News

FIA Region 2 has warned that a driver only has to be distracted for two seconds to cause a crash. The FIA’s data suggests that to 25% of road crashes are due to distraction, with up to 30% of total driving time spent on distracting activities. Commissioner Violetta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport, recently warned against distraction caused by using mobile phones. She said: “Distraction from mobile devices has become one of the top crash factors. Reports show it has even overtaken speed and alc

Kerb has partnered with parking service provider Q-Park in a move which adds 63 car parks in the UK and 17 in Ireland to its app.

Bombardier Transportation is to supply 30 trams to German transport authority Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe (DVB) in a €197 million deal. Bombardier says the Flexity trams come with obstacle detection and assistance systems and can carry up to 290 passengers – a 10% increase in capacity. Andreas Hemmersbach, DVB's board member for finance and technology, says: "We urgently need the new light rail vehicles, which provide larger capacity, in order to offer sufficient space for the rapidly growing number of ou

A US transport research organisation has partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Delta Airlines to advance autonomous vehicle (AV) and infrastructure research. Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is a 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle (AV) test bed with a 1.5 mile AV track. The deal will provide Georgia Tech researchers with access to Curiosity Lab’s test track and laboratory. The lab features dedicated fibre, smart poles and a network operations centre for researchers to track data from connecte

A UK organisation has identified 500 ‘milestones’ to be passed in order to get connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) on the road in numbers by 2030. Zenzic, which was set up by government and industry to coordinate a national platform for testing and developing C/AVs, has launched the UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030. It identifies six ‘golden threads’ which highlight areas dependent on cross-industry collaboration to make self-driving services accessible to the public by the end of

Wini Technologies has launched Winicabs, an automated dispatch software which it says unites taxis under one app in the city of Columbus, Ohio. Beyene Gola, president of the Independent Taxicab Association of Columbus, says: "Taxi companies have historically been spread across the city with no easy way to connect.” Wini Technologies, an Irish technology start-up, says riders can hail the closest driver, track their rides, book trips in advance and pay fares through the app, money or credit card. Riders

The government of Moscow intends to establish an area within the Russian capital that is free from exhaust gases by 2030. By signing the C40 Green and Healthy Streets Declaration, the city says it will seek to improve public spaces, urban parks and streets, public transport and bicycle infrastructure and buy only electric buses from 2025. The C40 Climate Leadership Group is a network of cities committed to addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Mark Watts, C40 executive dire

Australian state capitals are paying $25 billion per year on avoidable congestion - and could end up paying $40bn by 2030 unless there is a policy change. That is the stark warning from Alan Tudge, federal minister of population, cities and urban infrastructure, who spoke at Australia’s seventh ITS Summit. Discussing how ITS technologies can help solve gridlock, he described some of the projects which fall under the Australian government’s $100bn programme of transport infrastructure expenditure – suc

Mind the kangaroos! That is among the more surprising suggestions in a new entertainment which purports to illustrate the pitfalls of autonomous vehicles (AVs). US media giant The Washington Post has created a short interactive game which “shows readers how autonomous cars function and breaks down the technology to educate viewers about their limitations and challenges”. These include sensor blind spots and confusion over what other road users are about to do. The five-minute game takes the form of a jou

The US National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) is accepting submissions for the second Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards. The TSMO awards celebrate transportation management and operations that save lives, time and money. Judges will select a winner and runner-up from the following: •Best TSMO Project (Creative Solution) – A successful project, planning or response to a specific event, or other improvement for safety, congestion and/or travel time reliability. Thes

The UK’s University of St. Andrews has received £12 million to lead a project on the development of a sodium ion battery for electric vehicles (EV). The four-year Nexgenna project is seeking to commercialise a safe sodium ion battery which offers low cost and long cycle life. The university says the solution could enable EVs to travel further and allow electric trains to run on non-electrified lines, making rural routes in the Scottish Highlands commercially viable. The funding body announced the inve

Q-Free is to deploy its Intrada Synergy Server (ISS) in an IBM contract to upgrade the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) toll road back office. Q-Free says the vehicle identification and automatic number plate recognition system will reduce TxDoT’s number plate image processing costs by processing daily video transactions. ISS is a component of IBM’s integrated solution that can process millions of number plate images from the tolling system video cameras, the company adds. TxDoT is respons

Managed charging (MC) can shift electric vehicle (EV) charging demand in the UK away from peak times, according to a study led by TRL. MC aims to shift plug-in vehicle (PiV) charging load to times - such as overnight - when other demands are low. TRL found that, after experiencing some form of MC, the vast majority of people would be happy to switch to it. This research, part of TRL’s Vehicles and Energy Integration (CVEI) project, set out to investigate the challenges and opportunities involved in

Infor is to manage $19 billion worth of assets managed by Auckland Transport (AT) in New Zealand via its asset management software CloudSuite EAM.

US-based Verra Mobility has partnered with motorway operator APRR to provide toll management services in France. David Roberts, CEO of Verra, says: "Initially, we will be focusing on providing toll services to our rental car company partners throughout France.” The partnership will allow Verra to expand to other countries to make travel in Europe more connected, Roberts adds. Vera intends to develop products for fleets that allow drivers to use electronic toll lanes without having to slow down or stop