Features

David Crawford previews a work zone travel breakthrough. In February 2014, the Port of Long Beach in California launched what it claims is a groundbreaking construction zone navigation aid - LB Bridge mobile app. The app is designed to help drivers during the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement programme by keeping them up to date on activity and the ensuing traffic diversions when construction starts in summer 2014. The unusually content-rich app is designed to convey current project news (enlivened by phot

David Crawford reports on how the authorities in New Zealand are using Bluetooth technology to monitor the effects of a new expressway as it is being constructed. New Zealand Highway Agency (NZHA) is using Bluetooth-based vehicle detection to assess the impact of its biggest road building project as the various sections are completed. The large-scale deployment of a Bluetooth-based vehicle detection system is making substantial contributions to traffic data needs in progressing the new Waikato Expressway, a

Map-based computerised road asset management can pay dividends as Colin Sowman discovers.

The EU is helping countries in North Africa and the Middle East utilise Galileo’s services. With its Galileo constellation rapidly taking shape, the European Union has opened lines of communication with countries in North Africa and the Middle East with a view to assisting their governments and businesses to utilise the satellite services that extend across the Mediterranean. The services available to countries are provided through the European Global Navigational Satellite System (E-GNSS), which includes a

Siemens’ introduced its new Sitraffic sX controller as a ‘game changer’, Colin Sowman finds out why.

David Crawford investigates a control centre with a future. Destined to play a central role in keeping the city and its transport running smoothly during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in July, the new Glasgow Operations Centre in Scotland’s largest urban centre formally went live earlier this year. The aim was to dry run its far-reaching integration of previously distinct core systems and familiarise the public with the initial phase of what will be a long-term post-event legacy. The centre brings together, i

Truvelo UK’s new TRIMMS infrared illumination enables mobile speed enforcement in the dead of night. Lincolnshire is the UK’s fourth-largest county, has a population of over a million and is predominantly rural. Only 66km of its 8,893km road network is dual carriageway and 79% of the rest is ‘C’ class or unclassified roads. In terms of Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) figures, there were 415 casualties in 2013 (down from 526 in 2002). Official figures show inappropriate speed accounts for 25% of the UK’s

Survey reveals some division of views about enforcement’s future as Colin Sowman discovers. Technological advances and legislative changes pose many questions for those involved in road enforcement, ranging from the changing demands of privacy and data protection legislation to the practicalities on multi-speed enforcement. So to get the industry’s views ITS International took soundings on some of these bigger questions. In a world where many vehicles are fitted with GPS linked ‘black box’ telematics system

Exciting new weigh in motion solutions were showcased at Intertraffic. Guy Woodford reports For many years weigh-in-motion (WIM) has been used solely as a filtering mechanism to detect potentially overloaded vehicles, but introductions at Intertraffic may see that change. At the Intertraffic exhibition to unveil its Apollo range of British-manufactured axle weighbridges was Applied Traffic. The in-motion and static axle-by-axle weighing system offers slow speed and portable weighing solutions suitable for

Colin Sowman discovers how the latest systems can boost productivity and reduce conflict in parking enforcement. Parking enforcement is something of a ‘Cinderella’ service for local authorities: while necessary to keep the roads open and the traffic flowing, it is an expensive operation and can be loss-making. It is also labour intensive and parking enforcement officers are routinely verbally abused and sometimes physically attacked. Some authorities are now looking to automate parking enforcement in orde

Peter Ummenhofer, head of the ITS Business Unit at Kapsch TrafficCom, discusses what the recent acquisition of US ATMS specialist Transdyn will mean for the company and the ITS sector. Even a brief perusal of Kapsch’s portfolio lends credence to the company’s assertion that it is more than ‘just a tolling systems and services supplier’. Over the past few years, the company has added road safety enforcement to its offering with significant commercial vehicle operations capabilities, including weigh in motion

Researchers at Imperial College in London have developed a generic three-stage short-term travel prediction model that promises to give greater accuracy under both normal and abnormal conditions. As travellers do not like the randomness of non-recurrent traffic congestion and delays, it is particularly useful for network managers to know how the ongoing traffic situation will develop when an atypical event occurs.

Machine Vision technology is easing the burden on hard-pressed control room staff and overloaded communications networks.

David Crawford highlights responses to transit disruption on both sides of the Atlantic. Shortly before workers at San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) began a lengthy round of pay and conditions-related strikes in summer 2013, impacting on the daily lives of 400,000 communities, online ridesharing group Avego publicised a new web address: bartstrike.com. By the start of the following week, Avego was encouraging stranded commuters to download its smartphone app by offering them the chance in a raffle

A study has shown the extent and ramifications of wrong way driving and proposed cost-effective countermeasures. Wrong way driving collisions occur relatively infrequently but the results can be devastating. Statistics from the US National Transportation Safety Board, an independent, federal all-modes agency, reveal that wrong way (WW) driving, account for only about 3% of accidents on high-speed divided highways but are much more likely to result in fatal and serious injuries.