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Insurance group Munich Re, in collaboration with the Washington State Transit Insurance Pool (WSTIP), has launched a pilot program top equip transit buses with Mobileye Shield+ collision avoidance technology, installed by Rosco Vision Systems. For the pilot, 38 WSTIP transit buses have been equipped with the technology which claims to enable drivers to avoid and mitigate imminent collisions, protecting the most vulnerable and difficult to observe road users, cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. Je

A Welsh National Assembly committee study, which looked at bus and community transport across Wales, has found that falling subsidies, falling passenger numbers and reductions in services across Wales are having a severe impact, particularly in rural Wales. Enterprise and Business Committee chairman William Graham AM said that there are also a range of policy issues which undermine the Welsh bus industry. The need for a dedicated Wales-only Traffic Commissioner based in Wales and accountable to the Welsh

Transport for London (TfL) has completed trials of intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology fitted to buses. The trials saw the technology, which prevents vehicles from accelerating over speed limits, fully tested on two bus routes that included a variety of road environments and differing speed limits. All buses fitted with ISA remained within the speed limit 97-99 per cent of the time, which TfL says proves the effectiveness of ISA. The extremely rare incidents of excess speeds were seen on downhi

Less than a month after one of its autonomous cars was in collision with a bus, Google has been awarded a patent for a bus detection system, Bus detection for an Autonomous Vehicle. The timing is coincidental, as Google is said to have applied for the patent in 2014. The patent, which focuses on school buses, describes the technology which should enable Google’s autonomous vehicles to recognise a large vehicle, compare it to known school bus sizes and colours and determine whether it is ‘representativ

Twenty US automakers, representing more than 90 per cent of the US auto market have committed to automatic emergency braking (AEB) a standard feature on virtually all new cars no later than 2022. Making the announcement, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) said that the commitment means that this important safety technology will be available to more consumers more quickly than would be possible

With funding from Infrastructure Canada and the Government of Quebec, Canada, Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) in Quebec City, Canada, is to purchase up to 32 new hybrid midi-buses from Belgian company Van Hool. The A330 hybrid diesel-electric vehicles are nine metres long and equipped with low-floor entrances and manual ramps. The midi buses will be equipped with a hybrid propulsion technology whose operating principle is similar to the hybrid bus used by the RTC since July 2015. RTC believes th

After over four years of work, the European ecoDriver project has released its first results. The project trials involved 170 drivers in seven countries, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and UK, both in controlled and naturalistic environments testing nine different eco-driving support systems. Despite minor variations in terms of percentage, the findings showed that overall, across all the systems, reductions in fuel consumption and CO2 have an average of 4.2 per cent with the highest

An Australian House of Representatives’ report, Smart ICT Report on the inquiry into the role of smart ICT in the design and planning of infrastructure, recommends a more coordinated and integrated approach to the development and application of smart ICT to infrastructure. It proposes the formation of a Smart Infrastructure Task Force, based on the UK model, to provide national coordination between governments, industry and researchers. Committee Chair, John Alexander MP, said the report on the role of s

The UK chancellor announced in his spring budget what he called the biggest investment, US$87.5 billion (£61 billion), in transport infrastructure in generations and is increasing capital investment in the transport network by 50 per cent over this Parliament compared to the last. The government plans to establish the UK as a global centre for excellence in connected and autonomous vehicles by establishing a US$24.1 million (£15 million) ‘connected corridor’ from London to Dover to enable vehicles to com

According to research company Statista’s Digital Market Outlook (DMO), 2016 will see approximately 11 million connected cars in America, with almost 32 million intelligent cars on America’s streets by 2020. Worldwide the number of connected cars is forecast to rise to 160 million intelligent vehicles. Statista claims the main impact of the enormous growth of the market comes from the rapid development of new features and possibilities. The biggest segment however, according to the DMO, is not infotainmen

Registration for the ITS European Congress in Glasgow, Scotland on 6-9 June 2016 is officially open! Early bird registration rates are available until 18 April. Over 2,5000 ITS professionals are expected to attend the event which has an extensive programme this year, including the Mayor’s Summit on Wednesday 8 June and a Gala Evening at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on Wednesday 8 June. In addition, there are more than 100 sessions around the five Congress topics, a student programme, technical vis

In an effort to reduce the number of accidents caused by slippery road conditions, Swedish companies Nira Dynamics and Infocar Training have equipped a fleet of 80 vehicles with software for detecting road surface conditions in real-time. Road surface information (RSI), developed by Nira, continuously monitors the quality and tyre grip level of the road surface, without stereo cameras, adaptive suspension or other expensive sensors. Using sensor fusion based algorithms, RSI determines the level of road r

The European Commission has revealed the finalists for the European Mobility Week Award 2015, which recognises excellence in sustainable mobility, and the award for sustainable urban mobility planning which aims to promote the adoption of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) across Europe. Both awards will be presented by Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc and Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella at a ceremony on 20 April in Brussels, Belgium. Of the 53 applications from 19 countries, Lisbon, M

Early next month six European truck manufacturers will bring platoons of semi-automated trucks to public roads, crossing borders from various European cities in order to reach their final destination of the Port of Rotterdam on 6 April. The overall objective of this European Truck Platooning Challenge is to accelerate the introduction of truck platoons by putting the subject high on the agenda of EU policy makers. The Platooning Challenge, organised by the Netherlands as part of its ongoing EU Presidency

Driverless cars are disrupting the automotive industry and supply chain, propelling car sharing forward as the ultimate, mainstream transportation mode. This new car sharing economy is already well in motion, and with it continuing to ramp up, ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, forecasts that 400 million people will rely on robotic car sharing by 2030. "The new car sharing economy happens in three phases: street rental service, ride sharing service, and