News

The work of a Jacobs WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff design joint venture on the North Strathfield Rail Underpass (NSRU) in New South Wales has been awarded an Australian Engineering Excellence Award (AEEA), which recognises outstanding achievement in the practice of engineering and service to the profession. The NSRU project was part of the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor Program, a joint Australian and NSW Government initiative to improve the capacity and reliability of freight trains between Strathfield an

Swarco Traffic is to launch two new products at Road Expo Scotland next month: a new, full colour variable message sign (VMS); and the Smart City Messenger, a new generation of mobile VMS with built-in UTMC connectivity to afford local authorities the same level of management and control as their fixed installations. Andrew Walker, business development manager, says that Swarco, which is with its sister company SignPost Solutions, continues to develop new technologies that meet the exacting requirements

The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) in Milton Keynes has successfully tested its self-driving vehicles in public for the first time in the UK. The demonstration of a UK developed autonomous driving system marked the conclusion of the Lutz Pathfinder Project, which has been developing the technology for the past 18 months. The project team has been running a number of exercises in preparation for the demonstration as part of the Lutz Pathfinder project, including virtual mapping of Milton Keynes, assess

Action is needed from across government departments to reverse the trend of flat-lining road deaths, according to new research from UK road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, which says reducing these deaths would in turn offer a large saving to the public purse. The new report, Evaluating the costs of incidents from the public sector perspective, is the first attempt to update the formula for death and injury cost figures since the 1990s. It is also the first time anyone has highlighted the costs to the publ

Electric vehicle (EV) charge point supplier Evolt has worked with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) in creating a north-south EV charging network throughout the islands of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. A total of 11 charge points have been strategically positioned on the Isles of Lewis and Harris, North Uist, South Uist and Barra, which make up the majority of the Council’s remit. The new network adds to the existing Evolt charge points procured and installed at the ferry ports throughout

Rail technology supplier Bombardier Transportation and consortium partner Vossloh Kiepe, has been awarded a contract for the supply of 40 Flexity low-floor trams to the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. The contract is valued at approximately US$156 million (€140 million), with an option for up to 60 additional trams. The new trams have been adapted for the city's existing light rail infrastructure and environmental and climate conditions. The vehicles are also equipped with a Vossloh Kiepe propulsion system a

Kapsch TrafficCom subsidiary Kapsch TrafficCom Australia has reached agreement with Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) in New South Wales for the supply of electronic toll transponders under a two-year framework agreement, with options for two plus one extension. Kapsch will deliver its latest tolling transponder technology, the TRP 4010 transponder, which fulfils all CEN performance requirements and is suitable for demanding applications including high-speed multi-lane free-flow and congested and stop-an

Waze, the free, real-time crowd-sourced traffic and navigation app powered by the world’s community of drivers, is to partner with Transport for London (TfL), which will provide its real-time government-reported construction, collision and road closure data from its open API to Waze for the app to confidently and accurately provide information to drivers to enable them to plan their journeys. It is hoped that this will be the first of many British collaborations. The Waze Connected Citizens Program is d

Jenoptik is to supply German truck toll operator Toll Collect with up to 600 toll payment monitoring systems by mid-2018 for the planned extension of compulsory truck tolls on Germany’s highways. Jenoptik is offering a new system which combines modern sensor technology for measuring distances and stereo image-processing and roadside-mounted cameras for recording and classifying trucks by detecting axle numbers. The toll monitoring systems will be installed at the roadside without the need for gantri

This week’s ITS World Congress is on track to be an outstanding success, says Brian Negus, ITS Australia president, and RACV general manager public policy. “Our target for the congress was 7000 delegates, but as of late Tuesday, we had 9850 delegates – and we’ve had great feedback from our plenary sessions,” he said.

Melbourne-based transport and field services specialist Smart Trans has used this week’s ITC World Congress to announce it has recently signed a contract to manage the assets and customer delivery requirements of one of the city’s leading landscape and gardening suppliers.

ITS Hong Kong will host the 15th ITS Asia-Pacific Forum and Exhibition from 27-29 June, 2017. Held in Hong Kong Science Park, the event theme is ‘Metropolitan transportation infrastructure in smart cities’.

New Zealand’s Minister of Transport, Energy and Safety, Simon Bridges has brought a clear message to ITS World Congress: “We are open for business”. He said the country’s regulatory regime is “as enabling as any in the world” for testing technology including driverless cars and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).

Autonomous vehicle technology company Nauto has entered into strategic agreements with BMW i Ventures and Toyota Research Institute, as well as with Allianz Ventures, part of financial service provider and insurance company Allianz Group. These companies have invested in Nauto and are working with the company on autonomous vehicle development using the Nauto cloud-based data learning platform. Nauto has developed deep learning capabilities that run both in the cloud and on retrofit devices that can be mo

The new releases of PTV Visum, PTV Vissim and PTV Viswalk software solutions for macroscopic traffic modelling and microscopic traffic and pedestrian simulation come with several new features and functions that aim to make modelling and simulating with PTV Vision Traffic solutions not only better but also faster and more convenient. PTV has developed SBA, a simulation-based dynamic assignment, for PTV Visum 16 for use where a detailed representation of the dynamics of congestion and traffic flow is requi