Air Quality & Weather Systems

The Oregon Department of Transportation improved safety on OR 217 by implementing a variety of signage and roadway enhancements. OR 217 currently experiences traffic congestion during peak commute times because of high-density traffic and crashes. The project focused on reducing crashes, helping to clear crashes quickly when they do occur, and giving motorists the ability to make informed travel decisions about traffic flow and roadway conditions. Since collisions on a busy highway can bring traffic to a h

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is testing wrong-way vehicle detection devices next to off-ramps along Phoenix-area freeways as part of an ongoing research effort to reduce the risk of wrong-way crashes. Three detectors, manufactured by Tapco have been installed along the northbound Interstate 17 exit to State Route 74, the eastbound Interstate 10 exit at Ray Road and the northbound Loop 101 off-ramp at Thunderbird Road. Two other detection devices, manufactured by Wavetronix, were instal

A connective corridor in Syracuse, New York State, could be a model for other post-industrial cities, as David Crawford discovers. The aim of the city of Syracuse’ 5.6km-long Connective Corridor in Onandaga County in upstate New York is to create a model ‘complete street’ for use in wider regeneration schemes. Key transport-sector components are traffic calming, high-quality transit with accessible passenger information, plus walkability and bike-friendliness.

Jonathan Raper, managing director of the TransportAPI talks to Colin Sowman about the benefits open data can bring to the public transport sector. That the digital revolution would change the world, including transport, was never in doubt but the question has always been: how? Now, with the ‘Millennium Bug’ relegated to a question on quiz shows, the potential and challenges of digital technology are starting to take shape - and Jonathan Raper is in the vanguard. Raper is managing director of the open data t

Glasgow City Council and West Dunbartonshire Council have awarded a joint contract to Siemens to maintain roadside traffic control and information equipment for a period of up to five years, commencing 1 August 2015. The new contract includes the provision of associated ancillary support services, as well as the supply of works and services to support the Councils’ traffic control operation and periodical planned signal and optical maintenance, With equipment at over 500 traffic signal intersections and

Refurbishing old dynamic message signs can save money and increase technical capabilities as David Crawford discovers. Evidence is growing on both sides of the Atlantic of the scope for retrofitting old or technically out-of-date dynamic message signs (DMS) with new electronic equipment, to save on the costs of installing full-scale replacements. In the last four months of 2014, a number of US states progressed programmes that achieved savings of more than US$1.75 million (€1.56million).

Sri Lanka has recently opened the new highway traffic management system (HTMS), implemented by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, (MHI) on the country’s Southern Expressway. The installation is the country's first full-scale system of its kind, and it is expected to contribute significantly to improved safety and reduced congestion on a local expressway. The expressway, which opened in 2013, stretches 120 kilometres from Colombo, the largest city in Sri Lanka, to Matara. Construction work was performed under

A report entitled Air pollution: the cost of inaction, published in July by the French Senate Committee of Enquiry estimates the annual cost of air pollution in France at €101.3 billion ($110 trillion), according to EurActiv France. The committee has described air pp0llution as an ‘economic aberration’ and has proposed measured including raising the tax on diesel and taxing emissions of the worst polluting substances. While overall air pollution has fallen in recent years, "the nature of the pollution

The Balfour Beatty Vinci joint venture has been awarded a contract by Highways England to deliver a smart motorway package worth up to US$792 million, the largest of Highways England’s three packages within its US$2.3 billion Smart Motorway Programme. The joint venture will deliver smart motorway upgrades to a ten mile stretch of the M5 Junctions 4a to 6 in Worcestershire; a 12 mile section of the M6 Junctions 2 to 4 in the Midlands and a 32 mile stretch of the M4 Junctions 3 to 12 in London and Berkshir

Swarco has installed a new dynamic parking guidance system in the city of Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany, in an effort to achieve a more efficient usage of the existing parking facilities in the city. Eight parking lots are integrated into the system, which features an open parking capability to detect vehicles entering and leaving cars via video technology. The system also includes 29 LCD variable message signs (VMS), five of which feature two-line information displays to display local event information.