News

PayByPhone, an international provider of systems for parking and urban mobility payments, has announced Ottawa as the latest major North American city to implement its popular cell phone payment method for parking. PayByPhone parking allows drivers to pay for and extend their parking time using a mobile app, online, or calling a local phone number. Ottawa is the first Canadian city to incorporate near field communication (NFC) and QR code features for its parking payments.

Nissan in Norway has announced that it has sold 1,000 of its electric Leaf cars in just six months, taking almost two per cent of the total car market in February this year demonstrating the impact of comprehensive incentives and developed charging infrastructure. The government support and charging infrastructure have helped the Nissan Leaf become the second best-selling Nissan in Norway and the ninth best-selling passenger car overall in February. Norway has the highest level of support in Europe for elec

Chile's Ministry of Transport has reported that the number of cars using bus lanes reserved for Transantiago buses has fallen by 46 per cent as a result of the cameras that have been installed along the public transport system. Incidents of cars using lanes reserved for Solo Bus vehicles have fallen by 73 per cent, which equates to an overall reduction of 60 per cent on average. This has enabled the buses on the system to travel 24 per cent faster. Transantiago plans to increase the number of cameras from 1

Political decision-makers, industry leaders, transport experts, and top thinkers from around the world, will debate how to create more seamless transport solutions for passengers and freight at the 2012 Summit of the International Transport Forum. The summit on “Seamless Transport: Making Connections” will take place May 2-4 in Leipzig, Germany, and aims to drive the international debate on better connectivity. The event will be held under the Presidency of Japan. The International Transport Forum at the OE

EtherWAN Systems, an Anaheim, California headquartered manufacturer of hardened and commercial ethernet connectivity equipment, has opened a new office in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, to provide network design and customer support for the Eastern half of the US. Established in 1996 to manufacture ethernet based products, switches and media converters of all types, the company maintains sales offices in California, Texas, Illinois and New York.

Scania has announced it will deliver 231 city buses to the Chilean capital Santiago. With this sale, Scania begins operation in the Transantiago integrated public transport system, connecting bus lines and the metro network. The vehicles will begin to run in September and will be operated by Alsacia Express, which has extensive experience in operating buses in different integrated public transport systems throughout Latin America. With 230 hp engines, the low-floor model K 230 4X2 buses meet the European Eu

Liberty Electric Cars has been selected to become one of the major partners of the project thanks to its extensive experience in electric commercial vehicle engineering and design. Its team of experts played a crucial role in the development of the Modec truck, a range of 5.5t commercial vehicles that have been sold to a wide variety of customers across Europe. Operators of the Modec truck include global companies like FedEx, UPS, Tesco’s and Veolia. Their unique team of engineers have created EVs that have

Q-Free has announced revenues of US$21.11 million during the first quarter 2012 compared to US$29.66 million in the corresponding quarter in 2011, while order intake came in at $44.29 million, $6.45 million more than in previous quarter and $2.96 million more than in Q1-2011, reflecting, the company says, that its general optimism regarding demand is well grounded.

The organisers of the 14th Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australia (REAAA) being held from 26-28 March, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have issued a call for papers from local and international authors, with a deadline for abstracts of 1 June, 2012. The theme of the event (www.14reaaaconf2013.com) is “The road factor in economic transformation” and as the organisers point out, roads are the arteries of a nation facilitating the transportation of the required synergy for economic transformation.

TransCore has been selected by Cobb County Department of Transportation, Atlanta, to expand its Scats (Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System) adaptive traffic signal control technology with an additional 75 intersections, nearly doubling its use of the technology and making it the second largest deployment in the United States. The first phase of 26 intersections in the town centre area are now in operation with the remaining intersections expected to be fully operational by October 2012.

Honda Motor Company has announced the successful development of what it claims is the world’s first technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion and determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams. The company developed this technology while recognising that the acceleration and deceleration behaviour of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic congestion.

The Mineta Transportation Institute has released its newest research report, Ecodriving and Carbon Footprinting: Understanding How Public Education Can Result in Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Use, which provides a review and study of ecodriving. The report found that exposure to ecodriving information influenced people's driving behaviour and some maintenance practices. While not everyone modifies their behaviour after reviewing this information, even small behavioural shifts due to inexpensive

On 16th May 2012, Savoy will be joining with TRL, Autodesk and Design Pro Software to give a live demonstration of the revolutionary BIM workflow for roundabout design that allows simultaneous design and analysis in 3D. It is claimed the new workflow is many times faster than traditional methods and allows users to assess multiple design alternatives very quickly leading to better designs, quicker and cheaper.

According to a 495 Express Lanes survey of law enforcement officers serving in Northern Virginia, texting while driving is the most dangerous behavior in construction zones, ahead of speeding, aggressive driving and not obeying changing traffic patterns. Yesterday, in conjunction with National Work Zone Awareness Week in the US, partners on one of the largest highway construction projects in the region released these findings in a new distracted driving report.

Autonet Mobile, an application and connectivity platform for vehicles, has announced a strategic partnership with Bosch's Car Multimedia Division to manufacture its IP-based telematics control unit (TCU). The company’s automotive-grade device is built to be factory-installed and to access the vehicle's CAN Bus to drive the development of in-vehicle applications including key fob, parental control and fleet offerings.