News

Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre is heading a research project into the harmful impact of weather phenomena on transport in the EU. The EWENT project will set a precedent as no previous studies have been conducted on this scale. It will investigate evidence that heavy rainfall in particular impacts on European transport as with climate change, the occurrence of extreme weather is expected to increase. Weather is a major factor in traffic flow and safety as sudden storms and flash floods can paralyse

Australia's 2011 federal government budget, announced yesterday, will provide AU$61.4 million over three years for the development of a national smart managed motorways trial to improve congestion, lower urban emissions, and expand the capacity of existing outer city road infrastructure networks.

China TransInfo Technology Group has signed an agreement with the Planning Institute under the PRC Ministry of Transportation (MOT) to provide technical development and services for a pilot project to build and operate a traffic data collection, analysis, and service system for national trunk roads in China. According to the contract, which is valued at around US$1.8 million, China TransInfo will develop software applications, build a database, provide information processing services as well as support appl

With over five months to go before the 18th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems gets underway in Orlando, Florida (from October 16-20), 89 per cent of the current exhibit floor plan has now been reserved, according to ITS America's director of business development, Barbara M. O'Connor.

Location Labs, a provider of mobile location-as-a-service infrastructure and applications, has announced a partnership with Hughes Telematics (HT) to include the Location Labs Universal Location Service (ULS) as part of HT's telematics service offering. Location Labs' cloud-based ULS API will supplement HT's connected service offerings by enabling drivers to use their smartphones to request the location of any contact in their mobile address book.

Digital Recorders has been awarded a combined, region-wide contract valued at approximately US$1.2 million by North Carolina’s Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) and Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA), for the company’s automatic vehicle location software and its passenger advisory systems. According to David L. Turney, the company’s chairman and CEO “This region-wide order is unique in that it marks the first time the Digital Recorders automatic vehicle location software is being adapted to enable the shar

In what is being claimed as a landmark research report published by Ricardo and National Grid in the UK, the market potential is demonstrated for an electric plug-in vehicle fleet of the future to provide balancing services to the power grid on a commercial basis, returning value to vehicle owners while improving the carbon efficiency of grid operation.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 2.1 million in Q4-2010. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6 per cent, this number is expected to reach 3.8 million by 2015. In Latin America, the number of installed fleet management systems is expected to increase from 0.9 million in Q4-2010, growing at a CAGR of 20.6 per cent to reach 2.3 million in 2015.

Econolite Canada has announced it has expanded its vehicle detection and traffic measurement capabilities by offering RTMS (Remote Traffic Microwave Sensor) G4 to the Canadian transportation management industry. According to the company, RTMS G4 is the newest generation radar sensor for vehicle detection and traffic measurement, adding to Econolite Canada's growing portfolio of strategic ITS capabilities.

A joint US$1.6 million fund to research and develop new technology to reduce the disruption caused by road works was announced yesterday by UK Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Confirmation of a lane rental scheme for roadworks was also announced at the same time.

Bucharest underground operator Metrorex has nearly finished plans to develop its new US$1.35billion M6 underground mainline to link the city centre with Henri Coanda International Airport. The new M6 in the Romanian capital will have a length of 14km and take in 12 stations. Metrorex has changed the initial project plans by adding two new stations to cover the residential area and Baneasa Commercial Park.

Machine vision specialist Vitronic has announced it is supporting energy efficient and resource-saving production and automation processes as a partner company in the Blue Competence sustainability initiative of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). The scheme aims to create a closer network focused on sustainability among mechanical and plant engineering companies. In order to become a Blue Competence partner, companies need to fulfil clearly defined sustainability criteria and standards.

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD and Rotterdam City yesterday entered into an agreement to deliver BYD's all-electric e6 vehicles as part of the Netherland's green transportation project "75-EV-RO" - the first e6's anywhere in Europe. The Netherland's Prince Maurits van Oranje, Vice Mayor of Rotterdam Mrs. A. van Huffelen, Chinese Ambassador Mr. Zhang Jun and BYD's Henry Li (Auto Division GM) were all present for the signing ceremony in Rotterdam City Hall.

Arcontia, a Swedish producer of contactless smart card readers and terminals, today announced that its embedded contactless smart card reader, designed for the Nautiz eTicket Pro PDA, is to be used by Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen - NS).

Electrification in vehicles is a key trend in the automotive industry. The increase in electric components within vehicles is boosting the market for traction motors and Frost & Sullivan says it anticipates the European traction motor market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50 per cent for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). Permanent magnet motors are expected to dominate the market by virtue of their performance and efficiency. However, the growing concern over t