News

Lima’s city council has approved a regulation which prohibits minibuses, locally known as combis, in 16 of the Peruvian capital's most traffic-congested districts as part of an ongoing attempt to modernise its urban transport system. The new rules will take effect over the next year. The bill also included a measure to extend by three years the operating licenses for 399 bus routes, which the city is trying to streamline and incorporate into its integrated urban transport system, or SIT. The SIT is Lima’s a

Inrix is continuing its collaboration with Samsung on driving-related apps and services and now includes real-time traffic and travel time apps for the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones. Car mode, which enables users to set their S6 to automatically switch to a driver friendly user interface that uses voice controls and larger, crisper fonts and button sizes to make it easier to get up-to-the-minute traffic information, place and receive calls, listen to messages and play music on the road. Car

Ticketing solutions provider Gemalto is providing a comprehensive mobile contactless solution for a pilot project that enables NFC easy and secure access to the Madrid transport system. Gemalto’s Allynis Trusted Service Manager (TSM) has been integrated into back office systems operated by Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid (CRTM) by Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid (EMT), while its UpTeq Multitenant SIM with MIFARE DESFire technology has been supplied to Spain’s mobile network operator,

TomTom has announced new deals with motor manufacturers Kia Motors Europe, Fiat/Chrysler in Latin America and Hyundai in Europe. Starting in summer 2015, the company will integrate its connected services, including TomTom Traffic, speed cameras, local search and weather, in new Kia cars, beginning with the Kia cee’d and Kia Optima, and in Hyundai cars starting with the launch of the All-New Tucson SUV in the second half of 2015. Kia and Hyundai customers will benefit from the delivery of TomTom’s connected

The Finnish Transport Agency has appointed a consortium of Meridiam Infrastructure and YIT Rakennus as the service provider which will build the E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa motorway in Finland on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Construction will commence in autumn 2015 and the entire motorway is estimated to be completed in 2018. The consortium will be responsible for financing of the project, as well as planning, construction and maintenance for a period of 20 years. The E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa project compr

MasterCard today is to partner with Cubic Transportation Systems, combining MasterCard’s everyday payments and loyalty management expertise with Cubic’s NextCity platform to develop solutions that: Enable transportation operators to offer flexible pricing based on system demand; Provide individual travellers with real-time guidance on their mobile devices on the smartest way to travel, offering fare incentives if the system becomes congested or overcrowded; Offer retailers at and around transportation hu

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile ( FIA) Region I has welcomed the European Competitiveness Council vote to adopt the eCall type-approval legislation, while also regretting that users will have to wait another three years to benefit from this technology. The legislation mandates emergency call technology as a standard feature in all new vehicles from 2018, which the FIA says will undoubtedly accelerate the deployment of connected car technologies. Within eCall, the European Commission is mandate

German ticketing systems supplier Init is to modernise the ticketing system used by Bremer Straßenbahn (BSAG) in Bremen, Germany. By the end of 2017, more than 330 vehicles, three customer centres, 150 sales points and the larger bus and tram stops will be equipped with electronic printers, a boarding control system and mobile and static ticket machines, while a new point-of-sale system will be implemented in the customer centres. For the more than 105 million passengers that BSAG keeps moving every year, t

The Alberta Motor Association (AMA), IBI Group and GreenOwl Mobile have joined forces to deliver a big leap forward in keeping drivers in Alberta, Canada, informed of traffic issues. The next generation AMA Road Reporter app allows motorists to share their own reports, adding shared real-time road condition and traffic information to the already useful road condition data available. Available to both Android and Apple device users, the app is free and can be used to receive and share immediate, real-time ro

Schneider Electric has been awarded the contract to continue providing transportation management centre operations services for the Joint Transportation Management Center (JTMC) in New York City for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Schneider Electric has been providing transportation management centre operations services to the JTMC for the past ten years. Located in Long Island City in Queens County, the JTMC is responsible for transportation operations and management of the five b

Sensys Traffic has received an order for traffic safety systems worth US$275,000 from an existing customer in the United Arab Emirates. Sensys has its biggest installed base, alongside Sweden, in the United Arab Emirates. The Middle East is currently Sensys’ second largest market and the company now has customers in eight of the region’s 14 countries and the company plans to open a local office in the territory in 2015. “Our positive growth continues in the Middle East, and this order further secures our po

TransCore has been awarded a multi-year, US$205 million contract by Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to deliver accurate financial accounting, comprehensive transaction processes and customer service operations for its E-ZPass Service Centers. TransCore will implement its Integrity system to process more than 160 million MassDOT transactions each year. As the State moves to a cashless tolling solution, Integrity offers an E-ZPass interoperability module to manage more than 1.9 million lo

TomTom has partnered with with South Korea’s SsangYong Motor Company in a deal which will see TomTom’s maps and navigation software included in the all-new Tivoli model throughout Europe beginning in May 2015. Drivers across Europe will now benefit from TomTom’s superior turn-by-turn navigation, featuring advanced lane guidance to navigate even the most complex junctions. Drivers will also have the advantage of TomTom Routes, which provide the fastest route based on actual speed data, for every road, for e

Leading road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has described the introduction of new drug-driving laws as ‘a big step forward for road safety.’ The legislation comes into force in from 2 March 2015 in England and Wales and is designed to catch people who risk other people’s lives by getting behind the wheel after taking drugs, and not those taking legitimate medicines that don’t impair their ability to drive. The new law sets limits at very low levels for eight drugs commonly associat

A Scottish company has become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry. Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables now plans to build a production facility in central Scotland after manufacturing the first samples of bio-butanol from the by-products of whisky fermentation. Celtic Renewables, in partnership with the Ghent-based BioBase Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP), has produced the first samples of bio-butanol from waste using a process called the acetone-b