News

ITS United Kingdom has introduced a new membership category to support start-up companies in the sector. The UK public sector’s rapid uptake of open data principles and the restructuring of large ITS employers during the recession has prompted the growth of small, innovative companies. This new category allows small companies that have been trading for less than two years to join the Association for a third of the cost of the standard fee. Graeme Scott of IBI Group and the membership director of ITS (UK) s

With momentum building towards 2016 and hosting the ITS World Congress in Melbourne, ITS Australia has appointed a new board of directors with John Hawkins, Manu Hingorani and Michael Watts elected for two-year terms. ITS Australia’s president Brian Negus said efficient and environmentally sustainable transport is a goal for all communities and having been voted the World’s Most Liveable City, it is appropriate that Melbourne will host the 2016 World Congress. He said the World Congress Organising Co

ITS Ireland will begin its 2014 seminar program with an examination of the changes being made to the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) as part of a major revision being carried out by the National Roads Authority. The revision will be in three-stages (Infrastructure, Devices, and Procedures) first of which has been published and the second is currently in production. ITS Ireland said the focus of the presentation in its seminar will be on the documents issued by the NRA and the package that

Some 500 delegates from around the world are expected to attend the 2014 Asia-Pacific Intelligent Transportation Systems Forum which will be held between 28-30 April in New Zealand. It is the first time in its 13-year history that the Forum has been held in New Zealand and it is being staged by ITS NZ. Delegates will hear 80 specialist papers delivered over 20 sessions by local and international ITS experts from Europe, the United States and Asia including Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Some notable topics

Following the announcement in Vienna by Deputy Minister of Transport Alexey Tsidenov, Russia is bidding to host the 2018 ITS World Congress in Moscow and the 2016 European ITS Congress in Kazan. ITS Russia and the GLONASS/GNSS Forum are part of an organising committee that includes the representatives of the Ministry, Federal Road Agency and city administrations. The committee aims to bring the World and European congresses to Russia for the first time and will start by preparing the Russian business da

Following media coverage which contained allegations of unethical business behaviour, Imtech began an internal investigation into the former management of Fritz & Macziol Schweiz. This behaviour allegedly included excessive gifts and entertainment offered to Seco civil servants. The internal investigation initiated by Imtech was conducted by a substantial external team of lawyers, accountants and forensic experts. The office of the public prosecutor in Switzerland has also initiated criminal investigati

The UK Highways Agency is holding a series of public exhibitions to inform road users, local residents and businesses about proposals to transform the M4 into one of the longest stretches of ‘smart motorway’ in England by 2021. The improvement, on a 32-mile stretch between junction 3 at Hayes in London, and junction 12 at Theale in Berkshire, would increase capacity, improve journey reliability and maintain safety. The proposals are part of the Government’s investment into England’s motorways and majo

Stationnement de Montreal, which manages parking for the City of Montreal, Canada, has announced a project with smart parking solutions provider Streetline, with the aim of reducing congestion and increasing parking availability ion the city. Already deployed in more than 40 locations in both the US and Europe, Streetline's patented smart parking platform detects the presence of a car through a network of ultra-low power wireless sensors located in the pavement of individual parking spaces. Data from th

Designed to boost driver awareness of pedestrians, McCain says its latest technology for pedestrian safety, the rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB), is widely recognised as a means to reduce accidents between vehicles and pedestrians at intersections and mid-block crosswalks without traffic signals. An ideal solution for a range of applications, the RRFB has highly visible high-intensity LEDs which remain dark until activated by a pedestrian, when the lights flash in a wig-wag pattern, alerting appr

Inrix and Audi are collaborating in a project to launch Russia’s first comprehensive traffic information and driver services platform. Developed through an exclusive partnership with Russia’s leading navigation services provider cdcom, Inrix XD Traffic provides drivers in Russia with real-time traffic and incident information covering more than 236,000 kilometers of roadways across 55 cities – the most comprehensive traffic information service available and the first traffic incident service of its kind

Three Japanese companies, Toshiba Corporation, Hitachi and Itochu Corporation are to supply the Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) with an intelligent transportation systems (ITS) package to be installed on the 55-kilometre Ho Chi Minh and Dau Giay section of Vietnam’s North-South Expressway. The order, worth around US$39 million, includes electronic toll collection (ETC), traffic control and equipment monitoring systems, and is the first for an integrated ITS package that Japanese companies have recei

Moscow has announced a tender to build а toll road parallel to Kutuvkosky Prospekt, stretching from Moscow City’s business centre to the Moscow ring road and meet the M1 toll road. Expected to include four lanes of traffic, the US$1.1 billion project will take five to seven years to build, with the contract between the city and the winning tenderer lasting 40 years. The investor will be able to set the road's fare, though within limits prescribed by Moscow authorities. The city's head of construction,

In the wake of the European Parliament’s approval of the mandatory installation of automatic emergency phones in all cars and vans by 2015, the Irish Times says Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA) is to deploy a range of intelligent transport systems to improve travel times, warn drivers of weather, dangers and delays ahead and automatically notify emergency services in the event of crashes or even the potential for crashes. The NRA has developed a motorway traffic control centre, based at the Dubli

German video wall supplier eyevis has installed a 7 sq m video wall in the central control room of Société Anonyme d’Economie Mixte d’Exploitation du Stationnement (SAEMES), a parking system operator in the city of Paris, which manages more than 90 car parks in the city. Images from CCTV surveillance cameras installed in each car park are displayed in the central control room on the eyevis video wall, which consists of twelve 46-inch displays. With full HD resolution, direct LED backlight technology

Barcelona is to deploy a strategy using a variety of approaches to cut car traffic by more than 20 per cent to improve air quality in the city, particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulates. Barcelona's busy harbour and crowded streets mean that air pollution in the city is a constant challenge. The city's Mobility Plan includes reforms to parking charges, the bus network, and the concept of 'superblocks', where access to certain areas is restricted to private vehicles. Previous versions of the conce