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According to a new research report from analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was four million in Q4-2013. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.3 per cent, this number is expected to reach 8.1 million by 2018. In Latin America, the number of active fleet management systems is expected to increase from 1.9 million in Q4-2013, growing at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent to reach 3.9 million in 2018. The top t

A new report, A Vision for Transport Planning, has been produced and published by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and the Transport Planning Society (TPS), setting out the key role transport planning can play in meeting the pressing challenges the nation will face over the next 20 years. Taking a view to 2035, the report focuses on how the UK can benefit to the greatest extent possible from transport planning’s unique influence – ranging from its major impact on national economi

Over the last three years, the Ciudad 2020 R&D&i project has developed new intelligent technologies to assist urban resource management and create new services. The new smart sustainable city model has been developed and tested in partnership with the cities of Malaga, Santander and Zaragoza, Spain and includes an innovative platform featuring new energy, environment and mobility management tools will deliver personalised services to citizens' mobile devices. Other developments include new intelligent

TomTom and Volkswagen Group Research have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join forces for the development of highly automated driving (HAD) systems. Their aim is to jointly develop the digital map that is essential for automated driving by combining TomTom’s expertise in map content and map making with Volkswagen’s know-how of the car and automated driving. The map that is used today for navigation, including geometry, street names, and addressing, is not sufficient for the future needs of a

According to road safety engineer Alan Vass of the Traffic and Road Safety section of Ayrshire Roads Alliance in Scotland, LED road studs have contributed to a 100 per cent reduction in incidents on a stretch of the A719 road in the county. Vass says the active studs, which use LED and solar technology to create delineation shown to be far more effective than traditional retro-reflective studs, could hold the key to a brighter future. He said: “There had been a number of accidents on the A719 near Wat

Mercedes-Benz is to begin testing its autonomous cars on a unique site in California, at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS), the largest test bed site in the US. Since mid-September the company has also held an official licence, issued by California, to test self-driving vehicles on public roads. The additional testing opportunities provided by the CNWS site will enable the company to significantly expand the scope of its research activities. With a test ar

New South Wales Minister for Roads and Freight, Duncan Gay, has announced that speed cameras in ten locations across NSW are to be removed as soon as any safety works such as additional signage, barriers and markings and that work has been finished. Gay said in a statement that the government is keeping to a statement that it made while in opposition, and removing any speed cameras that did not add a proven safety benefit. The 2014 Speed Camera Review of the state’s cameras indicates that early result

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has responded to the joint report by the Eno Center for Transportation and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which highlights the benefits of life cycle cost analysis in planning transportation infrastructure projects. Executive director and CEO Pa trick D. Jones said: “We commend ENO and ASCE for issuing an important report, Maximizing the Value of Investments Using Life Cycle Cost Analysis. This report is especially timely

The Jakarta administration is set to kick off a second trial run of the electronic road pricing scheme aimed at helping ease traffic congestion, with the aim of having the system up and running by January 2016. Norway-based Q-Free has set up a gantry with cameras and sensors for the trial run in South Jakarta. The system works by detecting cars passing beneath it, and then remotely deducting a toll from a stored-value card in an on-board unit (OBU) inside the vehicle. OBUs have been installed in 100 car

The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)’s chief executive Rob Wallis, attending the United Nations Climate Summit in New York last week, was delighted to be able to pledge TRL’s support to the UEMI initiative, by UN-Habitat. “The UEMI initiative, aimed at substantially increasing the adoption of electric vehicles within urban environments, aligns strongly with TRL’s own strategy and current activities,” Wallis explained. “TRL is actively engaged in leading innovative research programmes to understan

HP Software has been awarded a contract by the city of Auckland, New Zealand to deliver a Big Data project designed to provide a safer community and more efficient roadways for its citizens. Auckland Transport, the government agency responsible for all of Auckland’s transportation infrastructure and services, will deploy video analytics powered by HP IDOL on servers and storage from HP Enterprise Group, and with support from HP Software Professional Services. Auckland Transport will use HP’s integrate

Indra, in partnership with Auneti (Autopista Necaxa-Tihuatlán) and FCC, has deployed traffic management technology in the six tunnels of the new Necaxa-Tihuatlán highway in Mexico. The US$18 million project also includes intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and control and communication systems on the 83 kilometres of highway sections 1 and 2. A new operational control centre equipped with Indra's Horus integrated roadway and tunnel management solution manages traffic along the new road's two sectio

Drivers in the UK are very familiar with the concept of traffic roundabouts at intersections, which are designed to keep traffic moving more efficiently than a traditional signal-controlled intersection. However, according to a report on the US Government Executive website, drivers in some parts of the US don’t understand them. In Oakland County, just outside Detroit, some roundabouts have seen big spikes in crashes and property damage since they were built, but the severity of those accidents has been

A consortium led by Mota-Engil has won a tender for the construction and operation of a stretch of Mexico's Tuxpan-Tampico highway. The Tuxpan-Tampico highway links two of Mexico's busiest Gulf coast ports and will be the first project in the country to be developed under the public-private partnership (PPP) law's unsolicited proposal provision. The project involves the construction of a highway south of the city of Tuxpan, from the junction with the Tihuatlán-Tuxpan highway to the connection with the

Siemens has been awarded a US$38 million contract by Subterráneos de Buenos Aires/Sociedad del Estado (SBASE) to upgrade the signalling and passenger information systems on line C of the Buenos Aires Metro system, Subte. The contract includes the installation of a new automated train monitoring system on the five-kilometre metro line as well as an upgrade of the depot operations control centre. Work will be carried out without interrupting services and should be commissioned by the end of 2016.