Air Quality & Weather Systems

Alerts for natural disasters are ones that most of us would rather do without, writes Adam Hill. But the ITS industry still needs help to deal with more common meteorological issues Google Maps has added SOS alerts to its service. For those of us more used to using the phone app to navigate from a metro station to an unfamiliar restaurant, this may seem extreme. But this is not what Google has in mind. Its SOS messages are for “hurricane forecast cones, earthquake shake-maps and flood forecasts”. That

As transport, communications and energy networks become inextricably linked, policy makers are recognising the implications for our built environment – and the growing electric vehicle market will have a major impact on the world’s infrastructure, says Rolton Group’s Chris Evans

There is a lot of debate about the place of autonomous vehicles on our roads – but a Swedish company is already ploughing ahead with driverless snow clearance on airport runways, writes David Arminas Femcon, a Swedish applied automation company, has started an on-site project to clear snow from runway landing lights using autonomous vehicles (AVs). Most often, this time-consuming job has to be done manually because of the intricate manoeuvres needed to avoid damaging the lighting systems. The trial pro

Hurricane Harvey led to the creation of the Houston TranStar flood warning app

Mercedes-Benz has supplied three fully-electric buses to German municipal transport company Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr (RNV) to help improve air quality in the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg. Dr. Peter Kurz, mayor of Mannheim, says: “The electrification of buses is now an important milestone on the way to a clean city and will make local public transport significantly more attractive.” The first eCitaro bus will operate in Heidelberg, travelling from the main train station to the Altstadt commuter rail stati

North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDoT) has won a major award for its work responding to Hurricane Florence last year. The organisation was the overall trophy winner – up against 60 other submissions - at the first annual Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards, run by the US National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE). The gong was presented to Jennifer Portanova, NCDoT state systems operations engineer, at the 2019 Transportation Research Board annual meeting

Sixty years today, 2,300 drivers drove along an eight-mile section of road in England – the first motorway in the country. Opened in 1958, the Preston bypass – now part of the M6 - only had two lanes in each direction, with no safety barrier in the central reservation. There was also no technology – not even simple electronic signs. Highways England is pledging to celebrate the birthday by completing four upgrades on the M6 by spring 2022. The £900m project will add extra lanes and better technolog

Kapsch TrafficCom has upgraded a traveller information system in Texas to help transportation agencies in Dallas-Fort Worth optimise traffic flow. The new system will also provide travellers with real-time traffic and transit information. Kapsch updated the 511DFW platform for the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG). The company will maintain the system for two years and make improvements based on new data sources and customer feedback. The solution includes integrated applications such

McCain’s variable speed limit signs have been chosen for the new Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) smart corridor initiatives. The Swarco Group subsidiary says the deal with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDoT) is one of its largest variable messaging signs (VMS) deployments on the US east coast. McCain distributor M.H. Corbin has been awarded the contract for 76 signs to be installed over the next year along nearly 50 miles of the I-76 between King of Prussia and Philadelphia – a majo

Half of transport companies say that ITS adoption is being held back by a “limited understanding of the range of emerging technologies available”, according to a new global survey. The sobering finding – which indicates that ITS providers and policy makers have more to do to explain some of the benefits – comes from the IRU’s ‘The future of road transport’ report. The other major barrier to adopting technology is cost, say 71% of respondents. The IRU says: “This suggests that pockets of the industry have