Urban Traffic Control

The city of Abilene, Texas, in the US is using new adaptive traffic control software from Siemens to increase traffic flow along a heavily travelled corridor, where two state highways meet at two intersections about 750 feet apart with elevated railroads passing between them. SEPAC Peer-to-Peer software allows intersection controllers to share information with one another on traffic and pedestrian conditions, allowing the on-street network of controllers to adaptively respond to changing traffic conditions

The city of Abilene, Texas, in the US is using new adaptive traffic control software from Siemens to increase traffic flow along a heavily travelled corridor, where two state highways meet at two intersections about 750 feet apart with elevated railroads passing between them. SEPAC Peer-to-Peer software allows intersection controllers to share information with one another on traffic and pedestrian conditions, allowing the on-street network of controllers to adaptively respond to changing traffic conditions

The UK’s rail track owner, Network Rail, is using the latest technology in an effort to reduce the number of near misses as pedestrian cross the railway lines. Statistics revealed that 70% of near misses at crossings are due to distraction, with the top three being friends (40%), headphones (20%) and mobile phones (12%). Almost a third (29%) of young adults admit to using their mobile phone while crossing the railway and near misses rise from an average of 15/month in December and January to peak at 50 in S

The first new-style smart motorway emergency area, where drivers can stop in an emergency, is being trialled on the M3 motorway in Surrey. Highways England is trialling the redesigned emergency area in response to public concern about smart motorways. It has a highly visible orange road surface and better signs to help improve its visibility make it more obvious to drivers on smart motorways. It is also hoped that it will encourage drivers to only use them in emergency situations. The first of the new emerg

The US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office has released the Iteris-led updated version of the ITS National Reference Architecture that fully incorporates the connected vehicle capabilities from the Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture (CVRIA) into the Architecture Reference for Cooperative and Intelligent Transportation (ARC-IT).

The US Department of Transportation’s (US DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced approximately US$226.5 million in competitive grant funding for transit bus projects nationwide.

In its report published this week, the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Taxis calls on the Government to give the Mayor of London, and other Mayors, the power to cap the number of private hire vehicles (PHVs) on London’s streets, stop cross border hiring and set out a robust set of minimum licensing standards for taxis and PHVs across the country.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) and Waycare, a predictive analytics platform for smart cities, are to implement a pilot program that is intended to help prevent traffic crashes and congestion.

Highways England which operates and maintains England’s motorways and major A roads, has selected UK company Advanced as its IT partner in a multi-year contract which sees Advanced provide Highways England with secure and compliant IT infrastructure hosting for the country’s strategic road network (SRN).

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) has provided the city of Norfolk, Virginia, US with an expansion to its Opticom traffic pre-emption solution, which works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections quickly and safely.