News

FIA Region I has welcomed the European Commission’s plan to revise and merge the road infrastructure safety management directive and the directive on minimum safety requirements for tunnels since many of the problems that road users face today are linked with poor maintenance of road infrastructure. FIA Region I believes that road management authorities should be obliged by the EU and member states to ensure a minimum level of road maintenance. A well-developed and maintained road network enables safe, e

GE Transportation and Transnet, Africa’s rail and ports operator, have announced a digital partnership to seamlessly connect shippers and transport operators, in a bid to make it easier for a company to understand pricing and capacity on the network, plan a shipment and get their goods to market. The solution will be enabled by Predix, the operating system for the industrial internet and will connect shippers and transport operators by providing real-time, data-driven insights on the status of shipments.

Decarbonisation of commercial road transport and logistics should be linked to safety improvements and efficiency gains if the ambitious EU CO2 emissions reduction targets are to be met, according to a major new report on the future of commercial road transport in the EU, published by world transport organisation IRU. The report, Commercial Vehicle of the Future, claims measures to decarbonise road freight transport could provide new opportunities to further improve road safety and optimise operational e

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) is to implement its Opticom traffic pre-emption solution at nine of the busiest intersections in the city of Inglewood in California. Opticom works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely, and public transit vehicles can avoid delays and adhere to schedules. When an emergency vehicle needs to navigate an intersection, the Opticom system on-board the vehicle sends a request to the intersect

The New Zealand government has confirmed that it is considering the introduction of open road tolling in Auckland. Finance minister Steven Joyce told a business audience the government could support tolling but would not support a regional fuel tax. He said, “There is no getting away from the fact that central Auckland is built on a narrow isthmus which makes it hard to get around – and the available land transport corridors are rapidly being used. “So beyond the current building programme we are g

The Swedish Thomas Concrete Group says it continues to grow in the United States, with the acquisition of three concrete plants in North and South Carolina, complementing the group’s network along the Atlantic coast. At the end of 2016, the Group also acquired three concrete plants in northern Poland. “Through strategic acquisitions in the US states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, Thomas Concrete Group has over the years achieved a strong position as a key supplier of ready-mixed concre

PTV Transport Consult has named Dr-Ing. Hagen Schüller as the replacement for Werner Balz, division manager for Traffic Control & Management in the Stuttgart office of PTV Transport Consult, who retires at the beginning of March after 25 years with the company. Balz played an important role in the establishment of the PTV office in Stuttgart 25 years ago, which was also the beginning of PTV’s entry into the planning of traffic control and guidance systems on motorways. Schuller, who is currently a pro

In a bid to increase efficiencies and reduce delays for passengers, the UK’s Network Rail is trialling ‘formation flying’ engineering trains to repair and renew the 20,000 miles of railway track it is responsible for maintaining. It says this new approach to engineering could potentially save taxpayer-funded Network Rail US$313,000 (£250,000) per week in costs by allowing trains to run at higher speeds once engineering is complete. The pioneering technique was used successfully at Sandy, Bedfordshire, on

Video surveillance specialist Hikvision is to establish an R&D Centre in Montreal, Canada and a Research Institute in California’s Silicon Valley, California. Expected to open in 2017, the Montreal Hikvision R&D Centre will focus on engineering development. The Silicon Valley Hikvision Research Institute will focus on broad technology research.

The Dutch town of Bodegraven is piloting a new pedestrian traffic signal which it hopes will warn pedestrians staring at their mobile phones that they are about to cross the road. Developed by local firm HIG Traffic Systems, the +Lichtlijn or +Lightline, consists of an LED lighting strip in the pavement near intersections linked directly to traffic signals and changes from red to green to alert distracted pedestrians that they may safely cross. According to DutchNews, the Dutch road safety organisatio

Clearview Intelligence has been awarded two new contract wins by Transport for London (TfL) to work on the supply and maintenance of automatic traffic and cycle counting equipment across the TfL road network. The contract not only covers regular scheduled maintenance of existing equipment but also the supply of any new or replacement equipment when required across the 304 automatic counter sites and the 170 automatic cycle counter locations. These contracts have been awarded on an initial two year ba

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has signed an agreement with Tesla for the purchase of 200 hybrid electric vehicles fitted with several components of autonomous driving technologies. The new vehicles will add to the limousine fleet of the Dubai Taxi Corporation. The RTA is to carry out a test run of Tesla autonomous hybrid electric vehicles as part of the Dubai Taxi limo fleet as part of its objective to support the Dubai Government efforts in transforming Dubai into the smartest city i

Spanish technology multinational GMV has begun a two-year collaborative project with Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Australia and New Zealand Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) for the deployment of a satellite positioning augmentation system. The objective of the project is to show the potential benefits of satellite navigation technologies in Australia, including integrity and high precision applications. The project aims to make Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) a

Following 'dieselgate', the previously lax automobile emission testing procedures tightened and all European original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are now required to implement real driving emissions (RDE). In September, RDE testing will have a conformity factor of 2.1, which will change to 1.5 by September 2021. OEMs will be more transparent with their testing methods and results. After the implementation of RDE, adoption of World Harmonisation Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) will be simpler. The

A new study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute analysed recent changes in the United States in both the ownership of light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and vans) and the corresponding distance driven. The study looked at the rates per person and per household over the period 1984 to 2015. The main findings were: The vehicle-ownership rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2006. The two rates for 2015 are down, on average, 4.4 per cent f