Transportation analytics to aid growing carrier company
Pitt Ohio, a transportation solutions provider headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, can now more proactively plan its business by creating routes, managing complex schedules, and monitoring progress throughout the day. The company has licensed Esri's ArcGIS for Transportation Analytics solution, powered by the ArcGIS platform. Pitt Ohio is a member of the Reliance Network, a group of regional carriers that work together to provide seamless service for customers. The company provides less-than-trucklo
Ticketless travel for London’s commuters?
London's commuters will be able to use their mobile phones and bank cards for travel across the city, if Transport for London's (TfL) plans come to fruition. Thousands of London bus users already pay their fares using contactless bank cards instead of TfL Oyster cards, which have been widely used over the past decade. Users pay different charges for different London Underground zones and for train travel, so TfL has to decide on suitable payment mechanisms, and could drive the widespread adoption of systems
Virginia expands travel information on I-66
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is to expand the traffic information system on Interstate 66 (I-66). Motorists will now see travel times displayed on overhead message signs for the 35 miles from Washington to Haymarket. VDOT has been posting the number of miles and minutes to key destinations at three locations between the Capital Beltway and Gainesville since August 2011. Message signs will display the information at seven new locations. In addition, by summer, six more locations will be ad
ITS America’s new VP for membership and development
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) today announced the hire of Sabrina Sussman as the association’s vice president for Membership and Development. Previously with the US Department of Transportation, Sussman will lead the strategic planning efforts and enactment of the ITS America Leadership Circle, as well as manage member recruitment, retention and services. ITS America’s president and CEO Scott Belcher stated, “Sabrina’s unique combination of transportation policy, strategic
Abu Dhabi installs VMS
Motorists in Abu Dhabi will now be able to get alerts about accidents and traffic jams from numerous variable message signs (VMS) currently being installed on the capital’s roads. At least 86 (VMS) will notify motorists of road blocks, construction and weather updates, giving them the opportunity to change their route if necessary. More than half will be equipped with traffic monitoring stations to record data from their areas and send the information to a central data centre. CCTV will also transmit road
California to get electric bus assembly plant
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) producer BYD is to build an assembly plan in Lancaster, about seventy miles north of Los Angeles, to make electric buses for US and Latin American public transportation markets. The facility will be one of only a few making electric buses in the US, where most buses use diesel fuel or compressed natural gas. Michael Austin, vice president of BYD America, said Lancaster's aggressive embrace of solar energy programs was a factor in deciding to build the plant there. "They've been
Multi-million dollar system to ease Columbus’ congestion
Columbus, Ohio is to benefit from a US$38.1 million traffic management system to replace the one installed in the 1970s to allow the city to respond more quickly to problem areas and speed up travel throughout Columbus and even in its suburbs. The new system will wrap all signals into a single network. More data will funnel to new software in the traffic-management center, where operators can decide how to handle traffic congestion. Nearly 500 miles of fibre-optic cable will run to most traffic signals, and
Call to become part of Co-Cities Prime
Co-Cities Prime provides an opportunity for cities and regions which want to provide integrated multimodal transport and set up mobility services with the opportunity to equip their information systems with the Commonly Agreed Interface of Co-Cities supported by an experienced technology provider. Up to 50 per cent of the implementation effort will be contributed by the Co-Cities project. The call for participation is open from April 3rd to May 5th, 2013, and city administrations, urban transport authoriti
NeTC Industry Forum - Asia Pacific's tolling industry information hub
The challenging topic of tolling collection will be a priority theme at the 2013 National Electronic Tolling Committee Industry Forum (NeTC) to be held 22 and 23 May at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia. The forum will also feature a strong focus on government-industry policy development to facilitate systems deployment to maximise safety, economic, environmental and social benefits to transport in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. "The comprehensive forum program w
T3 webinar - Smart Traffic Management
The next T3 webinar takes place on Thursday18 April 18 at 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm ET, and discusses Smart Traffic Management: Lessons from New York City's Midtown in Motion (MiM) project, kicked off in summer 2011 by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The purpose of the MiM project is to promote multimodal mobility in the midtown core of Manhattan, a 110 square block area or zone from 2nd to 6th Avenues and from 42nd to 57th Streets. The MiM proj
Thales transport systems for Santo Domingo metro
Thales, as a member of the Eurodom consortium, has supplied communication, supervision, signalling and ticketing systems for line 2 of the Santo Domingo Metro in the Dominican Republic. The opening of the metro line, which crosses the city from east to west, is a key milestone in a national plan to improve public transport and relieve congestion on the road network. It connects to the north-south line 1 and once complete, will run for 21 km and will have twenty stations. Fourteen stations are now open and t
UK city considers switching speed cameras back on
Bristol mayor George Ferguson is in talks with the city’s Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens to consider switching speed cameras back on in the city. The city’s thirty-seven fixed point speed cameras and traffic light cameras were switched off in April 2011 as part of a nationwide cost-cutting exercise. It was left to local authorities to make the final decision on whether to cut the deterrents. The Bristol Safecam partnership was abolished, leaving the cameras, twenty of which were red light c
ETC to be implemented on all Indian national highways
To make the toll collection process on the national highways easier and more transparent, the Indian government will roll out RFID-based electronic toll collection (ETC) across all the toll plazas on national highways throughout the country by 2014. "By 2014, we intend to have by ETC on all toll plazas in the country,” Road Transport Minister C P Joshi said. He added that pilot projects have already been launched on some national highways. Based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, ETC uses
Australia’s NRMA welcomes road safety funding boost
Australia’s National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA) has praised the New South Wales (NSW) government's plan to use revenue raised by speed cameras to help boost funding for road safety programs by US$7.3 million. The new Safer Roads Program is part of the Centre for Road Safety's state-wide strategy aimed at cutting the state's road toll by thirty per cent by 2021. The additional funds will see a total of US$37.6 million a year spent on works in areas where the worst crashes are occurring, with the
Massachusetts moves to cashless tolling
Drivers in Massachusetts may no longer need to worry about having cash on hand as they hit toll roads. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is planning to replace every tollbooth in the state with electronic tolling systems that read E-ZPass transponders in cars and send monthly bills to drivers who use toll roads without passes. “We’re trying to look at doing things faster, more efficiently and provide more information to the public,” said MassDOT Highway Administrator Frank DePaola.
Real-time travel alerts for Kiwi drivers
OnTheMove, a free, customisable travel information service launched by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) is designed to provide travellers with email alerts prior to their journey, about road and driving conditions, incidents and road works on New Zealand’s state highways. NZTA Regional Traffic Operations Manager Kathryn Musgrave says the new service is a customer-friendly way for road users to check road conditions before they travel on our state highways. OnTheMove can be accessed from any PC or sma
Call for papers for 17th IRF world meeting and exhibition
The Technical and Scientific Committee of the 17th IRF world meeting and exhibition is inviting surface transportation experts and researchers from all over the world to submit paper abstracts for evaluation. Abstracts should reflect original research or innovation in technical, institutional, economic, business and policy issues that are relevant, recent and significant. This global event, to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 9-13, 2013, will provide a unique forum for sharing the latest industr
Volvo’s new cars to get pedestrian and cyclist detection
By tracking moving objects, a new system from Volvo could help prevent accidents. The system uses a camera embedded in a car’s rear view mirror, combined with a radar instrument in the grill to scan the road ahead. If it sees an object, an onboard computer will determine whether it is a cyclist or a pedestrian, and prepare to apply the brakes if someone swerves out into traffic or darts across road. Many cars already come with safety systems that will brake if a collision with another vehicle or a pedestria
TEST Controls has international test appeal
TEST Controls has international test appeal
Peek Traffic building on success with new ATC-2000
Peek Traffic Corporation will use the ITS America Annual Meeting to announce the next addition to the successful family of Peek ATC controllers. Joining the ATC-CBD and ATC-1000 controllers is the upcoming ATC-2000 which will make its debut. Designed to utilize the same robust Greenwave local intersection control software used in the ATC-1000 NEMA style controller, the company says the ATC-2000 will bring that level of advanced functionality to the Caltrans style 332/336 cabinet. The design combines the adv