Features

The UK government has suggested that driverless cars could be on the roads by 2021. But designers and engineers are grappling with a number of difficult issues, muses Chris Hayhurst of MathWorks Earlier this year, the UK government made the bold statement that by 2021, driverless cars will be on the UK’s roads. But is this an achievable reality? Driverless technology already has its use cases on our roads, with levels of autonomy ranked on a scale. At one end of the spectrum, level 1 is defined by th

Gulf Traffic takes place on 9-11 December in Dubai – the centre of business in the Middle East and North Africa. ITS International is the official media partner of Gulf Traffic, and this year the event will highlight the latest technologies and systems from global suppliers. Rahul Rawat, exhibition director, explains how the international industry can benefit from the opportunities that the region provides.

Wrong-way warning systems and advanced queue detection can help to reduce human error. They can also cut road accidents – and therefore road deaths, says Clearview Intelligence Where were nearly 1,800 deaths on the UK’s roads in 2018 – an average of five people dying each day. The largest single cause of serious injury is crashes at junctions (accounting for 33% of incidents), while the largest single cause of death was run-off road crashes (30%) “With vehicles increasingly being designed with saf

From Los Angeles to New Delhi, cities may have to expand their current charging infrastructure for electric vehicles by 500% in the next few years. Arup’s Dominic Taylor asks how cities, infrastructure owners and transport authorities can make joined-up decisions ive years from now, low emission vehicles – predominantly electric vehicles (EVs) - will be transforming the streets of our cities – as long as these vehicles have somewhere to charge. Drivers of EVs without driveways, and unable to charge at hom

Delegates at this year’s ITS World Congress in Singapore will be able to experience Mobility as a Service for themselves in the form of MobilityX’s Zipster app

From DSRC and RFID to GNSS or smartphones – which technology is ‘best’ for tolls, charging and pricing schemes? In the first of two articles, Josef Czako examines the options

As a US Marine, BlackBerry’s Jeff Davis saw the world’s trouble spots. But much of his attention is now focused on what he sees as the ITS sector’s biggest issue: cybersecurity. Adam Hill finds out more Oh, I often feel I’m the dumbest guy in the room,” laughs Jeff Davis, senior director, connected transportation, at BlackBerry. It’s hard to credit this. Davis has a range of experience that sets him apart from most people in the ITS sector. He was in the US Marine Corps, with seven tours of duty, inclu

Vision technology provider Axis Communications has set up a camera system for ATrain, which owns and operates rail services – including seven trains and one workshop - between Stockholm and Arlanda Airport. The Arlanda Express trains run on one of the few privately-operated railroad lines in Sweden. The company decided in 2015 to install a camera solution at train stations and depots to monitor flows of travellers, checking signs, elevators and escalators and making sure that the ticket machines are wor

Utah is making smart roadways a priority and has entered a partnership with Panasonic to move things forward. Adam Hill asks Utah DoT to outline where the state is heading Utah Department of Transportation (UDoT) has form when it comes to connectivity. It built the first operational connected vehicle corridor in the US – and has now joined up with Panasonic to extend its operation. “When we work with technology providers, we are working together to get that win-win,” says Carlos Braceras, UDoT executi

Despite law changes, drivers’ bad habits have been creeping back in. TRL’s Dr Shaun Helman tells Adam Hill why using a phone at the wheel is just as distracting as driving after a few drinks esearch from as far back as 2002 (see box) suggests that driving while making a phone call – either hands-free or holding a handset to your ear – creates the same amount of distraction as being drunk behind the wheel. While it is notoriously hard to predict how alcohol will affect an individual (due to the speed of

Advances in technology make it possible for authorities to compile and maintain MaaS platforms cheaply - and without relinquishing control to third parties. Colin Sowman finds out more… It is increasingly clear that local authorities’ reluctance to implement Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is based on politics and finance. However, the technology underpinning MaaS is evolving rapidly and is presenting new solutions. At its heart, the political resistance comes down to the divide between the ethos of public

Connected cars require uninterrupted signals to ensure driving safety. Going underground creates problems – but a trial in Norway suggests that there might be light at the end of the tunnel… As connectivity becomes increasingly important for transportation – in particular for connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) - the problem of ‘blackspots’ and dead zones where signals fail or drop out is a pressing one. But developments early this year suggest that advances in technology might be on the brink of d

Getting vision tech to ‘off-grid’ areas is a challenge - but Hikvision has come up with an answer in China, while also handling some rather more conventional smart cities work in Germany

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

Cycling is good for us for any number of reasons. David Crawford finds that it is now possible to access basic, low-cost data which will help make the economic case for improving infrastructure Cycling is enjoying a favourable press the world over as a ‘good thing’ in the economic, environmental and social spheres. A recent study on the Value of Cycling from the UK’s University of Birmingham, for example, shows that cycle-friendly urban settings can deliver annualised transport infrastructural support co