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In support of the third annual Infrastructure Week, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is participating in events in Washington and will then head out to meet with state and local leaders, business leaders and academics in Tennessee, California, and Iowa. “Our nation’s economy and the way we live both depend on having strong infrastructure,” Secretary Foxx said. “But the truth is that our current levels of investment are falling short of what is needed just to keep our existing system safe and in g

A new report from the International Transport forum at the OECD, International Experiences on Public Transport Provision in Rural Areas, claims that, to ensure continued access to public transport for citizens in rural areas, the definition of public transport should be reconsidered by public authorities. Low population density and competition from private cars make it difficult to operate profitable commercial public transport services in rural areas, as costs per passenger are much higher than in dense

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has discovered that more than 40 per cent of all motorway and major A road lane closures in England in 2014 were caused by 185,457 vehicle breakdowns, 40,192 of which were in a ‘live lane’ i.e., a lane with other moving traffic around it vehicle breakdowns. The information came from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the IAM, which asked for the number of incidences of lane closures on roads managed by Highways England in 2014. In total there were 44

The UK Government-backed Transport Systems Catapult has announced it will host a unique national summit on intelligent mobility and the future of transport next month. Featuring some of the most prominent thinkers in transport technology, research, and policy, the Imagine Festival will reveal how different sectors believe technology will transform global transport. According to David Reid, director of the Imagine Festival at the Catapult, the Imagine Festival has been created so leading minds from UK i

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is hosting the fourth in a series of interactive workshops to discuss and seek feedback on its Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture (CVRIA) efforts. The 3-day training workshop is designed to bring together state and local government stakeholders who are planning connected vehicle deployments, device manufacturers who need to know the overall scope of the architecture, researchers and academics, and standards developers. The workshop will be

The EU's TEN-T programme has awarded 75 research and innovation projects a total of US$540 million in research grants, aiming to make Europe's transport systems greener, safer, and more competitive. All transport modes are covered including road, rail, water and air transport, as well as environmentally friendly vehicles, intelligent transport systems (ITS) and improvements to logistics and freight systems. Numerous projects are concerned with sustainable urban mobility, such as the US$4.5 million Sil

The city of Annapolis, Maryland has awarded American Traffic Solutions (ATS) for the installation and operation of a red-light safety camera program with an initial term of five years along with provisions for future term extensions. In Texas, the Harris County Department of Education/Choice Partners has exercised its second of four one-year renewal options, ensuring that school districts in Texas that are members of Choice Partners may contract with ATS for school bus stop arm camera programs.

Auckland, New Zealand, Council’s Budget Committee has agreed to introduce an interim transport levy so that work can begin on fixing the city’s transport problems. The interim levy is in response to the majority of Aucklanders opting to pay more for the Auckland Transport Network Plan during public consultation and in an independent survey earlier this year. To fill the US$9 billion funding gap for the full Auckland Plan network, Auckland also opted for a motorway user charge.

The Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum (ITF) provides a platform for global discussion on strategies for transport in the 21st century. Since 2008, the Annual Summit has developed into the leading global get-together of the key players in transport and transport-related sectors, providing a unique platform for high-level exchange on strategic policy issues. The theme of the 2015 Summit is Transport, Trade and Tourism. It takes place in Leipzig, Germany from 27-29 May 2015, under the presi

The first six months of the pilot phase of SolaRoad, the first road in the world to generate solar power, have produced an energy yield beyond expectations, according to its Dutch developer, TNO. The cycle road, installed in Krommenie in the Netherlands, has already generated over 3,000 kWh. "We did not expect a yield as high as this so quickly,” says Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad. “This can provide a single-person household with electricity for a year, or power an electric scooter to drive of

Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded the contract to deliver Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) new Optimised Public Transport Integration System (OPTIS). OPTIS will contribute specifically to the delivery of two projects within the Smarter Travel package: Travel Information and Network Efficiency, the latter involving integration with TfGM’s AToM (Advanced Traffic Management) solution. The award is the culmination of two years’ work during which Cubic has established partnerships wi

Transportation solutions supplier McCain has reported on the positive deployment of its QuicTrac adaptive signal control technology along a busy corridor in Pueblo, Colorado. The installation, on behalf of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Region 2 traffic section, successfully met all project goals including reducing travel times and stops, while maintaining or increasing corridor speed. Installed on an 8.2 mile stretch of US highway 50 in an effort to ensure traffic signal timing kept pa

The Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) will unveil a new connected vehicle training workshop at ITS America's 25th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The course is based on the successful Connected Vehicle 101 classes that the ITS JPO has been conducting since 2013. The workshop will be held on 31 May 31 in the Welk Room of the Omni William Penn Hotel. This instructor-led workshop builds on the Connected Vehicle 101 workshop by providing additional

Daimler Trucks launched its newly developed autonomous transport truck, the Freightliner Inspiration, at an event that turned the Hoover Dam in Nevada into a large projection screen. The Level 3 autonomous truck uses Highway Pilot sensors and hardware with cameras and radar to safely operate under a range of highway conditions, and has been granted a licence to operate in Nevada. The Freightliner Inspiration is based on the US Freightliner Cascadia model, but with the addition of the Highway Pilot techno

Driverless vehicles have begun operation on the Milan Metro line 5 extension which opened on the 29 April. Ansaldo STS delivered 19 trains to Milan Metro operator ATM, which will run on the extended 12.8 kilometre line to San Siro Stadio and will stop at five newly opened stations. A further five stations will be opened in October this year. The system allows remote supervision of daily train traffic and is able to change the frequency of trains to meet the fluctuating demands of daily traffic, ad