Air Quality & Weather Systems

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.

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.

Delcan is to lead the effort to install a new, one of a kind integrated corridor management (ICM) system along a 35-km section of I-15 in San Diego, California. The system will make use of Delcan's Intelligent NETworks product, which will manage multiple modes of transportation and provide a real-time, multimodal decision support system (RTMDSS) that will implement and integrate technologies and concepts that have yet to be used in the United States.

Virginia DoT faced a challenge common to many highway authorities around the world: the need, in economically challenging times, to replace ageing variable message signs reaching the end of their operational life. For some 25 years now, since the mid 80s, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT), has deployed variable message signs (VMS) as part of its motorist information systems. Throughout the state there are still many old 'flip-disk' signs. Some of the companies that provided these electronic messa

Iteris has signed a stock purchase agreement to acquire Meridian Environmental Technology, a privately-held company based in North Dakota.

The Texas Transportation Institute's Jerry Ullman talks about the state of the art in work zone safety in the US. Work zones are places where, perhaps more than anywhere else on the road network, mobility and safety are strongly linked. Historically, field crews and contractors wanted vehicles in work zones to be moving as slowly as possible, assuming that made conditions the safest for work crews. We are though starting to see a shift in such thinking with the realisation that excessive delays or slow-down

Telvent and IBM have announced that together they will develop smarter traffic solutions that are affordable and customised for small cities, university and government campuses and business districts. The solution can integrate and analyse data traffic control, road sensors, bus schedules, real-time GPS location and IBM's advanced analytics.

An overview of European efforts to increase disabled access to public transport, by David Crawford

Mentor Engineering has released its online passenger information system, Mentor MyRide. Developed for transit agencies, it provides passengers with various means of accessing real-time bus location, status and schedule information online using a desktop computer, smart phone or regular mobile phone.

Aftek, which is headquartered in Mumbai, India, has announced that it is now offering various transportation services under one complete framework, known as Aftek Transportation Framework (ATF). Designed for scalability and future growth, the main components of ATF are depot manager, bus tracking system, passenger information system, automatic fare collection, smartcard management and driver console unit. Being highly configurable, these components can be integrated easily with third-party devices and can a