News

IAM RoadSmart (IRS) has welcomed the new UK government legislation that could issue life sentences to drivers who cause death by speeding, street racing or while a mobile phone, or under the influence of drink or drugs. However, the road safety charity warned that high profile policing and consistent jail sentences are also needed to tackle reckless driving that kills.

The European Commission (EC) has approved the proposed acquisition of Abertis by toll road and infrastructure management company Atlantia after concluding that the merger would not endanger competition in any of the markets concerned. The decision has been reached through an investigation into the proposed transaction and has been cleared by the EC under the EU Merger Regulation.

Thales has tested a new signalling control system on sub-surface trains on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, which enable trains to run closer together. The test aims to provide a more frequent service, reduce waiting times and help boost capacity for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The system will go live on the first section of the network as early as 2018.

To tackle fatalities caused by red-light running, the city of Greenville, North Carolina, has implemented a red-light safety camera program that will issue a $100 (£75) fine to offenders, which it hopes will reduce both violations and collisions. A-red light running violation occurs when a motorist enters an intersection after the traffic signal has turned red, but this does not include drivers already in the intersection when the signal changes to red (drivers waiting to turn).

Highways England has awarded a £115 million ($152 million) asset support contract extension of 17 months to Balfour Beatty and Mott MacDonald to continue its service delivery for Area 10; covering Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The contract will run from November 2017 to March 2019. The current asset support contract delivers a range of service delivery and maintenance activities such as 24/7 incident response, to ensuring the safe operation of the 570km of the road network.

Life-saving vehicle technology such as emergency braking should be made mandatory for new cars, according to an own-initiative report from the European Parliament's Transport Committee. With the report, MEPs have made a statement in support of road safety and FIA Region I (FRI) has welcomed the decision and has urged the European Commission to legislate the installation of the technology into cars.

Traffic enforcement products and services provider Redflex has commenced a search for a new Chief Financial Officer, following a decision by Bradley Crump, its current CFO, to resign before the end of the calendar year. Redflex expects to announce a new CFO before he leaves the company. Crump joined Redflex in February 2015 and has since provided financial and strategic leadership as well as restructuring and automating the finance function which has improved efficiency and more streamlined financi

Councils urge UK Government to spend rising fuel and motoring tax income on improving local roads

EasyMile’s partners Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) and GoMentum has received permission from the National Highway Traffic Authority to test EasyMile's EZ10 driverless shuttles on public roads within the Bishop Ranch business park in San Ramon, California. CCTA staff are in active discussions with the California Department of Motor Vehicles who will also need to give their consent for the third phase of the trial to go ahead.

French road-building company Charier has introduced the SolarRoad kit (SRK) on a newly-laid cycle path in Etampes, France, that uses two SRK elements to convert sunlight to electricity and provide lighting for a roundabout. The installation helps Charier meet sustainability objectives within the framework of the Paris Agreement.

The RetroTek-MU (RTM) has been certified to ASTM E 1710 standard as a dynamic mobile retroreflectometer, according to testing, monitoring and certification association for road-owners, StrAus-Zert (SAZ). It is capable of measuring road markings / striping across the full width of a traffic lane simultaneously in one pass at traffic speeds up to 75mph and can be operated by one driver. The assessment, carried out by SAZ's Dr Hans-Hubert Meseberg, also confirmed that the RTM

A project has been launched to produce city-wide visualisations of air quality through combining EarthSense Systems' (ESS) ordnance survey (OS) geospatial data and real-time air quality data. The technology, a joint venture between Bluesky and University of Leicester, is being used to highlight areas of higher pollution and allows users to identify cleaner air routes such as parks or canal routes. ESS captures measurements on air quality through using a zephyr sensor and a city-wide network of sensors.

Alcohol safety and training specialist AlcoDigital (AD) has joined forces with Renault Trucks to showcase and offer a new safety device in their latest range of LCV Master business fleet vehicles, which will feature at the Freight in the City Exhibition 7 November 2017. The alcohol safety device, Draeger Interlock 7000, will monitor drivers by requiring them to pass a breathalyzer test before they start the engine.

A new ITF mobility study in Helsinki confirms that a combination of 6-seater shared taxis and taxi buses can carry out all of today’s car journeys in the city area with just 4% of the current number of privately owned vehicles. These shared mobility platforms also mean fewer changes, less waiting and shorter travel times compared to traditional public transport. In addition, the results confirm improved access to jobs and public services, most notably for citizens in areas with few such offers.

Driverless cars can create confusion unless training meets the fast pace of change and helps drivers cope with a whole new set of demands, according to a conclusion reached by industry experts at London’s ‘Driver Ahead’ conference in London. The IAM RoadSmart/ RAC Foundation/ Pirelli event consisted of over 100 industry experts who set out to map a safe route for driverless cars. Guest speaker Victoria Coren-Mitchell opened the conference by introducing the “death by code” concept