Features

Anne Berner, Finland’s minister of transport and communications, does not fit the normal political mould. She is not a career politician but a business executive who became a member of parliament in 2015 and has said from the outset that she will only serve one term. Without concerns about being re-elected and a clear view of the future of transport, Berner can concentrate on what needs to be done - tackling some of the more contentious and intransigent subjects. Her name is best known for two major initiat

Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c

David Crawford sees how Missouri is using commercially available information to rapidly improve monitoring and driver information on rural highways. Missouri is a predominantly rural state with the second largest number of farms in the country and agriculture the main occupation in 97 of its 114 counties. US statistics starkly reveal how road accidents in rural areas tend to be more serious than in urban regions and of the 32,000 US motorists killed each year, 54% die on roads in rural areas even though onl

Colin Sowman looks at some of the emerging technology being introduced to evaluate and operate Mobility as a Service. The fast-growing interest in Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) has prompted the creation of a host of software systems for those wanting to become a MaaS provider or participate in MaaS offerings. Most recently, at ITS International’s MaaS Market conference, Portuguese company Brisa Innovation announced a name change to A-to-Be to reflect its increasing involvement in the MaaS sector with the lau

David Crawford looks at a new initiative to deal with high crash and fatality rates on America’s tribal roads. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, on average two members of the country’s indigenous communities - American Indians or Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) - die every day in motor vehicle crashes. This represents a far higher percentage than that of the country’s general population. Historically, the US states with the worst records are Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakot

Mexico is implementing one of the world’s largest remote tolling systems backed by Indra’s technology. By Andrew Bardin Williams. Mexico recently implemented one of the largest remote toll systems in the world, covering 4,000km of the country’s public highways. Deployed and maintained by Spanish consulting and technology company Indra, in cooperation with the public utility Caminos y Puentes Federales (CAPUFE), the system allows drivers to pay tolls without stopping by using a TAG electronic device installe

David Crawford investigates the operation of Total Transport in some of Europe’s more rural areas. Total Transport is a concept that is gaining traction in Europe as a means of making it easier for people without access to a car and living in rural and remote communities, to travel to work, the shops, schools and hospitals. It involves maximising vehicle availability and integrating scheduled services with other transport services (including taxis) commissioned or contracted by more than one local governmen

Kapsch’s Bernd Eberstaller explains how the company’s new Tolling Services will help expand the number and capabilities of EETS services providers. By 2017, the European Electronic Tolling Service (EETS) should have been in operation for several years but it still remains some way away and with several significant hurdles still to be addressed. The concept behind EETS is simple enough: road users should be able to drive across Europe using only a single transponder to pay for all tolls, with the account-han

The technology and finance aspects needed for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to become widely adopted are taking shape as Geoff Hadwick and Colin Sowman hear. Sampo Hietanen, CEO of MaaS Global and ‘father’ of MaaS, started his address to ITS International’s recent MaaS Market conference in London by saying: “All of the problems that can be solved by a company or group of companies have already been solved, and now we are left with the big ones such as housing, transport and health. He called MaaS the “Netfli

Denver’s pioneering Go Denver mobility-as-a-service app has attracted 7,000 users in a matter of months. Geoff Hadwick heard how at ITS International’s recent conference. If Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is ever going to work, it needs to have “one universal platform everywhere” according to Sean Mackin, former manager of parking and mobility services at the Denver transportation and mobility department and now Colorado branch manager for ABM Parking & Transportation. Speaking at the recent MaaS Market confe

New solutions are being used to improve the management and safety of work zones on roads both big and small, as Jon Masters discovers. The UK government has recently been going to some lengths to paint a picture of a nation embracing a future of digital technology – understandably given the economic concerns arising from exiting the European Union. In December last year, however, the UK National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) put down a somewhat different marker for where the UK is now in terms of mobile c

Toll road operator must provide clear, comprehensive and consistent communications to user groups and the local community long before the facility opens. When new tolled highway infrastructure is about to go into service, the construction, management and finance specialists who brought it into being are about ready for a well-deserved celebration. But for the communications and outreach team responsible for building public support for the project – for bringing drivers to the road, and keeping partners and

Moveable barrier systems are offering engineers a new traffic management options. Work zones - be they for maintenance or road widening - are a fact of life and when they occur on major highways, they create no end of problems for traffic planners and travellers alike.

Timothy Compston weighs up the critical elements that keep the wheels of dynamic pricing schemes turning in today's high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. In the drive towards smarter tolling it is perhaps not surprising that sophisticated pricing algorithms are being rolled out to better reflect supply and demand on the roadway. This is the case with high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes which a growing number of DoTs are seeing as a way of smoothing the operation of their existing, and planned, freeway infrastructure

Tammy Meehan and Thomas Hedblom of 3M consider the ongoing development of technology needed to introduce connected and autonomous vehicles. The transportation industry is in the midst of the most dramatic shift since Henry Ford introduced horseless carriages. Already we are seeing the increased use of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) which, along with the introduction of autonomous vehicles in the next few decades, will bring profound changes to vehicles and the environment in which they operate.