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Drivers in Poland can look forward to more options in receiving real-time traffic information in the future with the launch of CE-Traffic’s new Premium RDS-TMC service. According to Jiří Novobilský, CEO of traffic data provider CE-Traffic, the company developed the new system “to get more out of the technology that has been available for more than a decade so that navigation systems vendors can offer to their customers an easy to implement and affordable traffic service of a real value. Our Premium RDS-TMC

Nine years after its opening, the 27-mile M6 toll motorway in the UK has had its video surveillance system upgraded in order to increase recording capacity and comply with changing data security requirements. The motorway bypasses the M6, one of the most congested pieces of road in Europe, which travels through Birmingham. Systems maintenance manager for operators Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), Paul Perry, explained why they decided to upgrade their system: “The existing Wavestore recording system has d

Thales India has been appointed by engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro to provide Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) and Integrated Communications and Supervision (ICS) systems for the Hyderabad Metro rail project, to be implemented on rail lines 1, 2 and 3, covering 72 km of rail and comprising of 66 stations. Thales will design, build, deliver and manage the installation of its SelTrac Communications-Based Train Control solution, which is already in use by more than thirty of the w

Opened on 17 November, the fourteen-mile corridor of new high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in Northern Virginia from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road on the Virginia side of the Capital Beltway provides drivers with a faster, more predictable trip on the Capital Beltway. The 495 Express Lanes project supported more than 16,000 jobs and generated nearly US$3.5 billion of economic impact state-wide. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) provider Open Roads Consulting (Open R

In an effort to help improve vehicle safety, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new standard that would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash. The proposed rule would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs), devices that collect specific safety related data, in all light passenger vehicles beginning in September 2014. “By understanding how drivers respond in a cras

Imtech Traffic and Infra, the Netherlands-based traffic and infrastructure specialist arm of technical services provider Royal Imtech NV, has extended its ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) portfolio by acquiring the Cutlas common database system from Envitia. The company says Cutlas is a key addition to their portfolio, providing seamless integration of their ITS solutions such as ImFlow and SCOOT, including third party systems. The addition of a centralised control and strategic management system enable

The Vietnamese government is to draw up new regulations as part of its plan to implement intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in 2013. The project will be executed in three stages from 2012 until 2030. During the first phase, between 2012 and 2015, three traffic control centres will be built to control traffic in the north, central and south regions of the country. During this phase, traffic management equipment will be installed, including closed circuit television cameras, weather forecasting equipm

A section of French rail network from Mulhouse to Chalampé on the German border has been inaugurated to passenger traffic as part of a European Union supported project. The TEN-T funded project involves a 17.5 km section of French single-track rail infrastructure; the modernised section, supported by US$903,000 of EU funds, will allow faster connections to and from Mülheim in Germany. The project contributes to the TEN-T Priority Project 24 Lyon/Genova-Basel-Duisburg-Rotterdam/Antwerp railway axis, an esse

There is a lot more that appears from this sector that is ITS on an international scale, once the surface is scratched. Over the past two months we’ve uncovered a surprising amount of technological progression hitherto unannounced to the transportation industry worldwide. For example, at the beginning of November we were at the Vision exhibition in Stuttgart. This magazine has followed developments from the machine vision sector for some time as advanced digital cameras and automated processing systems bega

Drivers in Washington State can now get real time travel information on Interstate 5 between Rochester and Tumwater. Six new traffic cameras have been installed as part of the I-5 Grand Mound to Maytown Stage 2 project, one of four projects funded by US$390 million from the 2003 and 2005 fuel tax packages to improve traffic flow and safety along an eighteen-mile stretch of I-5 in Lewis and Thurston counties. The new cameras not only give the 56,000 drivers who use this section of I-5 daily a real-time look

By tapping a Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled phone against the tags installed at 211 tram stops, passengers nine transit lines operated by Helsinki Region Transport (HRT) can now use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to not only pay for tickets, but also to upload and view comments on Helsinki Region Transport's online message wall. Helsinki Region Transport already enables commuters to purchase tickets using their mobile phones. Travellers can simply input an SMS code and send it as a text message in

The latest report from independent technical consultancy SBD finds that, despite their huge potential to save lives, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have so far failed to contribute significantly to the drop in road fatalities, due primarily to stubbornly low penetration rates over the last decade. However, this is poised to change, as costs begin to fall, consumer interest continues to grow, and most importantly, independent vehicle safety assessor EuroNCAP includes some ADAS applications within

The third webinar of the AERIS autumn/winter 2012-2013 webinar series will take place on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 at 1:00 pm EST. The webinar will provide an overview of the draft concept of operations for the dynamic low emissions zones transformative concept. As part of the AERIS program's efforts to develop ways in which real-time transportation system data could improve the operation of the surface transportation network, six transformative concepts, or bundles of applications, were identified. Each

Industry experts talk to Jason Barnes about the legislative situation of current and future in-vehicle systems. Articles about technology development can have a tendency to reference Moore’s Law with almost indecent regularity and haste but the fact remains that despite predictions of slow-down or plateauing, the pace remains unrelenting. That juxtaposes with a common tendency within the ITS industry: to concentrate on the technology and assume that much else – legislation, business cases and so on – will m

Canada’s British Columbia (BC) government is delivering on its commitment to reduce congestion along the province’s busiest transportation corridor, with the opening of the new Port Mann Bridge to eight lanes of traffic, which cuts commute times and allows for the first regular transit service across the bridge in twenty-five years. This is the largest transportation project in BC history and completes the first and largest phase of the Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement Project, which includes highway widenin

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and co-author Steven H Bayless will present a new report titled Smart Parking and the Connected Consumer - Opportunities for Facility Operators on Monday, 10 December at the Hyatt Regency, Jersey City in conjunction with a Smart Parking Symposium in Jersey City, New Jersey. The report will analyse both the opportunities and challenges faced by parking facility operators and technology providers when implementing smart parking systems. The repo

Motorists in Aberdeenshire, Scotland will soon be able to charge their electric vehicles and use solar-powered parking machines in town centres across county. Twenty of the solar-powered parking meters will be fitted at a cost of £80,000 which allows motorists to pay by cash, debit or credit card or their mobile phone. The council heard that the current parking machines are prone to theft and often break down. It was suggested that the redundant power supply from the ageing parking units could then be used

Thanks to a partnership between parking technology provider Streetline and Cisco, drivers in the San Francisco bay area of the US are now able to locate the nearest vacant parking space using just their smartphone and a mobile app called Parker. First deployed in Sausalito, the system has now been installed in San Mateo and San Carlos. It uses a small wireless sensor about the size of a golf hole installed in the parking bay to detect whether the space is occupied by a vehicle. Each sensor wirelessly comm

According to a new report from Frost and Sullivan, the European automotive navigation market will witness a shift towards integration and a continual trend towards low-cost connected navigation, which will become a commodity. With Smartphone replication technologies, Smartphone-based navigation inside cars will dominate the market, serving all car segments. The eCall in Europe and ERA-GLONASS in Russia, which mandate automated emergency response systems in vehicles, will lead to Europe becoming one of the b

According to Ertico, the future of traffic management on urban and inter-urban networks will rely on direct communication and interaction between vehicles and the infrastructure, using new technologies called cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) that support real-time exchange of traffic data. This cooperation can enable a wide range of applications such as vehicle-sourced data collection, green light and speed advice, automated hazard detection, selective vehicle priority, dynamic city logisti