News

Austrian rail telecommunication systems integrator Kapsch CarrierCom has been awarded the contract to maintain the entire GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway) network on behalf of British railway infrastructure operator Network Rail. The multi-year agreement will see Kapsch supporting Network Rail’s control centre team to ensure the highest levels of network availability, enabling higher frequency of train services and greater safety standards. GSM-R is an international wireless communi

A real-time traffic data collection system developed by the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute (TTI) is going nationwide and could go global, according to the university. The development, known as AWAM (Anonymous Wireless Address Matching), uses the first portion of the MAC address from anonymous wireless devices, such as Bluetooth-enabled devices, carried in vehicles to measure the travel time between two points along freeways and arterial roads in rural and urban environments. It provides real-

A new 3G wireless communications solution which allows Siemens UTMC OTUs to be connected to the company’s PC SCOOT UTC instation has been launched by the company following extensive field trials. The newly released 3G option is available on Gemini2 and is provided by the use of an approved 3G router and antenna kit and is quick and easy to install. It allows junctions to be added onto the UTC system without the need for physically wired or fibre links, reducing installation and civil engineering costs. Ac

UK-based metric parking is to supply a further twenty-seven of their Elite pay and display parking machines for an extension to a parking project in a suburb of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. The order follows the shipment of eighty-two similar machines last year to the city of Petaling Jaya and brings the total number of Metric machines in Malaysia to more than 1,000. Metric Group export manager Mike Hewett praised the part played by the Metric Group’s Malaysian distributor My One Solution, and said:

The Municipality of Randers in Denmark is using Bluetooth technology from Danish company Blip Systems to improve traffic flow in the city. Consultancy company Cowi developed the Cowi CitySense system using BlipTrack sensors from Blip Systems. The popularity of Bluetooth technology makes it ideal for traffic monitoring, as increasing numbers of drivers use Bluetooth-equipped headsets or hands-free systems for their mobile phone. Small boxes with built-in Bluetooth sensors monitor traffic on a 2.5 km long st

A recent study by the University of Minnesota found strong support for automated speed enforcement, particularly in work zones and school zones and if revenues from fines are dedicated for road safety programs. Presenting the findings, Frank Douma, associate director of the State and Local Policy Program in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs said automated speed enforcement has been deployed in fourteen states and in many countries, especially in Europe. Automated speed enforcement is proven to be an ef

Bus passengers in London can now use their use their contactless debit, credit or charge card to touch in on the yellow Oyster card readers and pay the single Oyster fare on any of London's 8,500 buses. Introducing the scheme, Transport for London (TfL) says the new payment option will also be good news for the approximately 36,000 people per day who board a bus and find they have insufficient pay as you go balance on their Oyster to pay for their journey as they will be able to use the other card they may

A new report from ITS America, Smart Parking and the Connected Consumer, looks at the size of the parking industry and the smart parking opportunities for facility operators and municipalities. The parking industry, defined as parking facility management, billing and collection, enforcement, and other ancillary services, is a US$24-25 billion dollar industry. The commercial parking lots and garages industry includes about 3,000 companies with combined annual revenue of more than US$8 billion. The parking cu

The Chilean subsidiary of Canadian highway traffic management technology company International Road Dynamics (IRD) has been awarded a major contract state of the art weigh in motion (WIM) and related control equipment to a customer in Paraguay. The contract, valued at around US$3.6 million, was awarded to PAT Traffic and also includes a central control centre connected to all the weigh stations to provide real-time station management and statistical reporting. It is anticipated the project will be completed

Israel-headquartered HTS, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and computer vision systems specialist has been awarded a patent for its license plate character recognition systems by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent covers HTS's system for providing automatic character recognition and specifically, the multi-level neural network based characters identification methods and system. According to HTS, its systems enable precise, reliable, fast and automatic identification of characters on site and

Sensys Traffic has obtained an order worth more than US$200,000 for mobile speed monitoring systems for a new market in the Middle East. Sensys says their mobile speed enforcement systems are very compact and versatile, containing a radar, a processing and data storage unit and a digital camera. The system is non-intrusive and requires no in-road sensors. The equipment is ideal for in-vehicle operation or may be installed on a tripod. "The Middle East is our second home market, where we have previously del

A Siemens type C940ES traffic controller, part of a shipment to the Glückstein district of Mannheim, was also the 25,000th traffic controller of the series. The controllers will be used to upgrade traffic signal control at all junctions in Glückstein, and is specifically designed to meet the requirements for controlling 40-volt LED (light-emitting diode) lighting equipment, which saves up to 90 per cent of the energy consumed by conventional bulbs. The high safety level of the controllers installed in Mannh

The European Union is to co-finance a project to electrify a 58 km section of British rail infrastructure with US$6.5 million from the TEN-T Programme. The project, which was selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call, is part of the Railway/road axis Ireland/United Kingdom/continental Europe TEN-T Priority Project 26, and will bring considerable benefits to rail traffic in the area. The project consists of the works necessary to install a 25kV AC overhead electrification line on a 58 km single

According to a new market research report, published by US-headquartered global market research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets, the smart transportation market expected to reach more than $102.31 billion by 2018, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6 per cent. The report, Smart Transportation Market - by Solutions (Ticketing Management, Parking Management, Passenger Information, Traffic Management), Services (Traditional, Advanced, Software) Worldwide Analysis and Forecasts (2012 - 2018)

Recently launched by Eberle Design (EDI) the MMU2-16LEip and MMU2-16LE SmartMonitors fully comply with the recently updated NEMA TS2-2003 (R2008) Standard for Traffic Controller Assemblies, Amendment No. 4-2012. This new standards update defines Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) operation for both the controller unit and the MMU. EDI says it is also very proud to be the first MMU manufacturer to be fully conformant to the new NEMA standard and MUTCD requirements. The new SmartMonitor series is designed to monitor