News

In order to promote the exchange of information and research on vehicle and road automation activities in Europe and beyond, the Vehicle and Road Automation (VRA) project has launched its website, together with other online tools to promote and expand the VRA community: The VRA wiki, www.vra-net.eu/wiki, is a user-edited shared resource for road vehicle automation activities around the world, containing details on around forty projects, with an abstract, contact point, website, sponsor, budget/funding an

Kapsch TrafficCom has been selected by North Tarrant Express (NTE) Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC to provide the toll collection, intelligent transportation and network communication systems for the NTE extension project. The NTE extension is approximately ten miles long, and runs along I-35W north of the city of Fort Worth. Kapsch will deliver ten all-electronic toll zones, including dynamic sign equipment and road sensors that provide the data to enable dynamic toll charges based upon actual traffic

The third European Motorcyclists' Forum, taking place in Brussels on 5 and 6 March 2014 features discussions on the essential road safety issues affecting motorcyclists, as vulnerable road users. Leading safety and ITS experts will join a panel discussion, ‘Setting the Scene’ on 5 March, moderated by Bernd Lange, Member of the European Parliament (S&D) and co-chair of the Forum for Automobile and Society. Discussions continue on 6 March and include: Motorcycling and ITS, a US perspective - Shane McLaugh

CIHT welcomes the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to launch a targeted review of the resilience of the transport network to extreme weather events, announced at the first meeting of the new Cabinet Committee on flooding. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin will lead the targeted review which will look at the plans for all transport providers and will build on the work of the Quarmby Review in response to cold weather. The review will report by the summer. The recent extreme weather events

The London Borough of Redbridge is using the first unattended CCTV enforcement system for moving traffic offences in the UK. The pilot system, supplied by UK company Videalert, has been operational at four locations to monitor a range of moving traffic offences since November 2013. They include one restricted access, one yellow box junction and two banned turns. The system automates the detection and capture of the moving traffic offences and provides efficient post review and validation processing of

US-based Image Sensing Systems (ISS) has released its new intelligent licence plate recognition (LPR) camera, the Autoscope Ex-120 series. Developed in partnership with UK company CA Traffic and using their high performance camera technology, the Ex-120 will further enhance the ISS LPR offering and will provide a more complete solution for its customers. The Autoscope Ex-120 series is a fully integrated high-definition camera above-ground LPR camera powered by ISS’ field-proven license plate recognitio

The announcement by the United States Government announcement that it will begin taking steps to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles has been welcomed by ITS Australia, which said it is pivotal in taking road safety to the next level. This technology improves safety by allowing vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other and exchange basic safety data, such as speed, position and projected path, ten times per second. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announcement inc

IDTechEx has launched a new browser-based electric vehicle market intelligence portal which provides companies with real-time global analysis of the total electric vehicles market for land, water and air. The portal is based on an active and continuous program of interviews, data gathering and analysis by PhD-level IDTechEx analysts. Subscription will help clients take a concise and focused approach to accelerate growth and capture opportunities with minimal risk from disruptive technologies. Electri

Business Monitor’ latest report on Russia’s infrastructure sector has considerably revised down their construction industry forecast for the country in 2014 in light of recently published lacklustre official data. With a contraction of 1.25 per cent in the first nine months of 2013, they now forecast only moderate growth in the industry of 1.5 per cent for 2014. Although they had anticipated significant growth in the industry as a result of the large investments made for the Winter Olympic Games, this s

Suzanne Murtha has joined Atkins’ federal business unit as a senior program manager based in the company’s Alexandria, Virginia office. Murtha will work to grow Atkins’ business in the intelligent transportation market, with a focus on connected and automated vehicles. A 17-year veteran of the ITS industry, Murtha also serves as executive director of OmniAir Consortium, a Washington, DC-based trade association that advocates and promotes the development of and certification for the ITS industry. Before j

The findings of ABI Research’s Automotive Safety & Autonomous Driving and Cybersecurity Research Services indicate that while traditional safety telematics services such as eCall, bCall, stolen vehicle tracking, and diagnostics aimed at the physical protection of vehicles, drivers and passengers are becoming main stream, awareness is growing about the threat of cyber-attacks and their impact on the physical integrity of persons, especially with vehicle-to-vehicle communication and autonomous vehicles. This

Parsons Brinckerhoff is part of the winning design-build team selected by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to provide design and construction for the new George V. Voinovich, I-90 Cleveland Inner belt Eastbound Bridge project. Led by the TGR joint venture, comprising Trumbull Corporation, the Great Lakes Construction Company, and the Ruhlin Company, Parsons Brinckerhoff is serving as the independent quality firm (IQF). The eastbound bridge is part of a phased project that will ultimately de

The New York government is looking at enforcement as a precursor to all electronic tolling (AET) on the new Tappan Zee Bridge. This would provide for the automatic suspension of vehicle registrations for motorists who fail to pay tolls three times in 18 months. The New York State Thruway Authority envisions switching to AET on the bridge, and also at Yonkers and Harriman, to provide nonstop travel over the thruway's busiest 45 miles. Construction is under way on the new bridge which is due for complet

Transportation safety promoter Help has selected Xerox to provide technology solutions, site operations and customer service for PrePass, its advanced automated vehicle identification technology. PrePass enables qualified transportation organisations to electronically comply with state safety, weight and credential requirements, eliminating the need to stop at equipped weigh stations. Help and Xerox also offer electronic pre-payment of truck tolls on 78 different toll roads, turnpikes, tunnels and b

MarketsandMarkets recently conducted a study on the Transportation Management Market [Transportation Management Systems, Fleet Management Solutions, Freight Audit & Payment, Route Planning & Optimisation, Managed Services, Business Services] - Global Advancements Market Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019), which analysed and studied the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific (including Japan), and Latin America. The study report