increase the involvement of

Building on multi-modal transit services provided over the past ten years, Iteris is to provide a multi-jurisdiction bus traffic signal priority system (BSP) for Torrance Transit’s Rapid Line in Los Angeles County, California. The US$2.2 million contract includes the design, procurement, deployment, and on-going operation and maintenance of a multi-jurisdiction BSP at 83 signalised intersections. The BSP system utilises existing on-bus systems that incorporate GPS-based automatic vehicle location equipme

With an innovative approach designed to meet the need for redundant positioning and navigation systems, Hartmut Runge from the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has just been named the overall winner of this year's Copernicus Masters, and the competition's BMW ConnectedDrive Challenge. The competition was previously called the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES).

In an effort to reduce collisions caused by deer, moose, elk and caribou in Ontario, the highway ministry’s eastern region is now testing sophisticated motion-detection systems that flash a warning to motorists only when animals are on or near the highway.

The Compass4D project has awarded over US$500,000 of EU funding to the city of Verona to deploy three services: red light violation warning, road hazard warning, and energy efficient intersections. In Verona, one of the most advanced cities in Italy in terms of ITS cooperative systems, vehicles will be gradually equipped with in-vehicle units which will communicate with roadside units and will also be usable in the other six pilot cities. The Compass4D pilot site is located in the city centre and will invol

Zero standing-traffic related incidents were recorded during UK service provider A-one+’s recent A1 refurbishment project, a result the firm attributes to the deployment of a variable message sign (VMS) package supplied by temporary intelligent transport system (ITS) solutions provider, Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS).

Austria has joined the Easygo+ toll cooperation started in 2007 by Denmark, Norway and Sweden. EasyGo+ enables drivers of heavy goods vehicles above 3.5 tons travelling through the four countries to use only on board unit (OBU), which guarantees compliance with European legislation on the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS). It also allows for differing national rules and regulations and different tolling systems in each country.

Valencia Airport in Spain has become one of the latest European Airport to conform to new EU Regulations (EC 300/2008) stipulating that measures for perimeter intrusion must be in place by 2015. Working with systems integrators Infoglobal and Ingloba Seguridad, Navtech Radar implemented their AdvanceGuard AGS1600 wide area surveillance solution.

The UK Highways Agency has launched a new network control centre to assist with the maintenance and improvement of the Agency’s roads in central southern England.

A new report by the US Government Accountability office (GAO) expects vehicle to vehicle (V2V) technologies to offer safety benefits, but says that a variety of deployment challenges exist. The report finds that development of V2V technologies has progressed to the point of real world testing, and if broadly deployed, they are anticipated to offer significant safety benefits.