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From the beginning, the SafeLight and SafeSpeed programs in the Louisiana city of Lafayette have met with controversy and resistance. However, a newly released report shows that the programs, which began in 2007, have reduced crashes at monitored intersections and improved the city's finances. A new contract with Redflex, the company that runs the program, will provide cameras at four new locations and will deploy two more speed vans by 2016. “We believe that SafeLight and SafeSpeed, the so-called red-light

German automotive supplier Continental and BMW Group are pooling their development capacities to define the long-term prerequisites for series introduction of highly automated driving on European freeways. The two companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop an electronic co-pilot for this purpose, with the aim of paving the way to automated driving functions beyond the year 2020. “Automated driving is a key element in future mobility. It will significantly enhance safety, comfort and efficiency on

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) State Route (SR) 237 Express Lanes, for which TransCore serves as lead integrator, received the 2012 Transportation Project of the Year Award from the San Francisco Bay Area Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). VTA is implementing the Silicon Valley Express Lanes Program to provide congestion relief in one of its major Bay Area commuter corridors. As part of the program, the SR 237, US 101, SR 85 and parts of I-680 corridor will convert the existin

Scott Belcher of ITS America explains why moves towards spectrum sharing in the 5.9GHz band should not be allowed to proceed until further analysis of the risks to road safety has been undertaken. The ability to move people and goods safely and efficiently has always had a direct impact on a country’s economic advantage and its citizens’ quality of life. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of vehicles around the world is set to double to two billion, placing enormous demands on the global transport

When Caltrans district 7 began the first phase of a multi-phase audio-visual (AV) system upgrade at its Los Angeles facility, it contracted with Electrosonic to create a brighter, more reliable video wall for traffic monitoring that takes advantage of the latest in projection technology. “Caltrans district 7 has more than 400 cameras on the highways of Los Angeles and Ventura counties,” says Electrosonic project manager Guy Fronte. “They can review camera feeds 24/7 in the facility and when there’s a traffi

A real time traffic information service introduced at Mobile World Congress by traffic information and driver services provider Inrix and navigation app provider Navfree is designed to help its 12.5 million drivers worldwide save time, fuel and reduce frustration travelling every day. “Whether driving to a new destination, an important business meeting or just trying to get home in time for dinner, Inrix helps make our customers’ journeys as smooth as possible,” said Navfree CEO Peter Atalla. Inrix vice pre

Transportation technology provider Drivewyze installed its 200th Drivewyze PreClear weigh station bypass service with the activation of the Corinth site in Mississippi, USA. Drivewyze PreClear bypass services work at both permanent and temporary inspection locations, providing service plans catered to both short haul and long-haul carriers travelling intrastate or interstate throughout the United States. According to Drivewyze, by matching service plans to customer profiles, it delivers bypass services to

After several years’ experience of loop detector failures, primarily identified as being caused by damage from roadworks or degradation of aging road surfaces, Aberdeen City Council opted to use the Golden River M100 wireless detection system from Clearview Traffic. Each compact M100 sensor is typically installed in the middle of a traffic lane where it detects the presence and passage of vehicles and communicates this information wirelessly to the traffic signal controller via an access point and contact c

Opened in November 2012, Toyota’s intelligent transportation systems (ITS) proving ground is being used to run a number of interactive tests between specially-equipped Toyota vehicles. Located at the company's Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre in Susono City, Japan, the ITS proving ground is a 3.5-hectare site that faithfully replicates a real urban environment, complete with intersecting streets, pedestrian crosswalks, and traffic signals. It is equipped with optical beacons, government-allocated 760 MHz trans

NEC Europe has received Frost and Sullivan’s 2012 European Vehicular Communications New Product Innovation Award for its vehicular communications systems. The 2012 Frost and Sullivan New Product Innovation Awards are based on an independent analysis of the European vehicular communication market, and the award recognises NEC’s leadership in this market throughout the past four years and its unique potential for the upcoming mass market introduction of products. Frost and Sullivan has recognised NEC’s vehicu

One of a number of recent improvements and developments that have been carried out in Wellingborough town centre as part of Northamptonshire County Council’s Highways initiative is the installation of an access control gate system that gives public transport vehicles sole access to a designated town centre route during peak times. The council hopes that the system, which uses long-range vehicle identification technology to allow only buses and taxis to enter the specified route between the hours of 0900 to

Thailand’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched a new intelligent transportation project to manage and improve the country’s traffic system. Announcing the project, called Smart Thailand via Intelligent Transport System Empowered by MOST, MOST minister Worawat Uea-apinyakul said that current technology helps facilitate better traffic and reduce cost. “Many intelligent transport systems (ITS) effectively solve traffic problems, reduce accidents, and help preserve the environment in several

The world of intelligent transport systems can, it would seem, be just as beset by muddled thinking as any other sector. How else to interpret the baffling announcement in January by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski that the FCC intends to open up almost 200MHz of spectrum in the 5GHz band to unlicensed users, starting almost immediately? As the FCC itself points out, this would be the largest block of unlicensed spectrum to be made available for Wi-Fi in nearly te

Internet hosted street lighting software from Mayrise Systems is helping Essex Highways, a strategic partnership between the UK's Essex County Council and Ringway Jacobs, to ensure street lights are working, in order to maintain a safe environment for both road users and pedestrians. Mayrise for Street Lighting Online is core to all the activities carried out by the Essex highways street lighting team; it allows for the accurate capture of technical data in the field and delivers this information in an easy

The Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the vision and imaging industry’s trade association, has released the new USB3 vision camera interface standard and it is now available for free download on the AIA website. This easy-to-use standard is based on the prevalent USB 3.0 consumer hardware already in use. The AIA says vision component manufacturers have embraced the standard and are expected to widely adopt it; many components are already selling today. Based on the USB 3.0 interface (SuperSpeed USB), USB

According to Australia’s federal infrastructure and transport minister, Anthony Albanese, an Australia-wide electronic freeway management system has the potential to greatly reduce congestion and save Australian families and businesses more than US$500 million a year. Albanese said as much as he announced the US$21 million contract to deliver an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and communications infrastructure to the Westgate freeway managed motorway project in Victoria under the national smart managed m

Arizona’s traffic operations centre was built more than twenty years ago; the first traffic camera was installed over Interstate10 in 1990. That’s all changed now thanks to a recent US$2.1 million upgrade of the camera system by Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) which replaced cables with fibre optic lines, so the cameras now show fresh images every ten seconds rather than every five minutes. The upgrade has also replaced the 32 video screens in the traffic operations centre, enabling staff to sca

Schneider Electric is to use its expertise and experience in developing and implementing free-flow toll system management solutions and electronic toll payment solutions in the design, supply and installation of the tolling system back office for Australia’s New South Wales Government's Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). RMS is a delivery arm of Transport for NSW and is responsible for building and maintaining roads, conducting driving tests, issuing licences and registrations and overseeing harbours and wa

Following the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking to open up additional spectrum for unlicenced wi-fi devices within the 5.9 GHz band which serves as the platform for connected vehicle technology, Scott Belcher, President and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), issued the following statement today: “ITS America supports the need to explore spectrum sharing in the 5 GHz band and appreciates the chairman’s commitment to a pr

MOBiNET, the new ERTICO-led project which plans to develop and run an internet of mobility, a platform that links transport services and end users, recently concluded its first meeting. By developing a set of common tools and standards (collectively known as MOBiNET), the idea is make to mobile transport services, such as journey planning, automated ticketing, billing and vehicle tracking more accessible and more usable. As a 'cloud based' system MOBiNET will make it much easier for software developers to c