News

The first European Day Without A Road Death (Project EDWARD) is taking place across Europe on Wednesday 21 September. Devised by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), the initiative aims to draw attention to the average of 70 deaths occurring every day on the roads of Europe. Project EDWARD has the support of European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, the European Commission, the European Transport Safety Council and traffic police forces from across TISPOL’s 30 member countries.

ITS America and other leaders in the intelligent transportation community have united to call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny a request by Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation for an emergency stay on the use of dedicated short range communications in the 5.9GHz spectrum band. The petition was made in a joint FCC filing by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers.

Dutch digital security specialist Gemalto is supplying the Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) with EMV prepaid banking and transport cards that support Manila Metro’s beep contactless ticketing system. BPI is one of the leading banks in the Philippines and the first to cater to both EMV and transport payment. The two-in-one card leverages Gemalto's Optelio technology and gives commuters greater security and convenience while increasing the transaction volume and user base for financial institutions.

Portsmouth City Council is adding school safety to the range of enforcement applications running on its hosted digital video platform. The council has started by deploying the Videalert system outside schools where illegal parking in keep clear areas has been identified as putting children’s lives in danger.

Sensys Networks, which provides integrated wireless traffic detection and data systems for smart cities, has announced an update to its detection equipment line-up. Comprising products that detect vehicles and bicycles, Flex Suite adds technological improvements and introduces new options for agencies looking for accurate traffic detection and data solutions.

Vaisala has acquired new products and technology from Finnish company Envitems to expand its offering in the growing air quality monitoring market. The products acquired measure pollution gases, like carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and ozone, as well as particles in the air. The products can be combined seamlessly with Vaisala industry-leading WXT multi-weather stations, and they present a novel, innovative way to build affordable but comprehensive air quality monitoring ne

The German city of Hamburg and the Volkswagen Group are to collaborate over the next three years to jointly develop innovative solutions for making urban mobility more environmentally-friendly, safer, more reliable and more efficient. For Volkswagen the partnership is another step in its new Together 2025 strategy, for Hamburg it represents an important step in its strategy to develop intelligent transport systems and support its application to host the 2021 ITS World Congress.

Sixty years after president Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act 1956 into law, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is to carry out a 30 month study of the future of the country’s interstate highway system. Michigan Department of Transportation director Kirk T. Steudle has been named as a member of the committee that will study the future of the US Interstate Highway System (IGS).

The number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in Europe was 5.3 million in Q4-2015, according to a new research report from the M2M/IoT analyst firm Berg Insight. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.9 percent, this number is expected to reach 10.6 million by 2020. All the top-10 vendors have today more than 100,000 active units in Europe. TomTom’s subscriber base has grown both organically and by acquisitions during the past years and the company ha

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has awarded a US$4 million contract to Syncromatics to design, install, and operate a network of 300 real-time bus information signs at the busiest bus shelters across Los Angeles County. The electronic signs, the first to be deployed widely in the Metro bus system, will provide real time arrival times, service alerts, and other information about Metro buses, as well as those operated by other regional transit agencies that share bus sh

Israeli smart city control applications provider Telematics Wireless is to supply its smart city technology for use in a new control and monitoring solution for 132,500 street lights in the City of Montreal, Canada, as part of a US$22 million (CA$28 million) contract awarded to engineering consultants Énergère for the supply and installation of an intelligent street lighting management solution. Telematics' solution will include its 7-pin external lighting control units (LCUs) and internal LCUs that will co

According to a report (link http://about.bnef.com/landing-pages/new-life-used-ev-batteries-stationary-storage/.) by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), the electric vehicle market is set to grow quickly, but so far there has been no consensus on a ‘second-life’ for the many used EV batteries. In this report, senior analyst Claire Curry has compiled the first data and shows that low-cost energy storage could be here sooner than previously thought. She projects that there will be 29 GWh of used EV batter

Hungary’s Ministry of National Development is to spend (US$107 million (€95 million) to develop the country’s cycling routes, including EuroVelo 6 Atlantic-Black Sea and the EuroVelo 11 East Europe Route which are some of the major long distance cycling routes in Hungary. Making the announcement earlier this month, the new commissioner for cycling, Máriusz Révész revealed his plans and the new priorities for the development of cycling and cycling tourism, as well as a complete renewal of the signposting

Slovenia is to integrate its public transport system with the introduction of an interoperable ticket, which will enable users to use different types of public transport without having to buy separate tickets. The ticket will integrate the use of regular rail and inter-urban bus transport in Slovenia and urban transport in the two largest Slovenian cities in a single system from 1 September. The first phase will introduce a single subsidised ticket for pupils, students and adult learners.

Georgia Department of Transportation, in partnership with Intelight, has deployed ‘smart’ signals at 1,000 intersections throughout the state. The project is part of a state-wide upgrade which converts traffic lights in Georgia to an up-to-the-second traffic signal controller technology. The new software provides significant improvements to how Georgia DOT and local agencies can operate their signal systems. The software, which was launched in autumn 2015 and is scheduled to be fully deployed on Geor