News

TransCore ITS has announced that Tracy Marks has been named as president, succeeding John Simler. Marks joined the company in 1993 and most recently served as senior vice president of both the Southern US and international regions. In addition, he has been general manager of United Toll Systems, a growing product division within TransCore ITS.

The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and the US-based National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) are entering into a formal partnership to share information and experiences on school transportation, and will co-host a school transportation Summit next spring in Dubai.

PayByPhone has won a contract to introduce a pay-by-phone payment service across approximately 13,000 on-street paid parking spaces throughout the city of Seattle. The service will enable drivers to use their cell phones to pay for parking. Drivers can also choose to receive a text message reminder before their parking time expires, with the option to add time remotely and receive parking receipts by email.

Ford is developing a complete virtual factory to simulate the full assembly line production process. The company says this will enable it to improve quality and cut costs in real world manufacturing facilities by creating and analysing computer simulations of vehicle production procedures.

Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration, has increased the amount of work for Q-Free on the Gothenburg congestion charging project. In March, the company learned that it had been awarded a contract, valued at nearly US$24 million, for the delivery of road side equipment, infrastructure and service and maintenance for two years with an option for additional six years. At the time, it was pointed out that the final contract value would be dependent on selected options and also the duration of the s

UK-headquartered Total Car Parks has announced the acquisition of seven new car parks around the UK. The company manages over 30 sites nationally, offering a full range of car park operation services; from general management to the transformation of development land into functioning car parks.

Bournemouth Borough Council on the south coast of England is the first local authority in the country to deploy Siemens InView, the company’s all new fault management system designed specifically for the traffic market. It allows traffic managers to keep a record of traffic monitoring and control equipment and to track the status of that equipment, including maintenance issues, running costs and equipment reliability. Cloud based, with a web browser interface, InView offers fault reporting and asset managem

Linde North America has made a five-year commitment to deploy DriveCam’s driver risk management solution in its entire fleet of 1,250 vehicles in US and Canada. A member of the Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 51,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide, Linde North America awarded the contract after an extensive trial and over multiple competitive solutions.

Entries for the third annual RAC Future Car Challenge, which takes place on Saturday 3 November, are now being invited and for this year there are even more opportunities for manufacturers to get involved with the Challenge and events linked to it, such as the Regent Street Motor Show. The event, which is owned by the Royal Automobile Club, and sponsored by RAC Motoring Services, was first introduced in 2010 to showcase low energy use vehicles. It features competitors driving electric, hybrid, hydrogen and

Prof Dr Jochem Heizmann, member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, who is to be responsible for the new ‘China’ board of management function, and Dr Michael Macht, board member responsible for Group production, have inaugurated a new plant for Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW) in Yizheng, Eastern China, together with Hu Maoyuan, chairman of SAIC Motor Corporation. The plant is designed for an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

The US Department of Transportation (US DoT) will be hosting a free public webinar on 9 August, 2012 from 1:00-5:00pm (EST) to provide updates and promote discussion on the intelligent network flow optimisation (INFLO) concept.

Taiwanese Cathay United Bank has launched a trial for mobile payments and transit in Taipei. The project enables bank customers to use their mobile phones to make contactless payments at local stores and to access the Taipei public transit system. The NFC-capable microSD cards used as a secure element in this project are supplied by Giesecke & Devrient Secure Flash Solutions. The mobile security card SWP microSD card is the first in Taiwan that is compliant with MasterCard PayPass standards. This card has b

At this year’s IMSA (International Municipal Signal Association) Conference, which ends today in Orlando, Florida, Siemens has released the latest Sepac local traffic controller software which incorporates new features that help make intersections safer and improve the use of traffic signal priority for public mass transportation, without interrupting the general traffic flow.

TomTom Business Solutions has announced the launch of the TomTom Software Alliance Programme, a software integration, marketing, and sales programme that delivers additional value to commercial fleets by integrating core TomTom fleet management technology with industry leading software.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) in the UK is calling on the government to redesign crash barriers to make them more motorcycle-friendly. While crash barriers have saved the lives of thousands of drivers, hitting a crash barrier is a factor in eight to sixteen per cent of rider deaths. When they hit a crash barrier, riders are 15 times more likely to be killed than car occupants. In a crash, barrier support posts can worsen injuries by five times.