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A route enforcement and casualty reduction scheme on the strategic A14 in the UK has won a prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. The A14 route between the Midlands and East Anglia operates at the national speed limit of 70mph as a dual carriageway with central reserve and no hard shoulder. The average annual daily traffic figure is 74,000 and with no motorways or other high standard diversion routes along this corridor, journeys can be seriously delayed when congestion or collisio

Intelligent Transport Systems organisations and professionals representing industry, government and the research/academic community were recognised by their peers in Australia’s 2014 National Awards. Winners included: Intelematics Australia, which won the Industry Award for the Toyota Connected Vehicle Programs, a world market leading approach to in-vehicle connected technology.

Sanef, the French subsidiary of Spanish construction firm Abertis, is part of the consortium awarded the contract to improve the safety of the tunnels along the Boulevard Périphérique Nord de Lyon, along with the operation, maintenance and renovation of the toll road over 20 years. The contract also includes the management and maintenance of the road and its equipment over 20 years, including the management of the toll payment systems, for which Sanef will receive a fee of US$12.5 million a year. The

Automatic incident detection (AID) manufacturer Navtech Radar has ventured into the tunnels of Norway and has supplied its radar-based ClearWay solution for the sub-sea 4.5 km long Mastrafjord Tunnel and the 5.8 km long tolled Byfjord Tunnel near Stavanger in Norway as part of a recently-completed tunnel refurbishment project. Radar AID was specified by consultants Multiconsult and following a tender process, systems integrator Trafsys was the winning bidder with the ClearWay solution. Multiconsult s

Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, which will exhibit at the forthcoming Fuel choices Summit in Tel Aviv, is developing an electric bus charging system that would allow vehicles to boost their batteries at terminal stations. There, the buses would connect to supercapacitors that charge the buses quickly so that they can operate for precisely calculated distances, according to the Jerusalem Post. Elbit’s supercapacitors aim to power buses for one full route, allowing them to recharge in the span of le

A consortium led by Spanish engineering firm CAF and comprising partners Construcciones Ferrovías y Subsistemas, Thales, Corsan-Corvian Construcción, Isolux and Construcciones Urales has been awarded the US$993 million contract for the Mexico City-Toluca railway. The contract involves the provision of electric trains, rail and communication infrastructure, ticketing facilities and associated services. The trains will travel at speeds of up to 160km/h along the 57.7 kilometre route between Observatorio

PT Marga Utama Nusantara, a toll road management company in Indonesia is using Fujitsu’s SPATIOWL traffic information service, a cloud service that utilises location information, to collect probe data such as vehicle location, time and speed, and generates and accumulates traffic information, such as congestion conditions and their duration. Indonesia’s increase in traffic due to population growth and rapid economic development has intensified the problems of traffic congestion and frequent traffic accid

More than 12,600 street lights on Hertfordshire’s A-roads are being upgraded to LED lighting using Telensa’s PLANet street light central management system (CMS), which will allow the lights to be monitored from a central point. This will reduce inspection costs and make it easier to spot and repair any faults. The system will also allow lighting levels on the A-roads to be reduced during the night, rather than turning lights off completely. Once the new lights are installed, light levels will be reduced

The 2014 report from the Road Safety foundation, How safe are you on Britain’s roads? claims that the majority of British road deaths are concentrated on just 10 per cent of the British road network, motorways and 'A' roads outside major urban areas. The report measures and maps the differing risk of death and serious injury road users face across this network, sometimes 20 times or more different. It also tracks which roads have improved, and those with persistent and unacceptable high risks. It highlig

Messaging solutions provider SESA recently signed an agreement to develop NTCIP compliant lane control signs (LCS) incorporating a conflict monitoring system as a vital design criterion. This system will automatically change lane signals that correspond to the counter flow mandate. In multi-lane counter flow commute lanes, if a green arrow is displayed on one LCS, the LCS on its reverse must display a red cross. Timing on all LCS signs will be identical. Additionally flashing red crosses will be in

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA and the US Chamber of Commerce have awarded California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) the Grand Prize and the People Choice awards in the 2014 America’s Transportation Awards competition. A record 73 transportation projects from 36 states and the District of Columbia were nominated in the 7th annual competition. The 10 projects that received the highest number

A three-month trial of 360-degree camera technology carried out by Brigade Electronics and Continental has been hailed a success by the two companies. Said to be the first trial of the technology on a fleet of large articulated heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), the project used the Brigade Backeye360 Elite system with Continental’s powerful ASL360 camera system on a fleet of rigid and articulated HGVs owned by UK retailer Marks and Spencer. Backeye360 Elite uses four ultra-wide angle camera lenses mounted

Iteris has completed and published the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) 2014 Level of Service Monitoring Report. The report was generated for speed-based congestion monitoring, utilising big data analytics in place of conventional in-field manual data collection for 205 miles of the 327 mile network. Use of big data analytics will be expanded in future monitoring cycles. Many agencies conduct congestion monitoring through manual data collection efforts. Agencies traditionally us

Working in collaboration with two FHWA-sponsored project teams, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) is conducting research to explore trucking industry perspectives on the use of automated truck platooning, also known as Driver Assistive Truck Platooning. This concept is based on a system that controls inter-vehicle spacing based on information from forward-looking radars and direct vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Braking and other operational data is constantly exchanged between th

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US$74.47-million loan to finance the first phase of Rwanda’s Transport Sector Support Project, to support the country’s need to improve its transportation services. The project involves upgrading 51.54 kilometres of the Base-Rukomo road along the Base-Gicumbi-Rukomo-Nyagatare axis. The project aims to contribute to socio-economic development, to improve standards of living and regional integration through an improved and sustainable transport system tha