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Road congestion and lack of infrastructure funding are among the main issues facing the transportation industry, according to the new president of the IBTTA. Chris Tomlinson, who is also interim executive director of the newly created Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority, suggested an absence of technological standards, particularly in the US, is also a potential problem. But along with “continued increases in congestion in our urban areas”, he points to opportunities. “We can see a convergence of t

Alstom is to supply vendor managed inventory (VMI) services to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) over three years to help improve passenger safety. The €50 million contract includes two-year exercisable two-year options. The deal serves as an extension to a 2013 agreement. Alstom says VMI has allowed SFTMA to carry out regular and predictive maintenance of its fleet as well as decrease inventory management costs and increase daily average car availability by 20% and mean distan

Chinese technology start-up Onemile has launched its electric scooter rental service which comes with a seating pad to help improve rider safety. The company’s Halo City scooters are available in Hawaii, Paris, London and Berlin. Onemile aims to offer its service at mid and long-term rental and says it will provide an integrated parking location and management system. It is not the only company looking to find new ways to improve safety for riders. In the US, Bird rolled out an app feature which a

Construction has started on the first phase of San Diego’s Downtown Mobility Plan to help improve safety for cyclists and scooter riders. The 9.3 mile section will feature two-way cycle tracks on major arteries and help provide safer passage from Balboa Park to the San Diego Convention Center. It will be painted green and be separated from vehicular traffic by parked cars, flex posts or grade variations. City mayor Kevin Faulconer says connecting popular destinations in downtown to surrounding neighbour

Jenoptik’s average speed control system has received type approval to be used in an 18-month trial on a stretch of highway in Lower Saxony, Germany. Jenoptik’s TraffiSection, which is laser-based, has been approved by PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) and is supported by the Ministry of Interior of Lower Saxony. From mid-January, the system will obtain data on drivers who exceed the speed limit on a 2.2km stretch of Federal Highway 6, south of Hanover between Gleidingen and Laatzen. Jenop

Jump, an Uber bike-rental company, has upgraded its electric bikes to include swappable batteries which it says can be changed within a few minutes. Riders can use a front dashboard underneath the handlebars to unlock the bike as well as a phone mount for easier navigation. The bikes now feature a retractable cable lock to offer riders more flexibility when locking a bike to a rack or structure, the company adds. Last year, Uber announced its plans to launch its Jump bikes in Seattle as part of a stra

Vietnamese firm FastGo has launched its ride-hailing, delivery and catering services in Myanmar as part of a strategy to grow its business in 2019. A report by The Saigon Times says the company intends to attract two million users and 100,000 driver-partners this year in Myanmar’s major cities and provinces. In the coming years, FastGo is expected to form partnerships in Myanmar and Vietnam to help make its services and products more popular. In October 2018, FastGo announced its plans to enter Myanmar

Keolis has launched a free electric autonomous shuttle service at the University of Lille in France which is operating on open public roads for one year. Two Navya shuttles are running on a 1.4km route in Villeneuve d'Ascq, northern France, which includes four dedicated stops from Monday to Friday. These vehicles will also provide connections to two the Cité Scientifique’ and 4 Cantons Stade Pierre Mauroy metro stations. This trial was realised through an agreement with the European Metropole of Lille.

Dutch identification technology company Nedap has launched two more cameras for its automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) platform. The advanced ANPR Lumo can be applied in challenging vehicular access control applications, including in regions with license plates that include different font formats. The ANPR Access V2 is the successor of Nedap’s ANPR Access, offering better performance while being fully compatible with existing installations, says the company. Both new cameras easily integrate

US engineering services firm Parsons has promoted Thomas Topolski executive vice president, infrastructure business development to help extend the company’s infrastructure portfolio while also leading proposal operations. In his new role, Topolski will be based at the company’s Centreville office in Virginia and report to Carey Smith, Parsons’ chief operating officer. Smith says Topolski has more than 30 years of experience in strategy, business development and operations for infrastructure companie

Gojek to expand ride-hailing service across Singapore

Volvo Trucks puts its first commercial autonomous vehicles into action

RoadBotics has been chosen to use their machine-learning technology to assess the city of Detroit’s entire 4,185km road network. The company will work with PlanetM, a Michigan state networking partnership of mobility organisations, educational institutions, research and development groups and government agencies working together in the automotive sector. RoadBotics will provide Detroit transportation officials with its standard Artificial Intelligence pavement assessment as well as a new AI Maintenanc

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) in Hawaii is trialing Holo Card, an account-based electronic fare system from Init, over a three-month period. It will then be made available on all buses owned by Oahu Transit Services. The e-fare system will allow passengers using Oahu’s TheBus service to load passes or add value via their mobile device on route to board a bus or by visiting a local retail outlet. This project stems from an agreement with the City and County of Honolulu Department