Urban Traffic Control

Following a vote on the 2018 European Union general budget by the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN), chair Karima Delli said that, by adopting its 2018 budget, the TRAN Committee has given clear priorities for the future of mobility in the EU. She went on to say that in a period of great uncertainty for the next EU budgets due to Brexit, it is very important that the EU secures and speeds up research and innovation programmes such as SESAR.

Two major new road schemes worth more than US$388 million (£300 million) are set to cut congestion and improve journey times for hundreds of thousands of drivers in Merseyside and Cheshire, UK. Highways England has set out its preferred options for upgrading the key route to the Port of Liverpool and creating a new junction on the M56 near Runcorn following public consultations earlier this year.

As part of plans to promote clean alternative fuels, the government is offering US$28 million (£22 million) in funding for projects in the UK to develop low carbon waste-based fuels for planes and lorries, with matching funding from industry. Trials of sustainable jet fuel, made from waste materials, have taken place in Europe and North America and now the launch of a UK competition intends that British experts will conduct pioneering research in this sector. The Department for Transport has already had int

Local authorities and bus companies in Bristol, York, Brighton, Surrey, Denbighshire and Wiltshire have been awarded funding under the UK government’s ‘Low emission bus scheme’ to help them buy 153 cleaner buses. The successful bidders will use the funding to buy new electric and gas buses, and to install stations to fuel or charge them. The government’s support for low emission buses is one part of a US$778 million (£600 million) package of measures from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles by 2020, plus U

The first truck platooning trials on UK roads are planned to take place by the end of 2018, Transport Minister Paul Maynard has said. Announcing the US$10 million (£8.1million) government funding for trials today, Maynard said advances such as lorry platooning could benefit businesses through cheaper fuel bills and other road users thanks to lower emissions and less congestion. The platooning trials will see up to three heavy goods vehicles, travelling in convoy, with acceleration and braking controlled by

Technology services provider Serco has been awarded a new contract to manage the traffic management centre for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Austin District. The contract has a one-year base period and three one-year option periods, and is valued at US$7 million, if all options are exercised. Serco will be responsible for managing the TxDOT freeway operations in Austin's Combined Transportation, Emergency & Communications Centre 24 hours a day, seven days a week and aims to help identify i

The UK’s Tyne Tunnel is experiencing in the areas of traffic management and public safety, following the deployment of new Verint video surveillance software. The Tyne Tunnel comprises two high-volume vehicular toll tunnels running under the River Tyne in north-east England that form part of the A19 road and that are managed by the TT2 agency. TT2 is utilising the latest version of Verint’s enterprise video management software (VMS) in its command centre that provides 24/7 traffic monitoring and emergency m

Luxembourg has successfully completed the eCall conformity assessment, becoming the first EU Member State to declare its readiness to implement eCall. This assessment was carried out under the umbrella of the EU-funded I_HeERO Project, which aims to conclude the upgrades needed for EU Member States to comply with the legal requirement of preparing for eCall’s launch on 1 October 2017. Luxembourg, an I_HeERO project partner, completed the assessment under the supervision of NavCert, leader of the conformity

Oliver Ernhofer has been named New York transportation planning manager and senior supervising planner for WSP USA, where he will manage and lead transportation and transit planning projects in the New York metropolitan area and nationwide. He joins WSP from an international engineering firm, where he worked on urban and transit projects. With nearly 20 years of experience in traffic and transportation planning and engineering, Ernhofer’s areas of expertise include urban and transit planning, as well as tr

Traffic management equipment supplier Econolite has signed an exclusive distributor agreement with Pelco Products to distribute its IntelliCross Advanced Pedestrian System (APS), which enables vulnerable and disabled pedestrians to safely navigate intersections. The technology, which will first be distributed in select regions of the western US, is designed with the future in mind and has been developed to be the most advanced accessible pedestrian signal available. An APS is designed to enable pedestri