Search

Alterations to traffic signals and variable message signs are being activated to reduce congestion as soon as it occurs, through a pioneering fully automatic UTC system. Jon Masters reports In the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley in England, strategies for dealing with traffic congestion have been devised from analysis of queue data, then made to work automatically: “This represents the future of ITS for urban traffic control,” says Siemens Consultancy Services senior engineer David Carr. Over a career span

Swarco has announced that its iTravel traffic data acquisition system has received approval from the Dutch National Data Warehouse Institute (NDW), created by 15 authorities, including the Dutch Highway Authority Rijkswaterstaat, to provide complete, reliable and up-to-the-minute information on the status of the Dutch road network - all motorways and major provincial and city roads - at all times.

Teledyne Dalsa has introduced the Genie TS series cameras which combine advancements in the company’s CMOS imaging sensor technology with a newly optimised camera series that delivers what the company claims is the widest, most powerful feature set ever in a GigE Vision camera. The Genie TS series will include VGA, 1.2, 1.4, 2, 4, 5, 8 and 12 megapixel formats, reach speeds up to 300 fps and be available in both monochrome and colour versions.

Sweden’s National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) is publishing a new report showing ways to improve road safety. Of note is the fact that the report does not recommend a ban on mobile phone use while driving. Instead, VTI believes that a package measures can train and support drivers to manage communications more safety. According to VTI, this will be more effective than a ban on the use of cell phones at the wheel. VTI claims that more information will enable drivers to understand when it is d

The US Department of Transportation has announced the six cities where it will hold Driver Acceptance Clinics for the connected vehicle programme. The first clinic will be held in Brooklyn, MI, near Detroit, in August, while the remaining clinics will be held in Minneapolis, Orlando, FL, Blacksburg, VA, Dallas and San Francisco.

TRL, the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory, and Road Safety Analysis (RSA) have announced they will combine capabilities and expertise to support road safety delivery in the UK. Working together, both organisations say they are planning a number of projects to provide new tools and make their joint expertise more accessible to professionals.

Truck operators have been invited to apply for a slice of US$15.34 million provided for industry trials of carbon-cutting trucks by the UK Department for Transport and the Technology Strategy Board. A competition opened yesterday for applications under the ‘Low carbon truck demonstration trial’ which will deliver fleets of low-emission heavy goods vehicles as well as supporting infrastructure such as fuelling stations and electric recharging hubs.

Activu Corporation, a leading provider of IP-based visualisation and collaboration solutions for mission-critical command and control centre environments, has announced that its solution has been selected by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDoT) for integrated traffic management operations across multiple fixed and mobile locations in District Two.

Ford has demonstrated its latest advancements in vehicle-to-vehicle communications at the final CoCarX (Co-operative Cars Extended) research project presentation, further highlighting the viability of improving road safety and traffic management through the use of intelligent vehicles.

Kapsch TrafficCom North America has issued a press statement applauding Help Incorporated's selection of 5.9 GHz DSRC. Through its partnership with Xerox, Help is the service provider of PrePass, the largest truck safety screening system in the US. "We believe 5.9 GHz DSRC is far-and-away the best technology for next generation commercial vehicle safety screening because of its performance, flexibility and ability to provide real-time vehicle health information to state enforcement personnel," said Chris Mu

Following a successful trial in 2007, VicRoads has adopted Streams Motorway Management from Transmax as its primary traffic management and control system Throughout the world, the avoidable social cost of traffic congestion continues to rise each year with increased motorisation, urbanisation and population growth. Traffic congestion is responsible for an increase in travel times, vehicle operating costs and carbon emissions. In 2007, VicRoads commissioned Streams Motorway Management for the M1 Monash Freew

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has released a Standardisation Roadmap for Electric Vehicles – Version 1.0, developed by the Institute's Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP). The roadmap assesses the standards, codes, and regulations, as well as conformance and training programmes, needed to facilitate the safe, mass deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in the United States.

VidSys has announced its North American-based partnership with Activu Corporation which will see them combining their complementary technologies to provide a highly visual and comprehensive situational awareness and management solution for all security and safety stakeholders across the public sector. As a result, the partners claim the speed and quality of collaborative decision making is significantly improved, driving optimal, proactive and timely responses to unfolding situations in order to safeguard l

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Masabi US, a transit mobile ticketing specialist, have jointly announced that they will be bringing mobile ticketing to MBTA commuter rail riders later this year. With applications for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, customers will be able to seamlessly purchase commuter rail tickets and passes and, once they are purchased, customers will be able to use and display directly via their phone screen.

The government of Western Australia has released a comprehensive plan to address traffic congestion in and around the central business district (CBD) of Perth with an AU$47.6 million (US$48.96) budget package to ensure the district has a sustainable transport network to accommodate major city projects and a growing population.

Switzerland-headquartered U-blox has announced the acquisition of UK-headquartered 4M Wireless, a company that designs and develops leading software and test solutions that are crucial for developing fourth generation (4G) mobile wireless devices based on the latest Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards. The acquisition will give U-blox ownership of advanced protocol stacks that are licensed to chipset vendors whose products enable 4G user equipment for applications with needs for high speed data connectivity

Some 96 traffic signal intersections in Phoenix, Arizona, have deployed closed circuit surveillance cameras to supervise traffic, of which 88 intersections use Vivotek cameras. AJP Electric was the programmer and installer of the project covering deployment of Vivotek SD8313E cameras which integrate wide dynamic range (WDR) pro technology and offers a high-performance speed dome network ideal for outdoor surveillance applications.

Parkeon is partnering with Ranger Services, a specialist in the development and application of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology, for the latest version of its ANPR-based off-street parking solution. ParkReg is Parkeon’s successor to ParkingPal, the back-office solution for which the company developed its innovative Strada Touch payment terminal with a full colour 7” touch screen and electronic keyboard.

The Swinburne Intelligent Transport Systems Laboratory has been launched in a joint collaboration between VicRoads, the road agency of the Australian state of Victoria, and Swinburne University of Technology. The state’s first dedicated traffic analysis research centre, it will analyse live traffic data to gain insight into network congestion and develop better mechanisms for managing vehicle flows. The research will be fed directly back to VicRoads' head office in order to improve traffic management strate

Switzerland-headquartered u-blox has announced the successful demonstration of an enhanced LEA-6H GPS module which also supports Glonass navigation. The Russian Glonass satellite system is an alternative as well as complementary system to the US-based GPS. It currently has 22 deployed satellites, with the complete constellation of 24 satellites needed for complete global coverage scheduled for the end of this year.