Air Quality & Weather Systems

The German city of Hamburg and the Volkswagen Group are to collaborate over the next three years to jointly develop innovative solutions for making urban mobility more environmentally-friendly, safer, more reliable and more efficient. For Volkswagen the partnership is another step in its new Together 2025 strategy, for Hamburg it represents an important step in its strategy to develop intelligent transport systems and support its application to host the 2021 ITS World Congress.

Vaisala’s Dr Kevin Petty explains why the weather will continue to play a big part in road safety and traffic management in the smart cities of the future. The world is becoming increasingly connected. Thanks to advances in information and communications technology, the cities we live in are becoming ‘smart’, with everything from education to law enforcement managed by integrated tech solutions in a bid to improve quality of life.

Austrian traffic technology group Swarco has entered a definitive agreement to acquire California, US-based McCain based, which supplies traffic controllers, cabinets, signals, signs and software for the urban traffic market. The deal, scheduled to close on 31 August 2016, outlines Swarco’s intent to purchase 100% of the shares of the McCain. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Swarco plans to build upon the McCain brand; founder and owner Manfred Swarovski said they both have comp

David Crawford looks at new technologies to cope with the age-old problem of driving in bad weather. On the 10-year average, between 2005 and 2014 bad weather contributed to more than 1.5 million vehicle crashes in the US each year, resulting in more than 800,000 injuries and 7,400 deaths. These were the findings of analysis by Booz Allen Hamilton of NHTSA data which concluded that the loss of life, hospital treatment and damage to assets costs an annual average of $42bn.

SES America’s solar-powered variable message (VMS) sign comes in a wide range of types and models, including eight, 12 and 18-inch characters and front, rear or walk-in access and is suitable for deployment in most applications including rural areas, heavily congested roads, evacuation routes and seasonal traffic.

From September 2016, MetService and the New Zealand Transport Agency will commence a road weather mobile data acquisition trial, in conjunction with road contractors Fulton Hogan and Downer. The aim of the trial is to provide MetService, the Transport Agency, road contractors and the travelling public with pre-warning of challenging and dangerous driving conditions or potential road closures during severe weather. The six-month trial follows a pilot sensor-assessment process and aims to expand road

Frankfurt airport in Germany has installed new intermodal displays in Terminals 1 and 2 to provide passengers and visitors with information for their onward journey. In English and German, the displays include departures from the airport’s railway stations, bus schedules, the latest highway traffic information and available car and bike-sharing options. In addition to real-time information on possible delays, the bus and rail displays also show the walking time to the nearest station. Car users can get

Ticketless parking payment systems specialist Veri-park has launched an advanced vehicle counting technology that can be integrated with Swarco and third-party variable message signs (VMS) to better direct traffic through busy town centres.

Advances in emissions control technology in clean diesel passenger cars and light duty pickup trucks will have a positive effect on efforts to reduce future Greenhouse Gas Emissions, according to the federal government’s newly-released Draft Technical Assessment Report (TAR). The Draft TAR, which covers vehicle model years 2022-2025, confirms that automotive manufacturers are introducing new technology to market at a rapid pace, and predicts that the MY 2022-2025 standards are achievable with a wide ran

Traffic management company Siemens has been awarded one of its first operational services contract to provide traffic signal network management and monitoring for North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) in the UK. The new contract follows investment by NYCC in new technology and hosted systems combined with the introduction of Siemens Stratos, a cloud-based solution for all traffic management, control and monitoring requirements. As part of North Yorkshire’s Highway Maintenance Service, the County Counc