News

A new report examines how aggressive government belt-tightening and financial market deleveraging restrained worldwide infrastructure investments for 2012 and probably for the next five years. In the US, for instance, Infrastructure2012: Spotlight on Leadership, released by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Ernst & Young, says that constrained public budgets and a growing recognition at the local level of the importance of infrastructure, combined with lack of action at the federal level, are causing state

AeroVironment has announced the Port of Seattle has awarded the company a contract valued up to US$8.8 million through 2014 to supply its PosiCharge electric Ground Support Equipment (eGSE) fast charge systems to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. “This project will be a tremendous step toward our Century Agenda goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent from 2005 levels,” said Elizabeth Leavitt, planning and environmental programs director at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

A study by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) shows cycling, rather than travelling by car or bus, as the fastest way of travelling in Buenos Aires city. By bike, it takes 26 minutes to travel between Parque Centenario and Plaza de Mayo, compared to 40 minutes that takes by bus and 41 minutes by car. The journeys were at the same time (8:50AM). The average speed for a bike is 16.2km/h, compared to 10.5km/h for a bus and 10.3km/h for a car. Because of parking, car travel is the mo

Singapore’s MRT system is being upgraded to become more reliable, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew during the ground-breaking for the East-West MRT line's Tuas West Extension. According to Lui, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will cover the cost of infrastructure works and the systems which will cost some US$719 million. The upgrade work will include the establishment of a more robust system by train operator SMRT.

Belgian automotive association Touring has criticised the new transport plan for Brussels, calling it a crusade against driving and arguing that it will lead to gridlocks and push companies to move elsewhere. According to Touring, all of the major routes into the centre of the city are to be closed or have their capacity severely reduced, while the number of parking places in Brussels has been cut by more than 1,000 over the past five years. The RER regional train service is not due to become fully operatio

NXP has claimed the top spot in the contactless ticketing market in ABI Research’s new market analysis. Shipments of the Mifare range (Classic, Plus, Ultralight, and DESFire) remain strong despite some security concerns around the Classic product. ABI says that overall, Mifare has withstood scrutiny and demonstrates that the highest level of security is not an overriding factor in adoption with the focus on cost effectiveness, convenience, and reliability. The lack of alternative solutions has helped cement

The Abu Dhabi Department of Transportation has awarded Traffic Tech (Gulf) – Abu Dhabi a traffic signal maintenance contract for the Al Ain City. Valued at over US$ 4.5 million, the contract will run for two years covering maintenance and development of all traffic signals throughout the city. Recently, Middle East Integrated Systems (MEIS), Traffic Tech Group’s Bahraini based company, has also been awarded Bahrain’s traffic signal maintenance contract covering over 280 intersections. Currently, the

The Ecuador Ministry of Transport and Public Works says it will invest around US$5 billion up to 2014 to turn 1,286km of roads into super-highways, to help development of its tourism, farming and agricultural sectors. A first stage will see the firm Consultora de Ingenieria, Estudios y Perforaciones de Suelos (Cieper) undertaking the definitive traffic studies, as well as the engineering and environmental impact studies for the Santo Domingo-Quevedo road, located between the Los Rios and Santo Domingo d

For the second year running, Govecs, Germany's leading supplier of electric scooters, has won the "European e-Scooter of the Year" Award. With its GO! S2.4 model, the company beat off strong competition in the under 25 km/h category, the most popular category in the Netherlands. The other first place was achieved in the highly competitive 45 km/h category with the GO! T2.4 cargo scooter. To add to their achievements, Govecs also went on to win second place in both these categories with their GO! S1.2 and GO

TomTom in Europe has releases a speed camera app for the iPhone, Powered by European driving community with 1.6 million drivers in 15 countries, the app informs drivers of their speed, the speed limit, the type of camera ahead and the remaining distance to reach it. A colour-coded warning system quickly and effectively alerts users if they need to slow down.

The US DoT Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) has published a discussion document - Principles for a Connected Vehicle Environment. This document expresses a set of working principles intended to guide US DoT's research, demonstration and implementation activities related to a connected vehicle environment. Connected vehicles refer to the ability of vehicles of all types to communicate wirelessly with other vehicles and roadway equipment, such as traffic signals, to support

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis has signed a letter of intent to purchase up to 10, BYD 40-foot electric buses for city transit services in 2012, the first city in North America to launch long-range, all-electric buses. The agreement also opens talks to bring manufacturing of BYD buses to the Ontario region in the near future. Transit Windsor has the unique distinction of running in Canada as well as in Detroit, making this launch one that serves on both Canadian and United States’ roads.

While global sales of German autos are buoyant, significant efforts are underway to expand the emobility infrastructure in Germany. Several projects now support the implementation of alternative drivetrain concepts. Four new model regions were recently selected by the federal government. In total they will be granted up to US$235 million to implement pilot and demonstration projects to showcase cutting-edge technology.

Arcontia Technology, a Swedish producer of contactless smart card readers and terminals, today announced that it has won an e-ticketing tender for pick-up devices to be used by Norwegian public transport authority Ruter AS in their e-ticketing system. The contract includes the company’s compact ARC3300T5 smart card terminals for reloading Mifare DESFire travel cards via the new online national order database. To expand current distribution channels and increasing Internet sales, Ruter will be launching a co

Poor quality of cycle lanes are the most likely cause of bicycle accidents in Sweden, a report by insurance company Folksam claims. Some 70 per cent of all bicycle accidents which cause serious injuries involved only the cyclist and were caused by poor maintenance of the lanes, gravel or snow. Around 20 per cent of the accidents involved a car or other four-wheeled vehicles, while 10 per cent involved a moped, another bicycle or a pedestrian.