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ITS International contributing editor David Crawford foresees the vehicle as 'sentinel being'

Oregon Department of Transportation's James Whitty discusses his state's progress with VMT fee-based charging. Back in 2001, the state of Oregon stole a lead on the rest of the US when it decided to address the need to do something about the gas tax and its decreasing ability to fund highway construction and upkeep. Recognising that a dwindling pot of money could only shrink further as vehicles became more fuelefficient, Oregon's Legislative Assembly passed laws which led to the setting up, by the state's g

ITS America prepares for the 18th World Congress on ITS and 2011 Annual Meeting, 16-20 October 2011, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida. In the final moments of the 2008 ITS World Congress in New York City, organisers and planning committee members quietly celebrated the conclusion of another extremely successful event for the ITS industry. In spite of the economic climate at the time, the 2008 World Congress was well attended by delegates from 66 countries and yielded impressive results than

In the US, the ITS Joint Program Office is about to conduct a series of Driver Clinics intended to gauge public reaction to Connected Vehicle safety technologies and applications. Starting in August, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will test Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) applications with everyday drivers in what it describes as 'normal operational scenarios'. These Driver Clinics are being carried out at six locations across the US and together with the subsequent model deployment beginning in 2012,

The US ITS Joint Program Office has been working with industry stakeholders to help define the form of future research projects. Here, the Office's James Pol discusses progress and future goals

Iteris, Inc.'s Abbas Mohaddes talks about his plans for ITS America this year

Some developed countries are far from leading the way when it comes to making road infrastructure safe. In fact, says the Road Safety Foundation's Joanne Hill, they learn a lot from what is happening in emergent nations. A new report from the Road Safety Foundation, 'Saving Lives, Saving Money - the costs and benefits of achieving safe roads', makes some startling assertions about attitudes to road safety. Although concerned predominantly with the UK, there are some universal lessons to be learned, accordin

Eric Sampson, visiting professor at Newcastle University and City University London and ambassador for ITS-UK, provides a retrospective on the last couple of decades and takes a look at what the ITS industry still needs to do to get to where it needs to be

For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by

Phil Harris, Thales UK, on how fused sensor data can significantly enhance GNSS-based positioning systems' performance in urban areas. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based positioning is unique among available positioning technology due to its universal coverage and low equipment cost. By measuring the distances between an unknown position (such as a vehicle), and at least three known positions (GPS satellites), the unknown position can be calculated in three dimensions (latitude, longitude, and

The case is growing for an alternative to fuel taxation for funding highway infrastructure. A more sustainable system of mileage-based charging can be established in a way that is acceptable to the travelling public, writes Jack Opiola. Fuel tax - the lifeblood relied on for 80 years to maintain and improve roads and transit systems - is now in considerable jeopardy in the United States. Increased vehicle fuel efficiency and a poor economy already hamper generation of fuel tax revenue; now a recent federal

Telvent has announced an important expansion of its weather information systems and forecast services with the launch of Telvent Total View - a comprehensive solution that takes advantage of distributed multi-nodal platform controls integrated via cloud computing. It efficiently collects the weather measurements users specify and combines them, through the secure computing cloud, with forecasts and operational data from clients' enterprise-level platforms.

Hi-Tech Solutions (HTS) has announced the VIR (Vehicle Identity Recognition) suite, a patent-pending technology which the company claims is a generation ahead of basic Licence Plate Recognition (LPR). The VIR suite recognises vehicle manufacturer logos (car make), car model, vehicle body and plate colours, country or state names and special icons on the plate itself (such as a handicap badge). HTS says the recognition capabilities of the numerous parameters identifying vehicles greatly enhance and improve v

'Keep it simple, stupid' is an oft-forgotten axiom but in terms of road user charging it is entirely appropriate. So says the ANWB's Ferry Smith. A couple of decades ago, it might have been largely true that the technology aspects of advanced road infrastructure were the main obstacles to deployment. However, 20 years or more of development have led to a situation where such 'obstacles' are often no more than a political fig-leaf. Area-wide Road User Charging (RUC) is a case in point; speak candidly to syst

Timidity has no place in effective enforcement operations on free-flow toll roads, says the NRA's Cathal Masteron. What's needed is a robust strategy which starts big and reduces in size over time, rather than starts small and gains a reputation for being easy to avoid