Features

Thomas Hallauer from Ptolemus believes trials of connected road charging services will show the pay per mile concept will go much further than previously thought. Drivers are progressively becoming directly connected to the transport infrastructure and while the methods are changing, the innovation is really in the models rather than the technology.

For ITS to gain the recognition it deserves, Q-Free’s Knut Evensen argues that the sector must have a coherent message and avoid confusing the wider community with a bewildering array of terms and acronyms. Any industry or group of people will develop its own lexicon over time. The process is near-inevitable, as individuals’ knowledge bases increase and evolve, and terms for common wisdom are created and become truncated, or even slang. A danger, though, as a relatively small group looks to admit large numb

ASFINAG has developed a mobile traffic monitoring and guidance system through a pre-commercial procurement project. Drivers have become accustomed to roadside and gantry-mounted traffic guidance and control systems along the major roads and main motorway sections. But there are occasions when intense monitoring is required on a temporary basis along motorway sections without traffic guidance and control systems and on federal and national roads too. Examples include the monitoring of the traffic flow during

Mass pilgrimages, new tourists and a growing population lead Jeddah to seek some smart transport solutions as David Crawford finds out. Rationalising traffic movement and public transport in a major Middle Eastern business and tourist centre that is also a gateway for millions of religious pilgrims every year is the challenge for the 20-year Jeddah Strategic Plan and the Jeddah Public Transport Programme (JPTP) it spawned. The latter is costed at US$8bn.

Andrew Bardin Williams looks at Missouri’s plans to become America’s ITS testbed The state of Missouri launched its Road to Tomorrow initiative earlier this summer at the ITS America Annual Meeting and Expo in Pittsburgh, rolling out the welcome mat for transportation officials to try out new, innovative ITS technologies in the field.

Falling asleep at the wheel is the primary cause in thousands of deaths on American and other roads, with truck drivers the most at-risk group. David Crawford investigates measures to counter drowsy driving.

Snowmageddon response sweeps award, New push for seamless European travel, Young professionals group launched at ITS UK and Green transport initatives

American and European trials point to fuel and emissions reductions. A trial by University of California-Riverside (UC-Riverside) has shown connected vehicle technology has the potential to reduce fuel consumption (and therefore emissions) by up to 18% compared with an uninformed driver.

Rosa Rountree campaigns for accurate and consistent figures for the tendering of tolling concessions. If there is one thing about which Rosa Rountree is passionate, it’s numbers. That’s not surprising for a graduate accountant, but it is not only the quarterly accounts that concern the CEO and president of Egis Projects USA.

As Mobility as a Service starts to move into the mainstream of transport planning, David Crawford compares European and North American initiatives. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a concept fast gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic as a way of giving travellers digital multimodal one-stop shops and journey planning tools as an alternative to private car use. Planned delivery methods include subscription-based travel packages in Europe, and 'mobility aggregator' apps, including employee commute ben

The 2015 ITS World Congress opening ceremony saw PSA Peugeot Citroën executives arrive in an autonomous vehicle, so the International Benefits, Evaluation and Costs (IBEC) Working Group’s dedicated session proved very timely.

Mitsubishi’s David Jones considers an alternative to purchasing the display technology for traffic management centres. Display screen technology is evolving rapidly but while the video wall is arguably the most important technology system in a traffic management centre (TMC), most are five to 10 years old and effectively obsolete. When faced with similar problems, other sectors around the world have adopted a policy of leasing all or part of the equipment.

Andrew Bardin Williams looks at the City of Phoenix where voters backed a $30bn plan to revamp its transportation network to cultivate a more connected community. According to a Land Use Institute study, half of all Americans and even more millennials (63%) would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often. The City of Phoenix is putting in place plans to revamp its urban development and transportation policies to meet these changing quality of life perceptions.

The connected car concept is predicated on fast and reliable wireless communications in all locations but research has revealed wide variations in connectivity. The performance of wireless communications between two vehicles (V2V) or a vehicle and the infrastructure (V2I) is highly dependent on the environment and any surrounding interacting objects which can attenuate or support the wireless propagation.

Teledyne Dalsa’s Manny Romero looks at how the combination of camera manufacturer and software provider can make enforcement easier. Californian video analytics solution provider Eutecus develops real-time images capture and high speeds processing technology for applications including intelligent lighting and advanced driver assistance systems.