News

Transport for London (TfL) has chosen IT company Sopra Steria to develop software to help tackle congestion and road danger in the UK capital. TfL is responsible for managing 580km of London’s roads, as well as managing a range of assets including 6,000 traffic lights, its tunnels and some bridges. The partners will seek to develop a control centre system that provides a single view of everything happening on the road network. Glynn Barton, TfL's director of network management, says the partnership wi

Waymo is making its Waymo Open Dataset for autonomous vehicles (AVs) available to the research community for free. Waymo is hoping the data will help researchers make advances in 2D and 3D perception and progress in areas such as domain adaptation and behaviour prediction. The company says each segment of driving data captures 20 seconds of continuous driving, allowing researchers to develop models to track and predict the behaviour of other road users. This dataset covers dense and suburban environmen

Indra and engineering firm Eléctricas de Medellín Ingeniería y Servicios has commissioned a control centre and a back-up centre to supervise a 9km tunnel in Columbia. Both centres will monitor the safety and revenue collection systems of the Túnel de Oriente, which serves as a transport link between the city of Medellín and José María Córdoba airport. It is part of Concesión Túnel Aburrá Oriente, a 24km road corridor that Indra is now managing via its Mova solutions. Indra says its toll solution Mova C

Via is to launch a routing system for school buses which it claims will reduce transportation costs for the New York City (NYC) Department of Education (DoE). The ‘Via for Schools’ system will allow users to track school buses as well as receive information on unexpected changes such as real-time bus locations, route changes and vehicle delays. Richard A. Carranza, schools chancellor at NYC DoE, says: “Through our partnership with Via, we’ll soon have a state-of-the-art app for families to track buse

The UK government plans to open up roadwork data to tech companies with the aim of reducing traffic jams. The Department of Transport (DfT) says companies could potentially develop navigation apps powered by artificial intelligence that can warn drivers up to months in advance of planned disruption to routes and offer alternatives. George Freeman, minister for the future of transport, says the announcement will “help open up data, reducing congestion, pollution and frustration for road users”. The

TomTom has launched two application programming interfaces (API) to help developers build applications for electric vehicle (EV) drivers. TomTom says the Long Distance EV Routing API comes with an algorithm which calculates the route - including stops to charge - and displays an estimated time of arrival. The EV Charging Stations Availability API provides information on stations according to plug type, the company adds. Anders Truelsen, managing director, TomTom Enterprise, says the company offers dev

Engineering firm HDR has been chosen by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDoT) to deploy and evaluate statewide investment in connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) technology. HDR will develop a business plan aimed at realising full-scale C/AV deployments. The company says it will also provide programme support, thought leadership and training for FDoT staff. Additionally, HDR is to serve as the prime construction engineering and inspection services consultant for Florida’s Turnpike Enter

The ITS Asia Pacific (AP) Forum 2020 is accepting entries on the theme of ‘ITS Innovation Creating Liveable Communities’ until 6 September. The programme committee invites submissions for consideration as either scientific, technical or commercial papers. They are also accepting entries for special interest sessions. Additionally, AP 2020 has opened the Future Leaders Programme to recent graduates under 30 years old, allowing them to develop skills they need for academic and professional careers.

The ITS Asia Pacific (AP) Forum 2020 is accepting entries on the theme of ‘ITS Innovation Creating Liveable Communities’ until 6 September. The programme committee invites submissions for consideration as either scientific, technical or commercial papers. They are also accepting entries for special interest sessions. Additionally, AP 2020 has opened the Future Leaders Programme to recent graduates under 30 years old, allowing them to develop skills they need for academic and professional careers.

The San Diego Association of Governments (Sandag) has opened a laboratory with the aim of developing a fully integrated transportation system in the US city. The Sandag Vision Lab will serve as a collaborative space for agency staff, elected officials, working groups and industry leaders to discuss ideas, data and tools. Additionally, Sandag has established an advisory panel to develop a transportation system that uses available and emerging technologies. It will provide input on deploying technolog

Volocopter has unveiled VoloCity, an on-demand air taxi for cities which it claims has a calculated range of 35km and airspeed of 110 km/h. Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, says the air taxi is a “result of all the insights we have gathered from our extensive testing programmes over the past years. With the VoloCity we will open the first commercial routes and bring urban air mobility to life.” The company says the air taxi features aerodynamically shaped rotor beams and a stabiliser to increase safet

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $199 million loan to help develop traffic management systems in the Chinese city of Gui’an. Susan Lim, ADB senior transport specialist for East Asia, says: “This project will serve as an example of how the People’s Republic of China and other countries can address the downsides of rapid urbanisation, such as high CO2 emissions, which have impacts well beyond national boundaries, and traffic jams and road safety.” The city, in Guizhou Province, will use the m

Lime and its competitors Tier and Voi have formed the Nordic Micromobility Association to promote safety standards for electric scooters. The association will seek to strengthen relationships between Nordic cities and micromobility businesses as well as reduce emissions. Earlier this year, Voi announced its plans to launch e-scooters in Lisbon as part of a wider ambition to expand in Europe. The association’s members are not the only companies working to improve the safety of e-scooters. Last ye

Florida has 20 of the top 100 communities in the US that offer limited evacuation routes for natural disasters, says StreetLight Data. The company analysed 30,000 towns with populations under 40,000 with the aim of better preparing communities for floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. The top 100 communities was ranked by ‘evacuation risk’, which was determined by how many of the location’s daily trips enter and exit the town and via what route(s), adjusted for the number of available exits and overall populat