News

The city council for Madrid in Spain is to spend US$34.6 million by the end of 2013 on retrofitting 600 traffic lights in the city to new LED lights, which will bring about energy savings of 80 per cent. A contract to replace half the current incandescent bulbs has been approved by the city council and it also includes maintenance work to ensure efficient operation of the traffic light network

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has awarded a contract, valued at approximately $88 million, to Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation (ETC Corporation) to provide a facility-wide replacement toll collection and audit system as well as related system maintenance services. Under the contract, ETC will implement its latest-generation Rite solution on the Port Authority’s toll facilities to deliver a number of advanced system features including a sophisticated toll data warehouse, an adva

Q-Free has been awarded an order, valued at US$6.27, million for tolling tags from Centro Gestao Meios de Pagto (CGMP) in Brazil. This order is the third call-off from the earlier announced frame agreement of US$38million which was announced last October.

Alta Bicycle Share has been chosen to operate a bicycle-sharing scheme in New York City. The company operates similar programmes in Washington, DC, Boston, Massachusetts, and also in Melbourne, Australia. It is expected that the New York scheme, which will roll out next summer, will be the biggest bicycle sharing initiative in the US with the establishment of 600 bike stations and 10,000 bicycles deployed. The scheme, which will cost US$50 million to operate, will not be funded from the public purse. Inste

Fugro Roadware has won a twoyear, US$3 million, contract from the US SHRP 2 (Strategic Highway Research Programme 2), for the collection of roadway data at highway speed, using ARANs (Automatic Road Analysers) on selected roads, within the six SHRP 2 naturalistic driving study sites.

The Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (PRHTA), working with TransCore, has converted two of its busiest and most essential AutoExpreso roadways to all-electronic toll collection as part of a US$26 million conversion project that is expected to be completed across all AutoExpreso roadways by next summer. The PR-52 north to south arterial highway, which includes five toll plazas, and PR-53 linking the south and east coasts of the island, with three toll plazas, were part of Phase I of the proje

Econolite has announced that Newport Beach has become the ninth city in Orange County, California, to deploy the company’s Centracs advanced transportation management system. According to Ron Keith, Principal Traffic Engineer of Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), “As part of the strategies and solutions to address our evolving travel demands, OCTA is implementing signal synchronisation to 750 miles [1,200km] of road arterials, which includes more than 2,000 intersections. This synchronization p

UK company CA Traffic has supplied a journey time system, based on its Evo8 ANPR cameras and Evolution software to Costain Carrillion JV as part of the contract to improve the M1 motorway on a 24km section between junctions 10 and 13. The system will provide journey planning information to road users via temporary electronic message signs on the heavily used route that runs from London up to the north of England.

Kyocera Corporation has supplied its high-performance solar modules for a carport roofing installation in southern Germany which provides power for a charging station for electric cars and bikes. The system, designed and installed by the German solar power company, the Blue Group, can produce an output of 53.32kW.

The Mineta National Transit Research Consortium has released a peer-reviewed research report, What Do Americans Think about Federal Tax Options to Support Public Transit, Highways, and Local Streets and Roads? Results from Year 3 of a National Survey. that summarises the results of a national random-digit-dial public opinion poll that asked 1,519 respondents if they would support various tax options for raising federal transportation revenues. Special focus was placed on understanding what would motivate pe

Pegasus Global Holdings is proposing to locate a privately financed, owned and operated Centre for Innovation, Test & Evaluation in the State of New Mexico. With the support of New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the state’s Department of Economic Development.

Tyco International has reached an agreement to acquire Visonic, a developer and manufacturer of electronic security systems and components, for approximately US$100 million in cash. The acquisition will strengthen the wireless product and technology portfolio and market presence of the Tyco Security Products business in the intrusion security market.

Elektromotive, a leading provider of electric vehicle (EV) charge points in Europe, is to create the UK’s largest pay-as-you-go, ‘open source’ network of public access charging stations for EVs, based upon the development of its proven pay-by-phone technology. The initiative comes as the result of a new joint venture with Charge your Car (North). The new company – Charge Your Car Limited – will expand the existing Charge your Car (North) network located predominantly across North east England, and incorpora

Researchers at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) have created what they claim is the world’s first traffic light that uses a single display, but plays the same role, or even better compared to traditional three display sets. The multi-colour display is a low-power unit (6-12V DC) that costs significantly less to manufacture (split board, fewer LEDs, small PCB boards, and a common board for all three colours) and maintain and requires only two output controllers to display the three different co