Search

Road traffic accidents have an enormous impact on society in terms of human loss, pain and suffering and a significant cost to the economy, the individual and their families. Accident rates on South Africa's roads are among the highest in the world and cost the country in the region of $163 million each year. The former head of the Department of Transport (DoT), Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa, described the situation as "carnage on our roads", with over 500,000 accidents and 10,000 fatalities per annum and the number of

Scott Andrews and Scott McCormick take a look at how standards development for the telematics environment needs itself to evolve in order to stay abreast of technological advances. While the road has been somewhat arduous, telematics has evolved from a research activity to a resource for fleet operators, consumers and road management authorities.

Daimler AG is investing in carpooling.com GmbH which claims to be the world's leading ridesharing network, transporting one million people a month across Europe. The platform is available on the Internet, on smartphone apps and Facebook. The company claims it has experience globally in bringing together ride-sharers for both medium- and long-distance trips, as well as for commuting. By reviewing profiles and ratings users know exactly who they are traveling with. In addition to rides, the company's platform

Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT) has launched of E-ZPass Flex, a new E-ZPass transponder able to switch between toll-free and toll-paying travel on the 495 Express Lanes scheduled to open by the end of this year. Because these lanes are an all-electronic tolling facility, every vehicle using them will need an E-ZPass transponder. And, though every standard E-ZPass transponder will work in the Express Lanes, only the E-ZPass Flex transponder enables drivers to use a manual switch on the transpond

As part of a recent rail investment package, the Department for Transport has ring-fenced a US$100 million fund for safety improvements to level crossings between 2014 and 2019, and Optex has announced that its Redscan laser detector has been specified as part of a new solution to automate signalling and detect whether or not a level crossing is clear from vehicles and pedestrians before allowing a train to pass through.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan says that the electric vehicle (EV) charging station market in North America has grown immensely, helped along by favourable government level (federal, state and municipal) incentives and subsidies for the purchase of EVs. The government is extending these plans to the installation of charging station and funding programmes such as ECOtality's EV project, which is trying to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure in six major states.

Pennsylvania-based LB Foster Company has been awarded the company’s largest rail products contract, valued at approximately US$60 million, by contractor Kiewit/Kobayashi, a joint venture for the county-wide construction of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) passenger transit system. LB Foster rail, concrete ties, direct fixation fasteners, third rail with accessories and special trackwork will be installed throughout the Honolulu Rail Transit project’s new elevated railway system and mai

John C. Toone, King County Metro, describes the transition to an IntelliDrive-led approach to communication and information sharing in line with the introduction of a new bus rapid transit service. King County Metro (KC Metro), which serves Seattle, Bellevue and over 20 suburban towns, has been active in the development of intelligent transportation systems for many years. It has operated a signpost-based AVL system for more than a decade and has used this to provide bus location information to the public o

District 7 of Caltrans has been conducting trials to see whether the use of a single inductive loop to measure vehicle lengths and so identify heavy trucks is feasible. So far, the results have been very promising, according to Lead Transportation Engineer Steve Malkson. Between them, the adjoining ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the US's two biggest, cover some 10,700 acres (43km2) and 68 miles (109km) of waterfront.

The use of a Vehicle Data Translator will allow every vehicle on a given segment of road to contribute to a highly accurate, readily accessible source of localised weather information, thus improving safety in all conditions. Sheldon Drobot and William P. Mahoney III, US National Center for Atmospheric Research, Paul A. Pisano, USDOT/Federal Highway Administration, and Benjamin B. McKeever, USDOT/Research and Innovative Technology Administration, write. On the morning of June 10 2009, under the cover of den

Amsterdam City Council has chosen to move away from manual enforcement of its environmental zone, which is intended to keep highly polluting goods vehicles out of the city centre, and is installing an automated, ANPR-based system. The signs are not much to look at: white with a red circle and the all-important word Milieuzone ('Environmental zone'). But these signs mean that Amsterdam's city centre is strictly off-limits to polluting goods traffic. At the moment compliance is monitored by special wardens wh

Andrew Rooke and Dave Marples of Technolution B.V. take a look at what can be done to address a long-standing problem: the all-or-nothing approach of automated enforcement. To start, a brief history of speeding: on 14 November 1896, the first Veteran Car Run was staged in England from London to Brighton. It was organised to celebrate new British legislation to raise the maximum speed of vehicles from four to 14mph while also removing the need for a person waving a red flag to walk in front of the car and wa

Across the board, technology is being brought to bear to improve the efficiency of enforcement. Bus lane monitoring, parking and controlled access have all benefited from systems introduced in recent months. While speed and red light infringements tend to attract the most attention, there remain several other areas of enforcement where automation can bring significant operational and efficiency benefits. Lane monitoring and access control also continue to benefit from technological development.

David Crawford watches the race to get the world's first PRT system up and running. To paraphrase the old joke about buses bunching, you seem to have to wait several decades for a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, and then half a dozen come along together. Currently, in fact, there are well over that number of schemes for driverless electric passenger-carrying 'pod' networks at various stages of planning, design and implementation around the world. Locations range from a straight-off-the-drawing board ne

Econolite's new subsidiary Aegis ITS has been set up to address the increasingly complex and exacting needs of agencies in the ITS sector. Chief Operating Officer Doug Terry talks about the evolution to service solution provider. A few very notable and honourable exceptions notwithstanding, it is these days becoming increasingly rare to find a public agency which develops its own traffic management systems. Indeed, most now rely on specialist manufacturers and suppliers to fulfil their needs. This has the h

The Industrial Automation Group of Advantech has launched the UNO-3282, a new, high-performance, embedded automation computer with fan-less, diskless, and cable-less design. The device comes with a Core 2 Duo CPU, 1 x PCI slot, and 1 x PCI Express. Moreover, a user-replaceable kit is included which can replace the PCI Express/PCI slot combination with two standard PCI slots. Advantech claims this combination of versatile functionality allows the UNO-3282 to fulfil a wide variety of applications in sectors l

JAI is launching two new high dynamic range CMOS cameras, the TS-4032EN (monochrome and TSC-4032EN (colour), tailored to demanding vehicle imaging and vehicle recognition applications in electronic toll collection, open road tolling, journey time information, speed enforcement, red light enforcement and homeland security.

Alpha Technologies has introduced five new products to expand and update its line of ruggedised, outdoor Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and backup power solutions. Included in this market introduction are three new battery backup system enclosures and two new transfer switches for use in traffic and ITS applications.

McCain has announced the official release of its first round of traffic equipment for the Omnitrans E Street Corridor sbX Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in San Bernardino Valley, California. Project materials for release includes traffic signals, traffic signal controllers, traffic controller cabinets, poles, safety lighting, and battery backup systems.

Trillium CNG, a business unit of Integrys Energy Group, and AMP Americas have established a joint venture, AMP Trillium, focused on building a network of CNG stations across the US. Initially, AMP Trillium will construct stations along the I-65 and I-75 trucking corridors and major routes in Texas, with the first station breaking ground towards the end of this year. The stations will be open to the public, though the primary customers will likely be heavy-duty and long-haul trucking fleets.