News

The Djibouti government has said that its US$600 million rail project under construction by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) will facilitate business activities. Ethiopia's Transport Minister, Workneh Gebeyehu said that the new railway line would change the socio-economic conditions of the two countries as well as generate jobs for youths. The Ethiopian Government is also undertaking a similar project, linking Addis Ababa with Djibouti. The Ethiopian project is also expected to be

Swedish smart card solutions specialist Arcontia International, a subsidiary of Lecip, Japan, is to provide an automated smart card-based fare collection system for the Transit Authority of River City (TARC) of Louisville, Kentucky, in a contract worth more than US$4.9 million. The system, based on Lecip’s fare box system and Arcontia’s contactless smart card technology, will be installed on TARC buses operating in five counties in Kentucky and southern Indiana, providing transport to more than 15 millio

Shenzhen, China, will start construction of its 93 kilometre outer ring expressway, intended to become one of the most important east-west expressways in the city, next year. The US$4.3 billion project includes 82 bridges and twelve tunnels, and is expected to be completed in 2018. The expressway is viewed as the most important of the seven expressways in Shenzhen’s expressway network. It is designed with three lanes in each direction and a speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour.

Transportation technology provider Xerox has signed a contract worth around US$100 million with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to provide customer service and toll operations to the state over the next five years. Xerox will establish a new customer service operation in Austin, Texas to process a growing base of more than eight million monthly toll transactions while managing over 750,000 accounts. Customer service centre operations include transaction processing, license plate image rev

The Castilla la Mancha Department of Development in Spain is to issue a tender for the planning and the construction of a motorway to link the towns of Toledo and Ciudad Real and reduce commuting time between the two towns. Potential bidders have twelve months to present a proposal for the project, which is estimated to be worth around US$188,600. State-owned company Ineco will carry out the project planning, while the government of Castilla-La Mancha and the Ministry of will Development will be res

The Chinese Ministry of Transport and 45 telecommunication and automobile companies have combined efforts to work toward producing an intelligent transportation system in China. The China ITS Industry Alliance, administered by the Ministry of Transport, was initiated to integrate efforts made by transportation, electronic, logistics and information sectors to boost the development of an intelligent transportation system in China, said a statement from the Ministry of Transport’s highway research institut

According to recent analysis by American Traffic Solutions (ATS), driver behaviour at Florida red-light safety camera monitored intersections continues to change. ATS found that the number of red-light running violations captured at monitored intersections throughout the state has fallen significantly as drivers have become more accustomed to increased red-light enforcement. Most importantly, the analysis found that fewer and fewer vehicles are being issued multiple violations. Ninety per cent of the ve

Software developed by researchers from the University of Minnesota for the Smart (Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road and Traffic Signals) signal system automatically collects and processes data from traffic signal controllers at multiple intersections. It then creates performance measures, including information on the times and locations congestion occurs on a roadway. A new version of the software has been deployed at more than fifty intersections managed by the Minnesota Department of Transportatio

Kapsch TrafficCom has delivered and installed weigh-in-motion systems at four stations on two highways in Kazakhstan. The project comprises high-precision weighing modules as well as the associated rear licence plate detection system. The system, developed by Kapsch, allows the weighing of vehicles even while travelling at full speed. Sensors detect whether a vehicle exceeds the maximum allowed weight, while additional sensors identify the vehicles’ licence plates. The data is transmitted and evaluated

Following many years of planning, the Luton and Dunstable guided busway is now open to the public. The US$146 million project will provide a reliable and efficient 15 minute public transport link between the two main town centres. Overall, the route involves over 10 kilometres of segregated bus-only road from Luton Airport through Dunstable to Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire.

The Colombian government is to release funds of US$12.27 billion from the national budget for the Autopistas de la Prosperidad road programme, involving nine road concessions. Concession holders will invest US$7.4 billion into these projects; since monies from tolls will be insufficient to complete all works, the government will inject further funds of US$23.2 billion over the next decade. Ministers have stressed the importance of this road infrastructure and the need to speed up the process. This news

The launch of Bali’s first all-vehicle tolled highway on 23 September is expected to ease congestion in an area increasingly famous for its notorious traffic. The country already has a toll road especially for motorcycles. The project is designed to reduce congestion on the 12.7 kilometre Benoa-Kuta-Nusa Dua stretch, at a cost of US$217 million. The road runs over the sea and was built using 33,835 concrete columns, some of them through an area of mangrove forest.

Redflex Traffic Systems has received UK Home Office type approval (HOTA) for its suite of fixed red light and speed enforcement systems, comprising REDFLEXred, REDFLEXspeed and REDFLEXred-speed. Although the system accurately captures intersection red light, speed or simultaneous red light and speed offences, Home Office approval has been given for single red light and speed offences only. Speeding through a green light will be seen as a speed offence; crossing a red light will carry the usual red light

Experts at Thatcham Research - the UK motor insurers’ automotive research facility, believe that multiple vehicle accidents could be mitigated or avoided altogether with the widespread use of new automatic braking technologies. Thatcham has been researching and testing autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems on behalf of insurers for the last three years and has already undertaken an in-depth study of crashes and their causation factors.

According to new analysis by Frost & Sullivan, Future of Vehicle Parking Management Systems in North America and Europe, growth opportunities are expected to attract new start-ups in the parking industry, providing real-time parking applications. The industry is expected to witness investments and funding from venture capitalist (VC) firms, ranging from US$200-$250 million in the next three to five years. This is made evident through the emergence of companies, such as Streetline (US and Europe), ParkatmyHo