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An island which is home to the Netherlands’ first National Park is about to launch Europe’s cleanest bus fleet. The city of Schiermonnikoog in the province of Friesland, Netherlands is nestled on this 16 km long island and is virtually car-free. While home to about 1000 residents, over 350,000 people visit the island every year and will now ride in six new, long-range, all-electric BYD buses set to launch on Schiermonnikoog early next year. In a European legal tender and open bid supported by four major bus

Nokia has announced plans to release a new version of Ovi Maps for its smartphones that includes high-end walk and drive navigation at no extra cost, available for download at www.nokia.com/maps. This move has the potential to nearly double the size of the current mobile navigation market.The new version of Ovi Maps includes high-end car and pedestrian navigation features, such as turn-by-turn voice guidance for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries, as well as de

Green Automotive Company, a US public company involved in the conversion, import and distribution of eco-friendly vehicles, has entered into detailed discussions with Liberty Electric Cars, a UK-based developer of electric drive trains, battery management systems and provider of full support programmes for all types of electric vehicles. These discussions will lead to Liberty technology being used to convert conventional internal combustion engine driven vehicles into zero emission electric vehicles.

Inrix, a leading provider of traffic information and driver services announced an exclusive partnership with MapLink, a leading provider of traffic and location-based services in Brazil. “Traffic congestion is one of Brazil’s biggest problems because the country’s infrastructure has not kept pace with its rapid economic growth,” said Inrix senior VP of business development Kush Parikh. “It’s come to a point where gridlock on the country’s roads is stalling further economic growth at a time when they can lea

ITS America has recognised the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DoT) for Midtown in Motion, the sophisticated traffic management system launched last July that uses ITS to ease traffic congestion, improve traffic flow, and reduce greenhouse emissions and air pollution on the city’s most congested streets. Coinciding with the award, NYC DoT announced that it is expanding the system, which currently covers 110-square blocks, to cover 270-square blocks in the city’s most heavily congested neighb

Hoeft & Wessel has received an order from Rheinbahn, the company responsible for the public transport system in Germany's Düsseldorf and the surrounding region, for the installation of e-ticketing machines (ETMs) with an integrated boarding control system.

Verizon Communications and Hughes Telematics have announced a definitive merger agreement under which Verizon will acquire Hughes Telematics for a total of US$612 million. Verizon says the transaction will expand its capabilities in the automotive and fleet telematics marketplace and accelerate growth in key vertical segments. Hughes offers a portfolio of services through its commercial fleet, aftermarket and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) offerings as well products and services for health providers

A school bus stop arm pilot programme undertaken in Volusia County in Florida has revealed the level of drivers illegally passing stopped school buses when the stop arm is extended and children are boarding or disembarking. During a 29 day pilot period, cameras on just one of the county's 229 buses captured a total of 71 violations. The pilot results also showed that eight out of every 10 violations occurred between 1:00pm and 3:00pm with 67 per cent of the violations occurring on either Tuesday or Wednesda

Adaptive Display Solutions has announced that it has supplied a new generation of LED traffic signs to Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT). The company supplied its 8700 Series 9 Rows x 18 columns signs that could house the NTCIP controller, redundant power supplies, and wireless communication modem with easy access from the front of the sign for servicing.

Norwegian researchers from Norsk Regnesentral say they have developed a system to calculate traffic flows based on a relatively small number of satellite images. The system, SatTrafikk, is ready for testing and the goal is that the road administration will start using the system within a couple of years to improve the traffic planning.

The organisers of the 19th ITS World Congress which will take place in Europe this year in beautiful Vienna, Austria from 22-26 October 2012, have launched the preliminary programme and announced that registration is open.

Bartco, a traffic management company based in Melbourne, Australia, has won a US$1.92 million contract to supply portable variable message signs (VMS) to Transport for London (TfL) for use during the Olympic Games. Some 200 signs display both directional and security advice to motorists about road conditions during the Olympics, as well as the management of special Olympic Route Network traffic lanes.

Volvo Trucks has announced it is running successful field tests with vehicles powered by bio-DME, a fuel that can be produced cost- and energy-efficiently from biomass. Since last autumn, ten specially adapted Volvo trucks have been operating on Swedish roads using the fuel which reduces carbon emissions by 95 per cent compared with conventional diesel. The field tests have now reached the halfway point and the results so far have both met, and exceeded, expectations.

Top transportation officials from across the US, including Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez, have headlined the launch of a new initiative to bring protected bikeways to six US cities at a national kickoff event in Chicago. The Green Lane Project (www.greenlaneproject.org), created by the national bicycling non-profit organisation Bikes Belong Foundation (www.bikesbelong.org), is working with Austin, Chicago, Memphis, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and Washington, DC, to support each city's deve

Parsons Brinckerhoff has named Anas A. Kassem operations manager of the company's Middle East and North Africa region. Kassem previously served as general manager of the company’s operations in Kuwait and has been with PB for more than 23 years, over 15 of them working in the Middle East with clients that have included Kuwait's Ministry of Public Works, Qatar's Public Works Authority and the Saudi Royal Committee for Al Haram Expansion.