Air Quality & Weather Systems

Smart traffic system launched in India

January 5, 2015

The Noida Authority in India is to launch its intelligent traffic management system (ITMS) on the Noida-Greater Noida expressway from 11 January, following a week of trials from 5 January. The system will monitor traffic on the expressway and includes emergency call boxes linked to the expressway control room, as well as CCTV and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to provide 24/7 surveillance. LED message boards will provide drivers with information on road and weather conditions and wa

Vaisala offers next generation road weather monitoring

December 18, 2014

Vaisala’s new road weather station, the RWS200, combined with its RoadDSS software suite, enables the company to offer a revolutionary intelligent road weather information system called iRWIS. The system consists of intelligent roadside hardware, sophisticated decision support software and improved measurement reliability.

Communications redundancy increases VMS reliability

December 17, 2014

Hybrid communications to variable message signs increase resilience to natural disasters and enable deployment in remote areas, as Alan Allegretto explains. Variable Message Signs (VMSs) are a common sight and a well-proven means to improve public safety on our roads and highways. ITS professionals rank the VMS as second only to interoperable radios as the most important technology to improve effectiveness during emergency incidents and evacuations. Ironically, however, current systems suffer from one criti

Kapsch looks to the future

December 16, 2014

Colin Sowman reports from a two-day meeting where industry leaders, academics and political advisers presented their thoughts on the future of mobility. Most governments do not dare to introduce tolling systems… they are too frightened.” So said Georg Kapsch in his capacity of chief operating officer of Kapsch TrafficCom, during a forward-looking press event at the company’s headquarters in Vienna.

ITF releases projections for modal shares, emissions

December 4, 2014

New projections, released today by the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD during the COP20 climate change negotiations in Lima, Peru, highlight a critical choice for policy makers: whether to pursue urbanisation based on public transport or on private transport with cars and two-wheelers. Big cities in China, India and Latin America with over 500,000 inhabitants will more than double their share of world passenger transport emissions by 2050 to 20 per cent (2010: 9 per cent), if current urba

Smart truck parking in Denmark

December 3, 2014

Variable message signs have been installed on the Danish E20 highway between Odense and Copenhagen to give truck drivers real-time information on available parking areas. The highway, part of the Scandria corridor, carries some of the highest commercial vehicle volumes and connects capitals and metropolitan regions along the shortest route from Scandinavia via Central Europe to the Adriatic Sea. In the interests of road safety, truck drivers must adhere to strict travel and rest times.

Award for Europe’s green transport companies

December 2, 2014

European companies which have shared CO2 data and information on policies, strategy and intentions to reduce CO2 emissions from transport operations have been awarded the ‘first leaf’ by Green Freight Europe (GFE). The award is part of a four-tier labelling program by GFE that recognises and benchmarks members based on their efforts and measures to further improve on CO2 reduction. Heineken, IKEA, DHL, Hewlett Packard, Proctor and Gamble, TNT Europe, UPS and P&O Ferrymasters were among the first recipien

North Yorkshire to get county-wide ITS

December 1, 2014

Siemens is to supply North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) with its new Stratos integrated highways management solution. The new contract, with the largest county in England, will deliver real time UTC and SCOOT adaptive control for 43 sites in Harrogate and a further 10 sites in Scarborough by means of a hosted UTC SCOOT service, whilst sign and car park management will be provided for both towns by the cloud hosted Stratos car parking management module. The project will also deliver a new IP commun

Conflict monitoring systems for lane control sign applications

November 27, 2014

Messaging solutions provider SESA recently signed an agreement to develop NTCIP compliant lane control signs (LCS) incorporating a conflict monitoring system as a vital design criterion. This system will automatically change lane signals that correspond to the counter flow mandate. In multi-lane counter flow commute lanes, if a green arrow is displayed on one LCS, the LCS on its reverse must display a red cross. Timing on all LCS signs will be identical. Additionally flashing red crosses will be in

Michigan DOT receives best of ITS award

November 19, 2014

The Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT’s) Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) and Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) Program - designed and implemented by Delcan Technologies, a Parsons company, in partnership with Iteris - recently received the Best of ITS award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America). Honoured as the Best New Innovative Practice in the Sustainability in Transportation category, MDOT was recognised for the program’s leading-edge technology as we