Skip to main content

Air Quality & Weather Systems

March 22, 2013
TomTom powers new AA Roadwatch Pro traffic app
The UK’s Automobile Association (the AA) has licensed TomTom’s HD traffic data to power its new AA Roadwatch Pro traffic app, which it has been launched to alert users to congestion on their planned routes. Using TomTom’s real time traffic services, the app provides subscribers with a text alert if there are traffic delays on their planned journey before they leave. Users can then decide on an alternative route if necessary, to give them the best chance to arrive at their destination on time. The app also p
March 15, 2013
Hyundai delivers real-time traffic updates
Hyundai Motors New Zealand will become the first vehicle manufacturer in the country to include real-time traffic updates as an integrated feature of its vehicle satellite navigation systems. The system, which receives live updates from the Suna traffic channel and adjusts the recommended route to bypass traffic, gives drivers access to up-to-the-minute information on traffic incidents such as accidents, road closures, traffic congestion, major road works and special events when travelling in Auckland, Well
March 14, 2013
Real time traffic updates available at Total fuel stations
Motorists in Belgium can now obtain real time traffic and travel updates at selected Total fuel stations, thanks to information supplied by mobility services provider Be-Mobile displayed on screens designed and implemented by digital communications specialist Dobit. The up to the minute graphical traffic overview displays traffic jams, road works and accidents. The screens will switch views from traffic information to in-house deals for shoppers and other relevant information, which Total hopes will increa
March 13, 2013
Hertfordshire’s traffic control centre ‘improves congestion’
As part of a wider Hertfordshire County Council strategy to ease congestion across the county, the council is installing variable message signs to provide live incident information, managed by a centralised control centre at County Hall. The centre opened in October last year at a cost of around US$600,000 and is operated by eighteen staff, who monitor the county’s road network. If an accident occurs, traffic signals can be adjusted and messages displayed in a bid to redirect traffic ease congestion. Mainte
March 11, 2013
‘Wrong font’ on signs could overturn speeding fines
Thousands of UK motorists caught speeding on two stretches of the M62 in Warwickshire could have their convictions overturned because the wrong font was used on the speed limit signs. The Crown Prosecution Service said the signs showed miles per hour (mph) numbers taller and narrower than they should have been, failing to comply with traffic regulations. The regulations governing variable speed limit signs are set out in a government document called Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. If
March 7, 2013
Vaisala divests non-weather product lines
In line with its long term strategy, Finnish road weather information technology company Vaisala has carried out a review of its products and has sold three non-weather product ranges, distance measuring instruments, portable traffic analysers, and highway advisory radio systems, to its US distributor, M H Corbin. M H Corbin is an established Vaisala distributor in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. In addition to the three new product ranges, the company has also been a distributor of Vaisala’
March 7, 2013
New technologies to aid drivers in poor visibility
Abu Dhabi traffic police are to introduce an electronic weather system to alert motorists of fog, rain, and visibility problems ahead. Dense fog is a major problem for motorists across the country in the winter months. Heavy dust storms in summer also affect visibility. The system uses the latest technology and combines the tracking systems, patrols distribution information, traffic accident analysis system, and smart traffic awareness system of the Smart Traffic System Centre at the Abu Dhabi Police and T
March 1, 2013
HeERO - harmonising e-Call across Europe
The second stage of the EC’s HeERO project, which aims to address some of the issues surrounding the eCall system, has just got underway. Jason Barnes reports. As the European Commission (EC)’s Har­monised eCall European Pilot (HeERO) project progresses into its second stage, ‘HeERO 2’, significant progress has already been made in addressing the technological and institutional issues relating to the pan-European deployment of an eCall system based around the new ‘112’ universal emergency telephone number.
February 28, 2013
Developing Mexico's ITS standards and infrastructure
Promoting open market conditions for ITS deployment remains a major part of Mexico’s recent infrastructure modernization program. Travis P Dunn, partner at D’Artagnan Consulting, looks at the progress so far. In the past six years, Mexico has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure modernization program, calling for the construction and improvement of more than 19,000km of road infrastructure and the deployment of advanced technologies that improve safety, efficiency, and convenience for road users. One of
February 27, 2013
Internet-connected cars their functionality and safety challenges
Internet-connected cars are poised to flood the market in the near future. Pete Goldin considers the functionality they offer, the technology they use and the challenge they represent in terms of driver safety. Many vehicles on the road today offer some sort of inter­net connectivity and experts agree that this capability will become a competi­tive differentiator in the automotive industry in the next few years. The era of the digital vehicle, it seems, has started. “We clearly see that cars in the near f