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A self-driving truck developed by Otto has been travelling on two Ohio roads after state officials announced details of new investments to support innovative transportation technology, says Associated Press. The vehicle is travelling on a 35-mile stretch of US Route 33 and in central Ohio between Dublin and East Liberty, home to the Transportation Research Center, an independent testing facility. It travels in regular traffic, with a driver in the cab to intervene should problems arise. Officials say

The European Commission has adopted a European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility. The Strategy will make it possible to deploy vehicles that can communicate with each other and the infrastructure on EU roads as of 2019. Digital connectivity is expected to significantly improve road safety, traffic efficiency and comfort of driving, while boosting the market of cooperative, connected and automated driving and th

Siemens and NXP Semiconductors recently hosted live connected vehicle (CV) demonstrations in downtown Tampa in conjunction with the Florida Autonomous Vehicle Summit. Participants were driven around the half-mile course to experience how connected vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies work in a real-world setting. The technologies demonstrated reflect some of the systems that Tampa will feature as part of the upcoming Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority’s (THEA) and US Department

Thousands of buses and taxis will be made greener and cleaner after the Transport Secretary confirmed a US$363 million (£290 million) investment to support low emission vehicles this week. The funding will be invested in a number of projects, including: £150m for cleaner buses and taxis and US$100 million (£80 million) to improve the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is now open for applications. US$25 million (£20 million) has also been allocated to an Adva

The latest SES America webinar, Improving Roadway Safety and Mobility Through Innovative Sign Solutions, is now available to stream. SESA’s Mobility range of NEMA compliant customisable blank out, lane control, travel time, and variable speed limit signs can be utilised to display regulatory, warning, and guidance information. The webinar provides technical information, benefits and applications of the signs, along with details of how solar power can lower energy consumption and provide built-in auto

Engineering, planning and consulting services company Michael Baker International recently completed a nearly US$7-million project for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to collect data from more than 8,600 traffic signals across the state. Over a year, the Michael Baker team, working with PennDOT’s Traffic Signal Asset Management System (TSAMS), collected nearly 20 million data fields for each of the 8,623 traffic signals analysed, which populated a centralised database to support Pen

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) has contracted with the City of Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center for the implementation of its latest-generation GPS-enabled Opticom emergency vehicle pre-emption solution, which works alongside intersection controllers to give priority to fire rescue vehicles. The existing Opticom GPS system will be expanded, with 12 additional fire rescue vehicles and six more intersections to be equipped with Opticom components. The GPS-enabled system allows for wir

Austria’s highway and expressway operator ASFINAG (Autobahnen-und-Schnellstrassen-Finanzierungs-Aktiengesellschaft) has awarded Kapsch TrafficCom the contract to implement and operate the GO Maut 2.0 Mauttechnik toll collection system (national toll collection system for vehicles over 3.5 metric tons). The contract comprises modernising roadside infrastructure at around 500 locations and upgrading the control centre up to the latest technological standards. Instead of two gantries, future roadside tol

US-based software developer CrowdOptic and business and training company Futton are to implement CrowdOptic’s live-streaming solution on smartglasses, complete with license plate recognition, for the Ministry of Traffic in China. In addition, Futton has initiated testing of CrowdOptic’s solution for situational awareness and anomaly detection for use by the Ministry of Traffic and other police departments. The live-streaming and licence plate recognition capabilities are being deployed on smart glasses,

Traffic congestion is costing UK businesses approximately US$957 million (£767 million) a year in lost productivity, according to research conducted by TomTom. The TomTom Traffic Index has found traffic across the UK’s 25 most congested cities and towns increases the time each vehicle spends on the road by an average of 127 hours a year. And the situation seems to be getting worse. An average journey in 2015 took 29 per cent longer than it would in free-flowing conditions, up from a 25 per cent delay

Scalable CIPURSE-based electronic fare collection systems are now being implemented in Russia by German company Infineon Technologies and Russian systems integrator Udobny Marshrut (UM). UM has started roll-out in Izhevsk and Angarsk; seven other metropolitan regions are planned to follow by end of 2016. A total of two million people are eventually expected to benefit from customised, easy-to-use and particularly secure ticketing solutions for public transportation. Unlike the proprietary solutions c

The Dutch government is looking into measures to cut the number of deaths and injuries caused by drivers being distracted by their phones, transport minister Melanie Schultz told Algemeen Dagblad. This could mean that mobile phone manufacturers could be required to fit devices that stop people using their handsets while driving. Currently motorists only break the law if they pick up the phone while driving, but the government says research shows that even hands-free use significantly increases the ris

Ontario, Canada, is supporting innovation in the transportation sector by launching the first automated vehicle (AV) pilot program in Canada, led by the University of Waterloo, the Erwin Hymer Group and BlackBerry QNX. The pilot brings together a range of expertise from the research, manufacturing and technology sectors to advance innovation and capability in Ontario's AV sector. The WATCar Project at the University of Waterloo's Centre for Automotive Research will monitor a Lincoln MKZ for performan

The Charlotte City Council in the US has chosen Siemens to build six new S70 streetcars for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), the public transit system operated across Mecklenburg County and four surrounding counties. The vehicles will be designed with advanced hybrid technology that features a battery storage system, which allows for operation in portions of Uptown without the need for power from an overhead wire. The new streetcars will add to the 42 Siemens-built light rail vehicles currently

The global intelligent transportation system (ITS) market is expected to reach US$66.5 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Research and Markets. The report, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Market Analysis By Type, By Application And Segment Forecasts To 2024, indicates that usage of ITS to reduce road accidents and increase safety is a major driving force for the ITS market. Demand for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication in order to enhance road s