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Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS has been selected by the E-ZPass Group, a coalition of 24 toll agencies in 14 US states, as vendor for a new 10-year technology and services contracts, subject to individual agency approval processes.

In preparation for commercial launch later this year, Better Place has unveiled the company's first battery switch station in Europe at an event in Gladsaxe, just outside Copenhagen.

APT Skidata has further enhanced its portfolio of parking technologies with the introduction of a new longrange Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag and reader solution to complement its existing Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) capabilities. The company says a low-cost long-range RFID technology is ideal in certain scenarios where the full cost of an ANPR solution cannot be justified.

Though still controversial, ramp metering, which has been around for nearly 50 years, continues to deliver substantial benefits, and generally for relatively small cost. Kansas City is a case in point. In March 2010, Kansas City Scout, a partnership between the Missouri and Kansas Departments of Transportation to provide ITS for the greater Kansas City Area, activated the first ramp metering system in the region. The project is located on an 8.85km (5.5 mile) section of Interstate 435 from Metcalf Avenue to

Efkon has supplied Austria's Asfinag Maut Service with mobile systems that help to automatically identify toll violators. In Austria and in other countries, the toll sticker system is widely used as the tolling method for vehicles with a maximum permissible gross weight under 3.5t because it is easy to use and economical.

AMG Systems has supplied its AMG 9000 managed ruggedised Ethernet switches for ITNL in India which is using the transmission equipment for the new 119 km addition to Highway No 8.

Inrix, the international provider of real-time traffic information and connected driving services, has made an offer to acquire ITIS Holdings for US$59 million.

PTV AG has announced what it claims is the first solution that enables users to verify and, if necessary, modify a string of GPS coordinates (tracks). The new xMapMatch Server software component validates and corrects GPS coordinates using the underlying street maps, which is particularly useful for fleet management and transport data warehouse applications, pay-asyou- drive scenarios and floating vehicle data collection. As the company points out, GPS coordinates which are sent from the vehicle to the serv

Iteris has signed a definitive agreement to sell its vehicle sensors business to Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a member of Knorr-Bremse Group. The sensors business encompasses a portfolio of vehicle active safety systems including lane departure warning, forward collision warning, and blind spot warning, as well as SafetyDirect software that analyses real-time driver performance. “The divestiture accomplishes two objectives,” said Abbas Mohaddes, president and CEO of Iteris. “It enables us to concentra

Alicia Parkway corridor, located in Orange County, California, was part of Phase 1 of an inter-jurisdictional Traffic Light Synchronisation Programme (TLSP) in Orange County designed to increase mobility and overall drive quality while reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. By increasing average speeds and reducing travel times via the reduction in stops, the programme sought to reduce vehicle acceleration and deceleration events along the corridor; these have been identified as the leadin

High Sierra Electronics and Innovative Dynamics have announced a partnership focusing on the ITS industry through which new optical sensor products originally developed by Innovative Dynamics for the aerospace industry are being manufactured by HSE for use in the transportation sectors.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) has unveiled what it claims is North America's first roadside assistance vehicle capable of charging electric vehicles.

Spain-headquartered Libelium, a specialist in wireless sensor networks, has announced the launch of its Waspmote-based Smart Parking platform, part of the company’s smart cities solution designed to be buried in parking spaces and to detect the arrival and departure of vehicles. The company says the platform, which will allow system integrators to offer comprehensive parking management solutions to city councils, will shortly be deployed in Santander, Spain.

Advanced Micro Peripherals has introduced a high-performance, dual-channel, highdefinition, ultra low latency H264 encoder card, the H264-ULLcPCI, for CompactPCI systems. It allows system builders to easily add high-definition video capture and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Part 10) encoding to their embedded CompactPCI equipment.

UK company Sicura Systems is supplying a fully fault-tolerant, integrated command and control solution to the US$416 million New Tyne Crossing project on the A19 near Newcastle in England.

It is only in the last couple of years that the viability of all-electric vehicles for day to day transport has begun to be recognised. Back in 2000, that was not the case, certainly in Italy, where a few pilot projects involving EVs were carried out with negative results. It is against this background, that the innovative Reggio Emilia eco-rental experience must be assessed.

NDI Recognition Systems has announced the latest release of its Talon ANPR engine and says that Version 8.2 includes enhancements to performance, international reading capability and a simplified set-up. For instance, it accommodates multiple lane capture on any system configuration and provides a high level of accuracy and performance without quality degradation. The engine supports ANPR reading from both the IR and the colour cameras feeds, which the company says is especially important in smaller project

Econolite has claimed a major industry milestone with a contract for its 75th Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) from the city of Longmont, Colorado, which will be deployed as part of the city's ITS upgrade project.

KBC Networks has announced its new WESII line of wireless products that build upon the success of the company's wireless point-to-point and point-to-multipoint offerings with a host of new features and capabilities. The new line delivers 802.11a/n compliance, increased bandwidth of 300Mb/s as a wireless access point (100Mb/s of usable throughput), and MIMO technology to enable up to 23dBm output power.

David Crawford reviews promising current developments. Instrumentation of the road infrastructure has grown to become one of the most dynamic sectors of the ITS industry. Drivers for its deployment include global concerns over the commercial and environmental pressures of traffic congestion, the importance of keeping drivers informed throughout their journeys, and the need to reduce accident rates and promote the safety of all road users, for example by enforcing traffic safety rules.