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Officials and cycling campaigners in Berlin have agreed to budget about $53 million (€50 million) a year to expand bike use with the goal of reducing car traffic in the German capital, according to Associated Press. Berlin daily B.Z. reports that the money will be used to create protected bike lanes of the kind seen in Chicago and New York, build 100 kilometres (62 miles) of dedicate cycling highways and install 100,000 bike parking spaces. The city was once considered a haven for cyclists but has fal

US transportation solutions supplier McCain is to distribute the Polara Enterprises range of accessible pedestrian signals and ADA-compliant pedestrian technology and push buttons in Southern California. The exclusive agreement includes the newly-released Polara iNavigator series, which uses wireless communication via an iOS Apple or desktop app for easy programming and communication. Polara accessible pedestrian systems (APS) utilize audible tones, speech messages, and vibrations to communicate to pedes

The UK Government has awarded US$137 million (£109.7 million) of funding, alongside significant funding from industry, to help develop the next generation of driverless and low-carbon vehicles, as part of the Industrial Strategy and the government’s Plan for Britain. Seven innovative projects will share grants from the latest round of funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), the joint industry-government programme to put the UK at the forefront of low carbon vehicle technology. The projects,

CPB Contractors has been selected by Australian toll road operator Transurban as the preferred contractor to deliver Victoria’s multi-billion dollar West Gate Tunnel Project in a joint venture with John Holland. The West Gate Tunnel Project will address a number of critical challenges in relation to traffic, growth and liveability across Melbourne. Design and construction works include widening the West Gate Freeway from eight lanes to 12 between the M80 Ring Road and Williamstown Road, as well as bui

Connected vehicle technology company Tantalum Corporation has been awarded US$1.2 million (£1 million) of funding by Innovate UK to develop real-time NOx emissions estimation capability, which it says will give local authorities the ability to implement dynamic road charging based on actual vehicle emissions. Tantalum already has real-time CO2 emissions estimation capabilities and will work with Imperial College London in developing and verifying its ability to accurately estimate NOx emissions as part of i

Keolis Canada and NAVYA are to present their autonomous electric shuttle project at the UITP Global Public Transit Summit in Montreal 15-17 May. Environmentally-friendly, the autonomous shuttle has a capacity of 15 passengers and is suitable for urban areas, airports, industrial sites, amusement parks, hotel complexes and hospitals. It has been designed to help organisations and businesses improve performance by streamlining the flow of movement.

Global Traffic Technologies Canada is to implement its Opticom traffic pre-emption solution at five of the busiest intersections in the town of Oakville, Ontario. Opticom works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely. When an emergency vehicle needs to navigate an intersection, the Opticom emergency vehicle pre-emption (EVP) system on-board the emergency vehicle sends a request to the intersection’s controller ahead of its arriva

Annual research just released by the New Zealand Ministry of Transport estimates that the total social cost of fatal and injury crashes rose from US$2.5 billion (NZ$3.53 billion) in 2014 to US$2.6 billion (NZ$3.79 billion) in 2015. Over 300 New Zealanders lost their lives on the country’s roads last year, and about 2,500 were seriously injured. According to associate transport minister David Bennett, in 40 per cent of the crashes where people were killed or seriously injured, the driver had drunk more

To improve non-verbal communication between drivers and their vehicles, Continental has devised a range of user-friendly touch gestures for the cockpit, using a combination of gesture interaction and touch screens. This enables drivers to draw specific, defined symbols on the input display to trigger a diverse array of functions and features for rapid access. According to Dr Heinz Abel, head of Cross Product Solutions at Continental’s Instrumentation and Driver HMI business unit, the use of gestures and

Bus operators, local authorities and Regional Transport Partnership’s across Scotland can apply for funding towards the purchase of low carbon emission buses. The Scottish Green Bus Fund, now in its seventh year, aims to help support the introduction of new low carbon vehicles across the country. The Scottish Government has already invested US$18.3 million (£14.8 million) over the previous six rounds. Funding of US$3.7 million (£3 million) for the 2017/2018 Green Bus Fund has been made available from

As part of efforts by the Committee on Autonomous Road Transport for Singapore (CARTS) to develop and deploy autonomous vehicles (AVs) to enhance Singapore’s land transport system, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has signed a partnership agreement with ST Kinetics to develop and trial autonomous buses. ST Kinetics will develop and integrate the AV technologies on to two 40-seater electric buses that can be deployed to serve fixed and scheduled services for intra- and inter-town travel in the future.

The electric vehicle (EV) market is booming, according to Frost & Sullivan researchers. Approximately 25 new electric vehicle models are likely to be launched later this year with Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3 being the most anticipated. The availability of incentives and subsidies in the market, significant investment by original equipment manufacturers, new entrants, and lower battery prices are factors propelling double-digit growth. However, the lack of standardisation in charging technology, absence

The state environmental policymakers attending the Spring Meeting of the US Environmental Council of States (ECOS) have heard how states can achieve the most cost-effective and immediate air emission reductions by targeting the largest sources of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions and replacing or upgrading those with the newest generation of clean diesel technology. Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, highlighted the environmental benefits of new diesel technology dur

According to a new market research report from MarketsandMarkets, Europe is expected to hold the largest share of the smart transportation market, which is expected to grow from US$72.05 billion in 2016 to US$220.76 billion by 2021. The major drivers for an upsurge in demand for smart transportation include the rising requirement for integrated security and safety to enhance public safety and government initiatives to incorporate smart technologies into the existing transportation infrastructure. The

Transport for London (TfL) has challenged app designers to improve their services to cyclists after expanding the data it makes available to them. TfL has added mapping information for eight Cycle Superhighways and one Quietway to their open data portal, allowing developers to make it even easier for Londoners to find and use the best cycle routes. New Superhighways and Quietways will be added as they open. The information allows developers to accurately map out the existing network within apps and on