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Renault's flagship Espace minivan released toxic diesel emissions 25 times over legal limits in a Swiss study, despite complying with EU tests carried out at unrealistically low engine temperatures, a German environmental group said this week. According to Reuters, the tests commissioned by the DUH group, which have not been independently verified, follow Volkswagen's admission that it used illegal ‘defeat devices’ to cheat diesel emission regulations. In a statement, Renault said it contested the fin

Road safety charity Brake and the Freight Transport Association have welcomed the General Medial Council’s strengthened guidelines to all doctors emphasising their duty to disclose information to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) or DVA (Northern Ireland), where the patient has failed to act. It’s a shift that’s welcomed by road safety charity, Brake, which has long called for greater clarity from the GMC. Gary Rae, director of communications and campaigns for the charity, said: “This is

Swarco Traffic Americas’ advanced parking guidance system (PGS) partially opened at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas in time for the 2015 holiday season. Construction of the new multilevel garage, which began in 2014, was accelerated at the request of Houston Airport Systems to open 600 parking spaces in the new garage before the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday. Swarco collaborated with SpawGlass Contractors, the general contractor, to achieve this aggressive schedule. The PGS employs single spa

Identity and security specialist Morpho (Safran) and Internet of Things (IoT) enabler Telit claim to have successfully tested Morpho’s specialised embedded SIM with Telit’s high performance 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular IoT modules for deployment in an Emergency Road Assistance project in Russia. The two companies have been working closely to test a special robust embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC), next-generation SIM cards, which are developed specifically for the machine-to-machine (M2M) sec

Sensys Gatso Group has received an additional order for traffic safety systems worth US$774,000 from a customer in the Middle East, the fourth order received since June from a new customer in the region. The order covers the supply of red light and speed camera systems as well as software design work and is expected to be delivered during the first quarter 2016.

Released to support the Brake Road Safety Week from 23 to 29 November 2015, a survey by Venson Automotive Solutions, aimed at understanding drivers’ approach to road safety found that 24 per cent of respondents felt that being ‘more patient’ would help with road safety while driving, with ‘giving themselves more time for journeys’ coming second at 20 per cent. Encouragingly, 75 per cent in the Venson poll said they would, occasionally, leave their car at home to cut pollution. This year’s BrakeRoad Safet

UK Chancellor George Osborne announced major investments in transport in the government’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement, despite a 37 per cent cut in the Department for Transport’s (DfT) operational budget. This was offset with a planned 50% per cent increase in capital expenditure for the DfT - rising to a total of US$92 billion. In addition to protecting overall police spending in line with inflation, an increase of US$1.3 billion by 2019-20, the review includes US$70 billion capital investment

Cubic Transportation Systems, in partnership with customers Chicago Transit Authority, suburban bus operator Pace and commuter rail Metra, has launched the Ventra Mobile App for public transport passengers in Chicago. The one-stop mobile app gives transit passengers who travel on CTA ‘L’ trains or buses, Pace or Metra commuter trains the ability to plan, manage and pay for their journeys for each of the region’s agencies. The companies say this is an industry first for fully integrated regional transit s

Australia-based Transurban and the Virginia Department of Transportation have announced extensions to the I-95 and I-395 in Northern Virginia. The 395 Express Lanes project will convert the existing two I-395 high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes into three Express Lanes and extend the current dynamic tolling and traffic management system. It also involves an extension to the 95 Express Lanes for 11 kilometres north to the Washington DC border. Transurban has also announced an in-principle agreement VDOT

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, under the INNO-SOFC project and in collaboration with Convion and Elcogen, is developing a new-generation, long-life fuel cell system offering efficiency higher than that of competing technologies. The project aims to develop new, energy-efficient and commercially viable applications.

The ElectriCity 55 electric bus route in Gothenburg, Sweden has been awarded the European Solar Prize 2015 in the Transport and Mobility category as the best example of sustainable public transport operated using renewable energy. The prize, awarded by the European Association for Renewable Energy, Eurosolar, is awarded to European sustainability projects in a number of different areas.

A US$6 million rollout of new traffic signal technology is to be rolled out across Queensland, Australia, over the next four years to improve travel times for emergency services vehicles, allowing quicker response times to priority incidents across the state. Emergency vehicle priority (EVP) technology automatically interrupts traffic signal operations to provide a green light signal to emergency response vehicles when safe to do so.

THE UK’S first tram train vehicle has started its journey to Sheffield from Spain. The fully-constructed, 37m long tram train will make a two week voyage over land and sea from Valencia before arriving in South Yorkshire on 1 December. Passengers in the county will be the first in the UK to benefit from the innovative new tram train, a tram-type vehicle that has the signalling, power supply, control and communication technology to run on both street tram lines and the rail network.

After a comprehensive study of wrong-way driving crashes on state highways and how technology may help reduce the threat, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) is planning a prototype project to use existing highway sensors to detect wrong-way vehicles and alert authorities and other motorists. ADOT director John Halikowski said the study sets the stage for the agency to develop and test a unique and innovative system to detect and track wrong-way drivers, improving opportunities for law enforceme

Following discussions between China’s Henan province commissioner Jiao Jinmiao and Nigerian Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade, Chinese firm Henan International Cooperation Group is set to invest in major construction projects in Nigeria.