News

McCain’s variable speed limit signs have been chosen for the new Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) smart corridor initiatives. The Swarco Group subsidiary says the deal with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDoT) is one of its largest variable messaging signs (VMS) deployments on the US east coast. McCain distributor M.H. Corbin has been awarded the contract for 76 signs to be installed over the next year along nearly 50 miles of the I-76 between King of Prussia and Philadelphia – a majo

Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-

Jenoptik is to deliver hundreds of systems for speed enforcement to two clients in the Middle East & Africa (MENA) region. Before the end of the year, Jenoptik will deploy 600 of its radar-based TraffiStar S390 measurement systems as well as 300 TraffiTower 2.0 housings for stationary speed enforcement to an unnamed client in the Middle East. Also, Jenoptik will upgrade the customer’s back-office processing software.

Aimsun is taking part in a UK study which is using human driver data to help improve the performance and acceptability of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). The one-year project, Learning through Ambient Driving Styles for Autonomous Vehicles (LAMBDA-V), will also look at how driver behaviour can be analysed and used to accelerate the adoption of C/AVs. Aimsun says new rules for safer and more efficient driving behaviour could be created from existing vehicles, based on road laws and on how h

Bosch and Daimler will trial an automated driving (Level 4/5) ride-hailing service in San José, California, during the second half of 2019. SAE International (formerly the US Society of Automotive Engineers) has established Level 4 as the vehicle’s ability to operate independently while allowing the driver to go to sleep or leave their seat. Level 5 is classified as fully autonomous and does not require human intervention. Dr. Michael Hafner, vice president drive technologies and automated driving at Da

Software firm Sensible 4 and Japanese retail company Muji have joined forces to develop Gacha, an all-weather autonomous shuttle expected to operate in Finland by 2020. Sensible 4 is providing the technology for the vehicle’s positioning, navigation and obstacle detection. Muji is designing the vehicle. Gacha will make its debut at a launch event in Helsinki in March 2019, and will then be available to riders in three cities: Espoo, Vantaa and Hämeenlinna. Sensible 4 is now looking for industry partne

Intertraffic Mexico will highlight best practices from the traffic technology and mobility industry at an event which is expected to host 4,000 ITS professionals this week. Laura Barrera, director of Intertraffic Mexico, says the third edition will recognise companies and organisations that contribute actively to solving mobility challenges. "We want to highlight innovative projects in the industry, which is why we hold the second edition of the Intertraffic Award Latin America,” Barrera adds. In

Kapsch TrafficCom has acquired eTrans Systems, a Virginia-based provider of connected and autonomous vehicle (C/AV) solutions. Alexander Lewald, chief technology officer at Kapsch, says eTrans’ knowledge of embedded, mobile and Internet of Things technologies will improve the company’s offerings in the C/AV field. Kapsch will integrate eTrans’ on-board and roadside unit applications into its portfolio. These applications support Vehicle to Vehicle, Vehicle to Infrastructure and Vehicle to Pedestrian

Heliox has delivered a fast-charging network for electric buses operating in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in a bid to reduce emissions. The deployment supports the country’s stated ambition to gradually phasing out diesel-powered buses. Heliox’s OC 450 kW chargers are expected to provide Ekova Electric’s e-buses with ‘opportunity charging’, which allows batteries to be charged several times during the work cycle (usually eight hours). The company says the system utilises a pantograph to begin chargin

ComfortDelGro will trial an autonomous shuttle bus in real traffic conditions at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Kent Ridge Campus from March 2019.

Technology company Parsons has created a new role of chief development officer, with a focus on transportation. Mike Johnson, previously president of Parsons Infrastructure, will oversee sales of the company’s transportation management system, Intelligent NETworks (iNET). Johnson has been with Parsons for 28 years, and led the creation of the company’s connected cities solutions, Platforms as a Service. He is a member of the Energy Security Leadership Council and SAFE’s Autonomous Vehicles Task Force. In t

Conduent Transportation is to modernise the tolling system on ExpressLanes in Los Angeles County to help reduce congestion and improve safety along the I-10 and I-110 corridors. The eight-year contract is an extension to a six-year partnership with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority (LA Metro). The scope of the project includes the installation of overhead scanners and automatic vehicle identification equipment which corresponds with the FasTrak transponders installed on commuter vehicles.

UK drivers could earn £500 a month by making their idle vehicle available to renters on Turo’s peer-to-peer car-sharing service, the company says. Turo carried out a poll of 2,000 UK motorists which revealed the average Brit spends under nine hours a week behind the wheel. UK drivers also leave their car unused for three days each week, the company adds. Xavier Collins, Turo’s UK director, says many drivers spend a small fortune on cars but never realise their full potential. “For the vast majority of

Saber, a UK highway condition and inventory specialist, has developed skid analysis software to help reduce the risk of road traffic accidents. SkidAnalyser, part of a suite of software tools for managing highway survey data, is cloud-based and analyses information collected by Saber’s road safety vehicles. These measure levels of skid resistance in wet conditions. The company says the idea is to make raw data from surveys available within days of collection – and this can in turn alert highway auth