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SENSKIN, a 42-month European Horizon 2020 project to develop a sensor for monitoring-based maintenance of the transport infrastructure implemented by 13 partners from seven countries has reported on its first 18 months of work. During this time, the partners derived user requirements and, based on these, designed the prototype of the skin-like sensors and the data acquisition unit. They also provided proof of concept of the communication system and are finishing the prototypes of the communication, structur

According to new report from the US Governors Highway Safety Association, as autonomous vehicles (AV) are merged into traditionally-driven traffic, the most pressing safety challenge for states will be preparing human drivers. This presents a myriad of safety challenges for states, which are responsible for educating the public, licensing drivers, and establishing and enforcing traffic laws. The report, Autonomous Vehicles Meet Human Drivers: Traffic Safety Issues for States, examines these issues and re

Following more than seven months of trials, Austrian system integration company 7iD has placed an order with Siemens ITS for 175 Sicore automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. The cameras will be implemented by an international logistics operating company to provide correlated ANPR and RFID data of its approaching vehicles, with the aim of reducing wait times for drivers upon arrival at their logistics facilities before they are directed to their waiting/loading/unloading bay.

A greater understanding of how low carbon vehicles can meet the needs of mainstream consumers is needed if the huge challenge of decarbonising transport in the UK is to be achieved, according to the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). The ETI believes the most promising opportunity is for an increase in the use and ownership of plug-in electric vehicles (hybrids and battery operated) but new market structures will have to be introduced to enable and support the most promising solutions. Many people

Traffex 2017, which takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, from 4th to 6th April 2017, will showcase over 350 exhibitors. Visitors will have the chance to interact with technologies that are set to shape UK roads and the transport network of the future. The exhibition will bring together 10,000 industry experts who will be on hand to discuss everything from software production to cutting edge safety solutions One such returning exhibitor and winner of the Traffex 25th Anniversary Innovation Award, AGD, is a

Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a US$1.1 million, five-year contract extension from the University of Maryland (UMD) to upgrade its bus fleet management system, which currently features approximately 80 buses. They all have NextBus hardware capabilities, including GPS-based trackers, driver control units and automatic vehicle location to inform passengers of the place and time of bus arrivals. Under the contract extension, Cubic will enhance UMD’s smart bus offering by providing features su

Q-Free has launched a pilot of a new smart parking sensor, in collaboration with communications providers, Telenor and the Norwegian Public Roads Authority (NPRA), with the aim of testing the new Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB IoT) communications technology with its parking sensors. The in-road sensor enables parking operators to monitor the occupancy of outdoor and indoor and is designed to withstand the weight of heavy vehicles consistently driving over it, as well as the impact of a snow plough cl

Trafficware has released Version 2.6 of its ATMS.now central traffic management system, adding greater functionality with a new subscription-based parking detection capability and enabling transportation authorities to automate the collection of parking data. The new parking detection module, using Trafficware’s patented wireless pod detection system, allows transportation agencies to aggregate this vehicle detection data into their central traffic management command centre. ATMS.now 2.6 release incl

Nexus, operator of the Tyne and Wear Metro in the UK, is to invest US$44 million (£35 million) in Metro modernisation work in 2017, involving major projects to renew and replace Metro’s ageing infrastructure, including track and overhead lines. It forms part of the Metro all-change modernisation programme, the scheme to secure Metro’s long term future over eleven years. The modernisation programme is now into its sixth year. Nexus will be investing US$138 million (£110 million) through to 2021 on mode

Following an earlier announcement in 2016, agreeing on closer cooperation for the development of smart mobility, the City of Karlsruhe, Germany and PTV Group have signed a cooperation agreement on the testing of future scenarios in a new, modern mobility lab. The goal is to establish a real-time traffic prediction system for the Karlsruhe Technology Region. The implementation is divided into three successive stages. The first project phase, covering traffic of the entire road network in Karlsruhe, was s

According to a report from German online moving platform Movinga, London, UK is the most expensive city to use public transport at £122.27 per month and Cairo, Egypt is the most affordable city at £5.18 for a monthly ticket. As part of its 2017 Relocation Price Index, a study detailing the costs associated with relocating to some of the world’s most in-demand cities, Movinga also observed the cost of transportation around the world in 89 cities. The data was taken from all official transport offices w

Germany’s federal government has approved a draft law allowing for autonomous cars to be driven on German streets, says Germany Trade & Invest, the federal economic development agency. Crucially within the law, responsibility for mishaps continued to rest firmly in the hands of the driver, but allows for the driver to hand control the vehicle to its own control system in certain situations and for certain periods of time. The draft law also stipulates that the driver must be able to instantly override or de

The US Department of Transportation’s (US DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for public comment by 12 April 2017. This document proposes to establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) to require all new light vehicles to be capable of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, such that they will send and receive basic safety messages to and from other vehicles. The proposal contains V2V communication perfo

Inrix and German off-street parking reservations provider ParkU have formed a partnership to integrate payment transactions directly into car navigation systems for 55 cities in ten European countries. ParkU’s reservation and payment locations will be incorporated into Inrix’s automotive parking solution to enable European drivers to find, route to, reserve and pay for parking at participating ParkU locations directly from their car’s dashboard, ParkU’s parking app enables drivers to find, book and pa

According to the ADLV’s (Association for Driving Licence Verification) 2017 predictions transport fleets will be using richer, bigger data more frequently to drive areas from compliance through to road safety The best practice frequency for compliance in licence checking by fleets has recently increased to twice a year, on average. Under the recently issued FORS Standard (Version 4.0) twice-yearly checks are now the minimum requirement. However, many larger fleets are now carrying out quarterly checks, e