Features

Drivers crossing Chile’s capital are benefitting from additional investment in ITS. Mauro Nogarin reports. Santiago de Chile is pioneering the development of concession-interoperable, multi-lane, free-flow urban highways. This road network crosses the city from north to south (Autopista Central), from east to west (Costanera Norte) and also includes the north-western (Vespucio Norte) and southern (Vespucio Sur) ring roads surrounding this metropolitan area of seven million people.

The argument for cost-benefit analysis of ITS has never been so strong, according to Dr Paul Vorster, CEO of ITS South Africa, as the industry finds itself “in the eye of a perfect storm. There are escalating demands for solutions to strategic challenges such as cutting congestion, and improving and expanding mobility by moving people out of private vehicles and into public and non-motorised transport.

The increasing availability and accuracy of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is opening up low-cost options in many areas as David Crawford finds out. Boosting commercialisation of European global navigation satellite system (EGNSS) technologies for ITS initially depends heavily on demonstrating competitive and cost/benefit advantages obtainable from the deployment of EGNOS (the current European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), and ultimately the EU’s Galileo constellation (see box). So,

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HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.

ITS International is to host its first conference for national and city authorities interested in the benefits and implementation of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). There is no doubt that Mobility as a Service (MaaS) will be a major disrupter and the next mega-trend in urban and inter-urban transport. Why? Because it is more convenient and cheaper for the individual traveller.

The in-house winter maintenance and vehicle tracking system built by the Public Works Department in Hartford, Connecticut, coped with record snowfalls and cut costs too. When it comes to dealing with the effects of mother nature, transport agencies can find themselves in a lose-lose situation: criticised if the roads or rail lines are disrupted by snow, ice or floods for more than a few hours and lambasted for wasting money if the equipment and stockpiles put in place for a hard winter remain unused.

Advances in vision technology are enhancing traffic surveillance and enforcement applications. Variable lighting conditions have long been a stumbling block for vision technology applications in the transport sector. With applications such as ANPR, the read-rate may vary between daylight and night and can be adversely affected by glare and low sun. Madrid, Spain-based Lector Vision had these considerations in mind when designing its Traffic Eye ANPR system, which combines off-the-shelf and custom hardware

Colin Sowman considers some of the latest advances in camera technology and transport-related vision technology applications. Vision technology in the transportation sector is moving apace as technical developments on both the hardware and software sides combine to make cameras more multifunctional with a single digital camera now able to cover a multitude of tasks.

With the Olympics approaching, Sony’s Stephane Clauss examines how the latest camera technologies can help cities cope with the huge crowds attending major events. This August will see more than 10,000 athletes head to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics Games. Alongside them will be their coaching staff, a hoard of logistics teams, thousands of volunteer marshals (London 2012 had 70,000) and millions of spectators. All such major events have nervous jitters on the way to the opening ceremony. This year has see

Low emission zones and heavy goods vehicles’ access to city centres may at first glance appear attractive but how effective are such controls? Jon Masters reviews emerging trends across Europe. Around 1,700 European cities have implemented low emission zones (LEZs) and in addition some have restricted city centre access for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Even those that restrict HGV access, such as Paris and Rome, allow exemptions at certain times and for particular classes of vehicle. But with what effect?

An air quality evaluation system that utilises existing data has been modelled on the UK’s motorways and tested in Manchester as Peter Kirby and Paul Grayston describe. It has long been known that emissions from road transport are the principal source of NO2 pollution, especially in the urban environment, and that appropriate transport management can play a big role in meeting environment and public health objectives.

New enforcement equipment is coming onto the market apace, as Colin Sowman discovers. If there is one word that epitomises the current trend in enforcement technology then that word is consolidation: multi-function cameras, miniaturisation and combining radar and visual detection methods. One example is Turkish company Ekin Technology’s recently introduced Micro Plate is claimed to be the smallest licence plate recognition device. In addition to logging licence plate data, the system records speed, date, ti

Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world. It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.