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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

TRL is calling for an update to UK and EU automotive legislation to allow police, insurers and road safety researchers access to event data recorder (EDR) information. EDR is the equivalent of a black box that records a range of data from safety systems fitted to the vehicle in the seconds before, during and after a collision. The data helps provide information on the actions taken before a crash – which TRL says will be vital in understanding what an autonomous vehicle or its safety driver were doing j

Strabag is to modernise 12km of railway between Oldřichov u Duchcova, part of the village of Jenikov, and the town of Bílina in the Czech Republic. The CZK1.91 billion (£66 million) contract includes the relocation of station platforms, upgrading communications and safety systems along with the associated equipment and establishing barrier-free access to modernised stops and stations. The work is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2021.

Local Motors is trialling a free autonomous shuttle called Olli at a business park of 1,600 employees in the city of Rancho Cordova, California. During the three-month trial at the White Rock Corporate Campus, data will be gathered via rider surveys to understand the public’s sentiment around autonomous shuttles and their potential for easing congestion. The project is funded by a $90,000 grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and a further $10,000 from the city Olli is available to camp

Engineering firm Parsons and its partners have launched a global smart cities challenge called Transforming Intersections aimed at reducing the time drivers spend at red lights. Chuck Harrington, chairman of Parsons, says: “Our goal is to give cities the opportunity to increase their mobility, reduce their carbon footprint through reduced idling of vehicles, and keep their city moving." Parsons says the winner will receive a one-year free trial of its Intelligent Intersection product, which allows ci

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) has presented its road safety awards to two individuals and four programmes in the US. Candace Lightner, president of We Save Lives - a non-profit organisation which focuses on reducing drunk, drugged and distracted driving - won the James J. Howard Highway Safety Trailblazer Award. She is also the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Ford Driving Skills for Life (Ford DSFL) global programme manager Jim Graham received the Kathryn J.R. Swanson Publi

Siemens Mobility is working with its subsidiary Bytemark to provide a common payment solution for the Smart Columbus travel app in Ohio. Smart Columbus - a joint venture with the city and Columbus Partnership - is utilising government grants and private investment from mobility projects to improve the region's transportation system. Siemens says the system allows users to pay for public and private mobility services including bicycles and scooters. Michael Stevens, chief innovation officer for the

Conduent Transportation has won two contracts to upgrade the hardware and software for the management system on hundreds of buses in Southern California. Conduent is to provide its computer-aided dispatch/automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) solution to buses belonging to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and North County Transit District (NCTD), as well as key portions of Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) system. John Peracchio, Conduent’s interim CEO, says: “The newer syste

Optimus Ride is operating an autonomous vehicle (AV) service at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York and expects to transport more than 16,000 passengers per month. The 300-acre industrial park has more than 400 manufacturing businesses and 10,000 employees on site. Dr. Ryan Chin, Optimus co-founder, says the system will “provide access to and experience with autonomy for thousands of people, helping to increase acceptance and confidence of this new technology”. Optimus is operating six AVs between the NY

Q-Free has unveiled a product which it says could save agencies tens of thousands of dollars when they upgrade signalised intersections. The Intelight Device Manager allows transportation agencies to remotely schedule firmware updates in bulk without putting an intersection into flashing red mode, the company says. Traditionally, technicians travel to each intersection and perform the update by putting the intersection in flash, a potentially hazardous scenario for technicians and motorists. The n

Swiss software company Teralytics has raised $17.5 million to offer mobility insights to more countries. The company is building a platform to provide advanced mobility analytics powered by telecom network data. Using data science and proprietary machine learning algorithms, the solution is expected to provide actionable mobility insights to help cities improve journeys across all modes of transport and optimise the location of electric vehicle chargers. Investors included Robert Bosch Venture Capital,