News

Danish wireless technology provider BLIP Systems has teamed up with US company G4 Apps in a partnership that combines the wireless solutions of BLIP Systems with G4’s driver assistance and traffic management software to provide the BlipTrac traffic monitoring solution for the US. With proven technologies like Bluetooth and wi-fi tracking, the cost of collecting detailed data for travel time, origin and destination, traffic flow, queuing and more has decreased significantly compared to traditional measuremen

Quick Response codes, or QR codes, are being introduced on a trial basis at some local bus stops in Shanghai to allow passengers to check the whereabouts of buses and the expected arrival time of the next bus. Passengers can obtain real-time information on buses by scanning the QR code using their smartphones, allowing them to adjust commuting plans. The service was first launched in Shanghai during late 2012. Almost 90 bus routes serving Pudong New Area can be checked using a smartphone application. People

TomTom took advantage of the Geneva motor show to announce that it is to collaborate with its partner Harman to integrate TomTom HD Traffic into the next generation Touch&Go multimedia platform. Toyota Motor Europe (Toyota) will offer TomTom HD Traffic as standard in all vehicles with Toyota's next generation Touch&Go navigation and infotainment systems. TomTom HD Traffic will be integrated in Toyota Motor Europe's next Touch&Go platform from January 2014 and will be available in most European countries. Ac

Schneider Electric is to implement what is said to be one of Brazil’s first three Multi-Lane Free-Flow (MLFF) systems for highway concession company Renovias, enabling the concessionaire to carry out electronic toll collection without the need for toll collectors or requiring vehicles to stop. Schneider says this will improve drivers’ experience when travelling through the toll stations, while being able to travel at a constant speed will reduce waiting times, traffic jams and emissions. The project inclu

G-STEP, a University of Leicester Project part funded by the ERDF, is holding a free, interactive breakfast workshop on Thursday 7 March, to introduce their new freight route mapping service for mobile devices. The service, which has been developed in collaboration with Leicester City Council and the Road Haulage Association, comes in the form of an app, which can be loaded onto mobile devices for use remotely, and identifies approved routes for large vehicles, allowing drivers to avoid roads that are unsui

According to a new tracker report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, the past twelve months have seen an explosion of interest in the smart city concept. Cities around the world have announced new smart city strategies and innovative projects, and many existing programs have been rebranded as smart city initiatives. More than fifty per cent of smart city projects are focused on innovations in transportation and urban mobility. The tracker identifies and details 130 smart city proje

Following the successful deployment of two Roadflow mobile bus lane enforcement systems, Bristol City Council in the UK has awarded technology specialist SEA (a Cohort plc company) a new Roadflow contract to install up to ten re-deployable Flexi bus lane enforcement systems in the city over the next three years. According to SEA, local bus operators, whose timetables are adversely affected by traffic congestion on city centre bus routes, have welcomed the use of Roadflow’s cutting edge technology, as it has

Intelligent transportation systems supplier McCain has appointed Reza Roozitalab to vice president of engineering. A licenced engineer, Roozitalab has worked for McCain for more than eighteen years, leading the engineering and applications teams in Vista, California and Tijuana, Mexico, making his promotion a natural and seamless transition. In his new role, Roozitalab will continue to provide leadership and guidance to the company’s engineering teams, in addition to overseeing the intelligent transportat

Jenoptik’s traffic solutions division is to supply more than 100 enforcement systems for new traffic monitoring programs in Poland. The company’s partner in the country, Lifor, has received orders for speed and red light enforcement systems from both the central Polish transport agency GITD and Warsaw police. Jenoptik will provide GITD with around 100 MultaRadar SD580 fixed speed enforcement systems, to be integrated with a new national traffic monitoring network. The MultaRadar SD580 uses the latest radar

The Portuguese government’s Ministry of Economy and Employment has partnered with the Japanese New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) in a project that covers a wide range of initiatives in the field of sustainable technology and innovation. The city of Lisbon in Portugal has been selected as the target city to implement a smart community program, with the aim of generating integrated systems for mobility management. Building on existing technologies and systems through the te

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is to install 100 new radar speed-camera stations, twenty-four of which will be activated by Dubai Police in May. The new cameras include systems installed at traffic signals to catch drivers who speed up to catch the green light or jump a red light. In 2011, more than 1.5 million speeding offences were recorded by radar cameras, the Dubai Statistics Centre reported. That figure represented a leap of about 115,000 on the previous year, when 1.4 million speeding

Following the success of the first Delft Road Safety Course for low and middle-income countries, the 2013 course is to be held in Delft in the Netherlands from 15 to 29 September 2013. The course is a joint initiative of Delft University of Technology, the Post Graduate Education (PAO) and the Road Safety for All Foundation and focuses on educating professionals in the field of road safety in low and middle-income countries. The SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research joins this initiative in 2013. Profes

UK-based provider of traffic enforcement software StarTraq is to supply North Yorkshire Police (NYP) with its safety camera back office solution Dome (Dynamic Offence Management and Enforcement) to administer the increased number of traffic violations in the region more efficiently. According to StarTraq, the robust and scalable Dome software will automate several processes and thereby reduce the chance of human error to a minimum. In addition, the significant decrease in manual and administrative activiti

Enforcement systems provider Vitronic has won two significant fixed and mobile enforcement contracts in Dubai and Iraqi Kurdistan. Dubai Police has recently awarded the company a fur­ther contract for fixed traffic enforcement systems, including PoliScan speed enforcement, combined red light and speed enforcement systems, and vio­lation processing software. The stationary PoliScan speed systems monitor all ve­hicles in the surveillance zone equally, regardless of their posi­tion on the road. The systems in

Dutch technical services provid­er Royal Imtech has announced the write-off of at least €100m in Poland after the discovery of “possible irregularities” in four of its projects there. The discovery relates to three projects for Adventure World Warsaw and one project involving energy-generating bio-power stations in Warsaw with a combined value of €757m. It is understood that advance payments for the four projects did not comply with the agreements made between Im­tech and its customer in terms of the availa