Classification & Data Collection

Econolite Canada has announced it has expanded its vehicle detection and traffic measurement capabilities by offering RTMS (Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor) G4 to the Canadian transportation management industry. According to the company, RTMS G4 is the newest generation radar sensor for vehicle detection and traffic measurement, adding to Econolite Canada's growing portfolio of strategic ITS capabilities.

INIT, Innovations in Transportation, has signed a contract with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) in Salt Lake City for the installation of an intelligent transportation solution to be fitted on more than 35 FrontRunner commuter rail vehicles. Fifty per cent of the vehicles already have existing automatic passenger counting technology from INIT and will be upgraded with the new system components.

International Road Dynamics (IRD) has received a contract valued at approximately US$1.22 million from Canada's Prince Edward Island Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (PEI DTIR). The contract is for the supply, installation, and maintenance of a mainline weigh-in-motion (WIM) sorter system, and will complement the weigh station operation located 1 km east bound of the Confederation Bridge. Installation is scheduled for completion by the end of June 2011.

A UK government strategy to tackle congestion caused by motorway closures and drive down the £1 billion (US$1.6 billion) annual cost to the economy has been unveiled by Roads Minister Mike Penning, who also announced the launch of a £3 million ($4.87 million) fund for police forces to purchase laser scanning technology to speed up of the investigation process and incident clear up times.

Swindon in the UK is set to trial smart traffic lights which turn to red if approaching drivers are breaking the speed limit. Sensors will detect speeding vehicles and if they are above a preset limit then the signals ahead will turn to red. If congestion builds up then the traffic light phasing will change automatically to allow more traffic through the junction. ANPR systems will detect emergency vehicles and ensure they are not inhibited by the system.

Swarco has announced that its iTravel traffic data acquisition system has received approval from the Dutch National Data Warehouse Institute (NDW), created by 15 authorities, including the Dutch Highway Authority Rijkswaterstaat, to provide complete, reliable and up-to-the-minute information on the status of the Dutch road network - all motorways and major provincial and city roads - at all times.

Turkey's General Directorate of Highways (KGM or Karayollari Genel Müdürlügü), is ordering power, lighting and ventilation equipment from Siemens for a major tunnel project. The Dorukhan Tunnel linking Mengen and Devrek will be equipped with the package from Siemens, which includes associated safety and communications systems. The size of the deal has not been released and the handover of the new system is scheduled for January 2012.

A full scale major incident emergency exercise has been carried out in the UK’s brand new Hindhead Tunnel on the A3 in Surrey. Located just to the south of London, the A3 route carries heavy traffic volumes and the existing road link has been a major bottleneck for capacity as well as proving a safety risk for the area. The new tunnel, due to open soon will relieve traffic jams in the area and boost capacity.

Iteris has introduced Abacus 2.0, its next generation traffic incident detection and data collection product that provides traffic engineers and departments of transportation a software-based ‘force multiplier’ that leverages existing camera systems to collect real-time traffic data, rapidly identify incidents, and gain enhanced traffic flow information in a ready-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) format.

Iteris has released a major upgrade to its leading video detection management software. VantageView 2.0 provides enhanced data collection and graphical display, including vehicle counts, speed, and occupancy, as well as multi-video viewing capabilities from a web-based application. This intelligence is essential for traffic engineers and planners seeking to maximise efficiency of traffic flow. VantageView is an integrated software platform that enables traffic managers to monitor video feeds from Iteris’