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Emergency response teams in the densely populated town of Brookhaven, New York, respond to more than 5,000 emergency calls every month. To enable fire-fighters and emergency services to meet the demand, town officials made the decision to upgrade to Opticom GPS priority control technology on more 500 fire trucks and at almost as many intersections. Opticom GPS uses a global network of GPS satellites to calculate vehicle speed, direction and precise location to pre-empt signals even around corners or obs

On 4 March 2013, Redflex Holdings announced a summary of its four-month long, independent, internal investigation into its subsidiary’s (RTSI) Chicago contract and associated matters and announced the departure of several US employees for violating company policies and the adoption of enhanced compliance activities, concluding that some of the activities “would likely be considered bribery by the authorities”. Today, the US Department of Justice arrested John Bills, a former employee of the City of Chica

German PTV group has signed a new agreement with Greek software company Emisia to incorporate the COPERT Australia database of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption in its routing and optimisation solutions. COPERT Australia is a specific database for Australia's route network and will be embedded into the PTV xServers, a range of advanced software components for route and trip planning. This will enable detailed calculation of CO2 emissions for heavy duty vehicles on trip and stop level in accordance with

Millions of people rely on public transit to get around and since 2007 Google has worked to include public transit routes and schedules in Google Maps. In its latest blog, Google says it makes it even easier to get around on public transport with the addition of public transport information for Vancouver, Chicago and every 2016 Olympic Games host city in Brazil. David Tattersall, Google’s product manager, Public Transit says in his blog: “Our transit data spans six continents, 64 countries and more th

The challenges of congested city transport systems and safety were the hot topics at the intelligent transport systems (ITS) business exchange conference held recently in Melbourne featuring speakers and delegates from Asia, Australia, Europe, USA and New Zealand. Hosted by ITS Australia, the conference attracted 200 participants from seven nations and facilitated an international exchange about innovative technologies and successfully deployed solutions to major transport issues across public, private a

Railway communications specialist Kapsch CarrierCom has been awarded the tender for two more Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R) projects in the Czech Republic. The company will install its state-of-the-art technology on the 200 kilometre Kolín – Havlíčkův Brod – Křižanov – Brno and the 110 kilometre Prague – Beroun – Králův Dvůr, Prague – Benešov and the Prague – Lysá nad Labem line over the next two years. In both areas, Kapsch will be setting up the GSM-R core network that has be

The final Drive C2X event will take place at the EUREF campus in Berlin on 16 and 17 July. For the first time, European-wide results of field operational tests (FOTs) are available and will be presented during the event. The Drive C2X final event also includes: a debate about the major outcomes of field operational tests on cooperative systems for smart driving; a business modelling gaming session to plan together the road to deployment; a dedicated conference with Q&A sessions focusing on results, da

In its federal budget announced on 13 May 2014, the Australian government announced plans for new infrastructure projects costing US$117.04 billion to keep the economy going after the mining boom ends. The new funding and existing projects are expected to boost infrastructure investment to US$47 billion by end of the decade. The government will invest US$11 billion to fast track infrastructure projects including US$3.4 billion for road projects, US$4.6 billion to asset-recycling fund for states and US$2.

In another application for autonomous vehicles, Oshkosh Defense has integrated its TerraMax unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) technology into an Oshkosh MRAP all-terrain vehicle (M-ATV) to demonstrate capabilities for route-clearance missions. M-ATV and other heavy and medium tactical wheeled vehicles equipped with TerraMax UGV technology enables one or multiple vehicles in a route clearance convoy to operate autonomously, resulting in fewer troops exposed to threats. The technology is designed as a modul

In a recent blog post, Google’s director of their self-driving car project, Chris Urmson has given an update on the technology that he says is better than the human eye. Google’s autonomous vehicles have logged nearly 700,000 miles on the streets of the company’s hometown, Mountain View, California. Urmson says a mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area. He claims that

Known for its high foot-traffic, congested streets and short blocks, the flow of pedestrian traffic plays a major role in San Francisco’s transportation network. Traffic controller maintenance adds to the problem where the cabinets have single front doors that obstruct pedestrian walkways, restricting the flow of foot traffic, and often forcing rerouting and delays. That’s about to change; the City has awarded McCain a contract for the supply of traffic controller cabinets, including the City’s first-ti

According to Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, technology developed by the centre makes it possible to miniaturise an entire measuring laboratory to the size of a small sensor. Using the technology, the Fabry project at VTT has developed smart optical measuring devices for uses that include optimisation of vehicle engines, reduction and monitoring of environmental emissions, and quality control of pharmaceuticals. Participants in the Fabry project to develop spectroscopic sensor devi

Q-Free’s German OEM partner VMT Düssel has recently installed its VideoScan automatic licence plate reader (ALPR) system at the entrances to Phantasialand theme park in Brühl, Germany, in an effort to provide the park with an insight to the type of visitors, their geographic distribution and pattern of returns. Q-Free’s Intrada ALPR software is integrated into the system’s video processing server for video and image handling; video captured by the VMT VideoScan installed on the entry lanes is sent to the

Sensys Traffic is to supply a customer in Asia with pilot speed enforcement systems to be trialled in an urban environment. The order, worth US$152,000, is for systems which have been designed with features adapted to the customer's unique environment and requirements and which will be tested prior to a decision on further investment. Sensys believes that the pilot systems will be delivered during summer 2014, with subsequent evaluation during the autumn. "This is the first order in accordance with

Jenoptik Robot, a key part of the Jenoptik Traffic Solutions division, has acquired all the activities of Dutch company Robot Nederland, which will be fully integrated into the group structure over the next few months. Both parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Jenoptik CEO Michael Mertin says: “This step is a manifestation of our consistent strategy to take more responsibility with and for our customers directly on site. This will allow us to incorporate our know-how into future proje