News

International Road Dynamics. (IRD) has been awarded a US$1.345 million contract to provide a high speed weigh-in-motion (WIM) and verification system for a new commercial vehicle enforcement facility (CVEF) in Solano County, California. This system will be used by local enforcement personnel for selecting and directing commercial vehicles into the CVEF and by Caltrans for traffic planning purposes.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the University of Oulu and Aalto University in Finland have analysed the financial statements for 2002-2009 of companies, public utilities, and municipal units that own infrastructure, including water services, as well as road, port, airport, railway and electricity networks. Owning infrastructure is relatively risk-free. The most profitable is the energy sector where the return on investment was about 13%. The average annual return on investment of ports was 10%. T

GreenRoad, a specialist in driver performance and safety management, has released details about UK fleet driving behaviour revealing that the most common risky manoeuvre is harsh braking; January is the most dangerous month and 11 pm is the most dangerous time to drive. By analysing driver performance data GreenRoad discovered that HGV truck drivers are the safest, followed by cars, vans and buses. By contrast, speeding is the most dominant unsafe driving behaviour in North American fleets, and cars are ope

During its Board of Directors meeting last week, ITS America signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Bank to formalise their desire to cooperate and exchange ideas about how transportation technologies that enhance information capture, analysis, communications, and sharing can improve surface transportation safety, mobility and environmental sustainability.

Zipcar, a leading car sharing network, has announced the exercise of its option to purchase a majority ownership interest in Barcelona-based Catalunya Carsharing, known as Avancar. The company operates a fleet of vehicles throughout the cities of Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Valles. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2012, and builds on Zipcar's initial equity investment in Avancar in December 2009. With this transaction, Zipcar increases its percentage ownership in Avancar to a controlli

In a historic and unanimous vote, the Nassau County Legislature, Long Island, New York, has approved a contract with Veolia Transportation to manage the county's bus and paratransit system under a new public-private operating partnership to commence January 1, 2012. The value of the contract is US$106 million annually and makes Veolia Transportation the service provider of four of the top five largest transit contracts in the US, including Nassau County, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Orleans. The company won

Thales has been selected by Andrade Gutierrez (AG) and CR Almeida to deliver its SelTrac communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling solution for Line 17 of the São Paulo metro. The new line will be driverless and fully automatic. The first phase of implementation is planned to support the 2014 FIFA World Cup, with completion scheduled for August 2014, a record delivery time of just 27 months. The new 18km elevated line will be built by a consortium led by Andrade Gutierrez (AG) and including CR Al

Nottingham City Council in the UK has placed an order for 200 Aura Elite pay and display parking meters manufactured by the Metric Group to replace their existing on and off street equipment. Metric, the UK’s only pay and display parking machine manufacturer, says it won the order against strong European competition. The first phase of a delivery programme for installation of the 195 solar and five mains Elite’s for on and off street parking in Nottingham will start before the end of the year.

Communication Networks (ComNet) has been selected by the Talk-A-Phone Company to supply fibre optic media converters and EoVDSL modems (Ethernet over Very High Digital Subscriber Link) for use with their line of VOIP-500 Series of Voice-over-IP phones. Talk-A-Phone will now recommend the use of ComNet USA-manufactured EoVDSL and fiber optic media converter products to their customers for use with their IP-based products.

Google has been awarded a US patent for a “landing strip” which will be used to transition a mixed-mode vehicle from human to autonomous control. The Intellectual Property Rights explain how the car would know when and where to take control and where it is located and the direction it needs to drive in. Google describes several methods for the technology and says that a range of aspects can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. The enabler

Magellan, a leading GPS brand, has been named an International CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award Honouree for its Wireless Back-up Camera. that attaches to the vehicle's rear license plate and transmits images directly to one of several 7" Magellan GPS models transforming the display into a rear view monitor. When the car is put into reverse, the Magellan navigator will automatically switch from navigation mode to rear view mode, enabling drivers to view what is behind their car. The back-up

North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDoT) has announced it is seeking projects to to receive its Mobility Fund grant which has an allocation of about US$45 million in fiscal 2012/2013 and $58 million in fiscal 2013/2014. All kinds of rail and bus transit projects are eligible to be submitted for consideration but the projects are required to have funds ready for construction within five years. Grants will be given to projects that are approved to be able to boost efficiency and mobility across the

The European Investment Bank, the European Union’s long-term lending institution, has agreed to provide US$157 over 19 years to enable Nottingham City Council to expand the city’s light rail system with two new tram lines to the south and south west. The new lines will have services every seven minutes between 7am and 7pm and include 28 stops along 17.5kms of track. The project also includes 22 new low-floor trams for the line to link park and ride sites next to the M1 at Clifton and Toton Lane with the cit

INVG, a transport company based in Ingolstadt, Germany, has opted for an integrated ITS and ticketing system from INIT. The company currently uses Mobile-Plan planning software supplied by INIT’s subsidiary Initplan, but INIT’s Mobile-ITCS intermodal transport control system will provide dispatchers with all the necessary information to manage traffic efficiently at a glance. The system shows the locations of all vehicles, and graphically summarises the information on a comprehensive map. Traffic disruption

Kathmandu metropolitan city is planning to operate a 24-hr metro bus system using double-decker buses that will carry more passengers and also provide night services, reports Ram Krishna Wagle from Nepal. An EOI for the operation of the metro bus has appointed a local company which plans to operate 10 buses initially. The company is funding the purchase of the metro bus from its own resources although the government has provided tax breaks for providing the service.