News

Oxford City Council in the UK is trialling technology start-up Urban Electric Networks’ pop-up charge point in a £600,000 initiative to encourage UK residents to make the switch to electric vehicles (EVs). Urban Electric says its UEone is a charging solution for households who have to park cars on-street in residential parking zones. The project is co-funded by Innovate UK, following a successful £474,000 bid led by Urban Electric.

Manfred Swarovski, founder and CEO of Swarco, has passed away at the age of 77. The company’s executive board confirmed that he died on 13 May. Swarco says it has lost a mastermind who managed to bring his group of companies to world renown in the field of road safety and intelligent traffic management over nearly half a century. The company expressed condolences to Swarovski’s wife Elisabeth, sons Alexander, Philipp and Manfred, and to his brothers and sisters. Swarovski had planned his succession by

Image Sensing Systems (ISS) has appointed Andrew Markese as vice president of global sales and marketing, with a remit to increase revenue. Markese will report to Chad Stelzig, the company’s president and chief executive officer. Markese was previously vice president of sales and marketing at software company Vnomics. He has also held a range of positions at products provider Ultralife - including vice president of global sales for the battery and energy products division and director of sales for the

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland says it is one step closer to creating a safe automated vehicle through upgrades made to its Marilyn robot car. The vehicle can now see through foggy and snowy conditions, navigating without stopping. Additionally, VTT says, the car can see humans through fog and avoid accidents automatically. Marilyn now has light imaging, detection, and ranging (Lidar) mounted on its roof, which the company claims enables it to see wavelengths beyond the human senses.

Motor Coach Industries (MCI), a subsidiary of bus maker New Flyer, will deploy 182 commuter coaches to New Jersey transportation company NJ Transit for the third year of a six-year agreement. MCI says the fleet will provide a safe, reliable and cost-effective service to passengers. The order for MCI’s clean diesel coaches was valued $93m. Each vehicle has 57 seats, Wi-Fi availability and seatbelts. Production of the new coaches will begin in September.

Canada The governments of Canada and Quebec will invest nearly $27m in 14 projects being carried out by Société de Transport de Laval (STL) to improve the city’s public transit infrastructure. These initiatives will be carried out under the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund. Canada will provide $14.9m while Quebec will contribute $11.9m. The funding will be used to install equipment for the first roll-out of a fully-electric bus line and add new technologies to streamline boarding for passengers.

Highways company Island Roads will install 40 energy-efficient Parkeon Strada Rapide parking terminals as part of a system upgrade across the Isle of Wight. The solar-powered technology is intended to replace 139 of Island Roads’ terminals by 2020. David Wallis, Island Roads’ operations and maintenance manager, says: “The new meters will be more reliable than the models they are replacing, some of which were nearing the end of their serviceable life and required an increasing amount of maintenance.”

Network Rail will carry out a digital railway strategy to help ensure that all new UK trains and signalling are digital or digital ready from 2019. The upgrade is aimed at improving the speed, punctuality and safety of the service. New digital rail technology will be utilised with the intention of allowing trains to run closer together and provide more frequent services. In addition, passengers are expected to be provided with improved mobile and WiFi connectivity. Train drivers will receive real-time

Tyre and rubber company Goodyear has won Honda North America’s Supplier Sustainability Award for its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Goodyear met all areas of Honda’s seven-part sustainability programme which included human rights, compliance and ethics, governance, diversity, trade compliance, health and safety and environmental. Honda visited Goodyear’s Lawton Oklahoma facility as part of the award process to see how these efforts are being implemented.

Bus manufacturer Build Your Dreams (BYD) and designer of powertrain components US Hybrid will develop a hydrogen fuel cell battery-electric bus to operate at Hawaii’s Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The project is part of state’s Clean Energy Initiative to decrease dependency on imported oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the scheme is intended to help Hawaii reach its ambition of using 100% renewable energy by 2045. Transportation company Robert’s Hawaii will

Australian technology company Tritium has appointed three PR consultancies and a brand development agency to increase global penetration of the electric vehicle fast-charging market. The PR consultancies include California-based Thinkshift Communications, EMG in the Netherlands and Sydney's Watterson. In addition, New Word Order from Brisbane will help develop Tritium's brand for a global market.

Governor of Ohio John Kasich has signed an executive order allowing autonomous vehicles (AVs) to be tested on public roads in the state. The move is intended to lay out a road map for how the automotive industry can test their technologies. The AVs are required to meet safety standards and comply with Ohio’s traffic regulations. All vehicles would also need to be registered with the state's one-stop shop for hub for mobility projects, DriveOhio. Each car must have a company employee behind the wheel who

Campaigners in Wales are worried that plans to allow heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to use bus lanes will put vulnerable road users at risk and affect the reliability of buses. The Campaign for Better Transport, along with four other non-government organisations and charities, has written to Ken Skates, the cabinet secretary for economy and transport. Philippa Edmunds from Campaign for Better Transport, says: “We are writing to voice our concern about Nick Jones’ plans and we believe just a cursory

Gridsmart Technologies has formed a cyber security group to help transportation industry technology and infrastructure partners build security programmes for their organisations. The Gridsmart Information Security and Threat Intelligence Division (ISTI) will provide vulnerability and threat assessments and tailored security strategies to private companies, state and municipal Departments of Transportations and other groups working to enhance their technical infrastructure. ISTI, led by cyber security

Mobility analytics company StreetLight Data has released its Traffic Diagnostics tool to help transportation planners diagnose the cause of traffic jams and identify solutions. The product is available to new and existing clients in the US. Streetlight Data says the platform compares thousands of traffic jams in minutes and helps planners save money by ensuring that infrastructure is put in the right place. In addition, users can create visualisations that tell the story of traffic jams to stakeholders.