Features

New ITS systems on either side of the Atlantic – such as an intriguing piece of connected clothing – aim to reduce the casualty toll among road maintenance personnel, says Alan Dron t’s not a lot of fun working on road maintenance or road construction worksites. By definition, you’re out in all weathers. You’re not popular with motorists, who blame you for hold-ups. It’s frequently physically arduous. And, worst of all, the sector has an unenviable record of injuries - even fatalities. Often working jus

UK cities must learn from the Netherlands and Denmark if active travel and increased safety for vulnerable road users are to co-exist, says TRL’s Marcus Jones Active travel’ refers to modes of transport in which physical effort is required to undertake purposeful journeys - for example, walking or cycling to school, work or the local shops, as well as walking and standing as part of accessing public transport. The benefits of replacing short car journeys with more active forms of transport are obvious. Act

Europe is seen as leading the charge as providers battle to gain traction for their Mobility as a Service apps. But that could be about to change with the roll-out of Cowlines in North America It is widely agreed that Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms have the potential to replace a lot of urban private car journeys – more than 2.3 billion of them by 2023 in fact, according to Juniper Research. Implementation of MaaS options is likely to be quicker in Europe than in the US for a number of reasons (

As transport, communications and energy networks become inextricably linked, policy makers are recognising the implications for our built environment – and the growing electric vehicle market will have a major impact on the world’s infrastructure, says Rolton Group’s Chris Evans

There is a lot of debate about the place of autonomous vehicles on our roads – but a Swedish company is already ploughing ahead with driverless snow clearance on airport runways, writes David Arminas Femcon, a Swedish applied automation company, has started an on-site project to clear snow from runway landing lights using autonomous vehicles (AVs). Most often, this time-consuming job has to be done manually because of the intricate manoeuvres needed to avoid damaging the lighting systems. The trial pro

Stamford, Connecticut is a vibrant, diverse community overlooking the Long Island Sound, within commuting distance of New York City. Stamford hosts the largest financial district in the greater New York metro area outside of Manhattan and is home to a high concentration of large corporations and corporate HQs. With a population of 130,000, Stamford is Connecticut’s third largest city and the fastest-growing municipality in the state. Like many US cities, Stamford had previously relied on an antiquated traf

It’s hard to pin down the world of Weigh in Motion. Adam Hill asks five of the sector’s leading players about current developments – and whether problems with certification will ever be solved

A relatively straightforward change to the way that pedestrians cross the street in a Florida city has made a significant safety improvement. And what’s more, it was cheap, finds David Crawford Installing a lead pedestrian interval (LPI) system at 25 central business district signalised intersections in the Florida city of Lakeland has cut numbers of incidents involving pedestrians by some 60% - at a cost of US$25 for 30 minutes' work, according to traffic operations manager Angelo Rao.

Enforcement policies need to start focusing much harder on business users, says a new initiative from Highways England. Geoff Hadwick reports on what this could mean for cutting work-related injuries and incidents

Just a few years ago, there was only one solution in terms of communications protocols for delivering vehicle connectivity. Now, road operators and vehicle manufacturers face choices – including a moral choice, perhaps. Jason Barnes looks at the current state of play There is a debate raging in the ITS world over future communications protocols. Asfinag, Austria’s national strategic road operator, has announced it will from 2020 be using ITS-G5 to support cooperative ITS (C-ITS) applications (‘First thin

As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong

Pedestrian deaths across the US have risen to their highest number in nearly 30 years. Many factors are responsible - including the rise and rise of SUVs - according to a worrying new GHSA report ore pedestrians died on US roads last year than in any year since 1990. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) suggests that 6,227 pedestrians were killed in 2018 – a 4% increase on 2017. Pedestrian deaths as a percentage of total motor vehicle crash deaths increased from 12% in 2008 to 16% in 2017, whi

Hurricane Harvey led to the creation of the Houston TranStar flood warning app

The ITS world finds itself in a time of great change. Swarco’s Michael Schuch talks to Adam Hill about connectivity, the increasing importance of the end user – and why you shouldn’t leave your core business behind