Classification & Data Collection

Colin Sowman looks at how a ruling regarding ANPR cameras in a small English town could have wide-reaching implications. Superficially it was an easy decision: the local council and traders wanted, and were prepared to fund, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras installed to deter crime in Royston, a small town (population 17,000) in rural England.

Blip Systems, Danish supplier of Bluetooth and wi-Fi traffic management solutions, has appointed Irish ITS systems integration specialists Bandwidth Telecommunications as their value added reseller. BlipTrack works by placing small sensors in road networks and anonymously tracking. This real time traffic flow data in enables road authorities to proactively manage the road network to minimise delays and congestion.

Odense municipality in Denmark has installed Bluetooth sensors along the city’s ring road to gather data on travel times and traffic flow. The BlipTrack system, manufactured by Danish company Blip Systems, utilises sensors at strategic points in the road network to detect signals from Bluetooth-enabled devices in passing cars to collect traffic and travel time information. The data will enable Odense traffic officials to improve the capacity of existing roads and detect changes in traffic patterns. In

Kapsch TrafficCom has delivered and installed weigh-in-motion systems at four stations on two highways in Kazakhstan. The project comprises high-precision weighing modules as well as the associated rear licence plate detection system. The system, developed by Kapsch, allows the weighing of vehicles even while travelling at full speed. Sensors detect whether a vehicle exceeds the maximum allowed weight, while additional sensors identify the vehicles’ licence plates. The data is transmitted and evaluated

The UK Highways Agency is trialling a system to add commercially available traffic data to its existing sources to monitor traffic flow on England’s motorways and strategic roads. Similar data sources are already used by satellite navigation devices, smartphones, and applications like Google maps. The system uses data that comes mostly from vehicle tracking devices installed by fleet operators, and a proportion from mobile sat-nav type devices, including smartphone traffic applications where the user has

A group of research centres and companies in Madrid has created what is said to be the first infrared and remote system able to detect pollutants from cars on highways up to three lanes. The goal is to be able to conduct a global test of automobile emissions. According to the researchers, the prototype, which is ready to be marketed, can make an intelligent measurement of highway traffic by collecting real-time data on traffic density, emissions and consumption associated with each vehicle, and weather c

For decades, planners and engineers have gathered traffic data using expensive, time-consuming surveys and processes. A new AirSage white paper, "The Future of Transportation Studies: A Comparative Review" looks at the emerging trends that are transforming the transportation planning industry and examines traditional traffic data collection methods and new complementary technologies at the forefront of the transportation industry.

Image Sensing Systems (ISS) is to focus on exploring the developing promising new and early stage technologies for commercialisation within the intelligent transportation, safety and security sectors. To this end, the company has formed a new research department, ISS Labs, headed by Dr Panos Michalopoulos, ISS’ original founder.

The latest addition to the smartmicro range of radar traffic detectors is the combined stop bar and advance detector, which the company claims offers a range of up to 180 metres and can effectively replace loops at the stop bar and at advanced approaches.

Danish wireless technology company Blip Systems has partnered with Smart CCTV to deliver Bluetooth and wi-fi journey time, origin and destination, traffic congestion monitoring and traffic management solutions to UK roads. Blip Systems’ BlipTrack uses small sensors at strategic points in road networks to track Bluetooth and wi-fi enabled devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and hands-free installations in cars to measure traffic flow and calculate travel time. The ability to obtain traffic flow data