News

Vaisala claims it is set to revolutionise the ITS road weather industry by launching an entirely new road weather station, the RWS200, which, when combined with Vaisala’s RoadDSS software suite, delivers a complete road weather solution called iRWIS. Vaisala iRWIS consists of intelligent roadside hardware making its own decisions, combined with sophisticated decision support software that makes decision making easier and more accurate. iRWIS is flexible, from the scalable software solutions to RWS200 tha

The ‘Getting schooled in infrastructure’ campaign bus tour by the US Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) began this week at the now-closed I-495 bridge in Wilmington. The tour, intended to highlight LIUNA’s concerns about the country’s failing roads and bridges, will travel through more than 22 cities and Congressional districts in a bid to press Congress to pass a long-term, full-investment Highway Bill this year. The campaign also includes radio ads, billboards, online activity and g

The iMobility Challenge presented intelligent vehicle systems to policy makers, ITS professionals and the general public in Helsinki during the European ITS Congress. The highlight of the day was the participation of the Formula One driver, Valtteri Bottas, in an eco-driving competition. The competition evaluated a short drive in Helsinki by the F1 driver giving him a ‘smart’ driving score, thanks to an on-board device monitoring the energy-efficiency of his driving style. Visitors then had the chance to

A consortium led by Codiser and including Indra has been awarded a contract to build facilities and provide equipment to operate a 380 kilometre stretch of the east-west Algerian highway. The contract, awarded by L’Algerienne de Gestion des Autoroutes (AGA), the organisation responsible for managing, operating, maintaining and servicing the Algerian national highway network, covers a stretch that links the cities of Hammam El Bibane and Bou Kadir, via the country's capital Algiers, in the central sectio

Cubic Transportation Systems and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have been awarded the ITS-New York Project of the Year for MTA Bus Time, the customer information system for bus location and arrival times that was developed for the MTA. Bus Time was completed in March and covers more than 15,000 bus stops in New York City. Under a contract awarded in 2013, Cubic was selected to build and integrate the bus hardware system that includes the on-board computer and bus location device

The US state of Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has awarded International Road Dynamics (IRD) a US$1.5 million contract to supply and install an electronic pre-clearance system for the Huetter port of entry. The contract also includes two years of maintenance to commence upon completion of the installation. The project includes IRD's integrated electronic mainline weigh-in-motion (WIM) pre-screening solution with its intelligent roadside operations computer (iROC) that will exchange information w

Finland’s technical research centre VTT and the Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT) have completed a study commissioned by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of the Environment, assessing the impact of the EU's 2030 Climate and Energy Framework on Finland's energy system and national economy. The increased use of second-generation bio-fuels in road transport would provide Finland with the most cost-effective way of achieving the greenhouse gas emissions goals presente

A webinar organised by Ertico-ITS Europe at 1600 on 20 June will provide an overview of the main topics on Automation discussed during the ITS European Congress, highlighting the main outcomes of different initiatives organised during the Congress. The speakers, Dr Maxime Flament of Ertico-ITS Europe and Dr Lytrivis Panagiotis of ICCS, will share their views and provide feedback on events at the Congress. They will also debate the current progress in different areas relating to successful and sustainable

Active LED solar road studs supplied by Rennicks UK have been granted a Certificate of Acceptance by the authority responsible for the UK’s railways, paving the way for the studs to be installed at level crossings around the country. Rennicks say that the road studs are an intuitive signal to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in the approach to and crossing the track. The studs use dual LEDs with an internal prismatic system for high performance and solar/battery technology for environmental sustaina

Aecom Technology Corporation has announced that GrandLinq, a public-private partnership (PPP) of which it is a member, is to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a new at-grade light rail transit (LRT) system between the cities of Waterloo and Kitchener in Ontario,Canada. The contract, awarded by the Region of Waterloo in Ontario is expected to be worth approximately US$23 million to Aecom. As the PPP’s design lead, AECOM is responsible for the project’s detailed design, including track, civi

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Strategic Analysis of Inductive Charging for Global Electric Vehicles (EV) Market, finds that the total market for inductive charging is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 126.6 per cent from 2012 to 2020, with approximately 351,900 units likely to be sold. Inductive charging will account for 1.2 per cent of both public and residential charging in North America and more than 2.6 per cent in Europe. Residential charging will be the most popular method,

Navtech Radar has teamed up with Imtech Traffic & Infra at the ITS Europe congress in Helsinki 16 to 19 June to showcase its ClearWay CTS350-X solution for automatic incident detection (AID). Navtech says ClearWay CTS350-X is suitable for AID in tunnels, bridges and strategic roads. It delivers a cost effective coverage of road surface up to 1000 metres, with a response time between detection of a stopped vehicle and alarm of less than 10-15 seconds. The device’s typical mounting height provides visibili

Canterbury City Council in the UK has taken delivery of Parkeon’s first ParkREG with barriers system to be installed in the UK to replace ageing pay on foot technology, bringing a number of benefits, including pre-booking capability. ParkREG with barriers is an innovative parking payment and centralised management solution which integrates automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and barriers on entry/exit lanes with Astreo terminals. Canterbury uses numerous technologies to control its pa

According to new data released by driver safety solutions company Lytx Europe, eating or drinking while driving is nearly as dangerous as using a mobile device – whether handheld or hands-free - and greatly increases a driver’s risk of being in or causing a collision. Lytx (formerly DriveCam) found that drivers who eat and drink while driving are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a collision than those who do not due to the distraction this causes. This is almost as high as the collisions resultin

The rapid development of lighting technologies, particularly solid-state systems using light emitting diodes (LEDs), has opened a universe of new possibilities as well as new questions about roadway lighting in the US, which for decades has been dominated by the use of high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. Other light source technologies have also been angling for roadway market share. In response to a need for objective technical information about new types of roadway lighting among transportation agencies