Urban Traffic Control

Sluggish peak-hour traffic on Melbourne's busiest road, the Monash Freeway, will flow about 20 km/h faster when new technology is introduced, thanks to a US$78.2 million cash injection from the Australian Government to help improve traffic flow, with the money to go towards installing and upgrading intelligent transport systems on a 34.5-kilometre stretch of the road in Melbourne's east. The commitment is intended to be matched by the Victorian government and will go towards technology such as variable spee

Spanish company Trafficnow and Isbak are working together to help in taming the congestion in Istanbul, one of Europe’s most congested cities. They are to install 250 DeepBlue Bluetrack sensors along all the major corridors and access points of the city, together with the DeepBlue core centralised system. The sensors use the signals emitted by Bluetooth-enabled devices such as GPS navigation systems and mobile phones to track vehicles and calculate travel times. With up to ten lanes of traffic, the city aut

The US Department of Transportation has released a memorandum that helps to create an affiliation of 5.9GHz dedicated short range communications (DSRC) infrastructure device makers, operators of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) installations, and developers of applications that use V2I communications. The objective is to harness the collective abilities of these members to transition the technology toward full deployment by allowing for the exchange of information, the sharing of deployment lessons learned,

US-headquartered Siemens Mobility and Logistics has partnered with Iteris in an agreement that means that Iteris will now distribute the complete Siemens intelligent traffic product across the state. The contract ensures Siemens a strong position in the state and offers Iteris a significant expansion of its traffic and intelligent transportation portfolio. “This agreement allows both Siemens and Iteris the opportunity to better provide solutions to the many traffic challenges US cities face,” said Frank LoP

New funding of US$1.7 million recently announced by the Federal and New South Wales Governments for trials of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) technologies has been welcomed by Intelligent Transport Systems Australia. The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program funds provide for pioneering projects involving heavy vehicle to infrastructure communication technologies to make roads safer.

The release of V1.17 of Peek Traffic’s IQ Central provides users with several new features. Intended for the traffic operations centre, IQ Central is Peek's central traffic equipment management software suite and enables traffic personnel to configure and monitor hundreds of traffic control devices from a central location. The new features include greenband analysis, allowing users to optimise offset programming for a coordinated corridor using an interactive time-space diagram, while the split monitor fun

Siemens has won a new SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) project in the US State of Georgia, in an area to the north of Atlanta along State Route 9. In the first phase, SCOOT will control thirty-three intersections in the towns of Alpharetta, Roswell and Sandy Springs and it is expected that more intersections will be added to the system over the next few years. The project is being managed by Siemens USA with local dealer Temple.

Optimisation of traffic signals is often seen as a challenging and expensive task, requiring inductive loops, cameras or manual counting for traffic monitoring. However, a new development from Danish wireless technology company Blip Systems aims to change that. BlipTrack uses a combination of Bluetooth and wi-fi to constantly monitor and map traffic flow. The system detects all vehicles containing Bluetooth or wi-fi enabled devices to provide accurate traffic data, enabling real-time traffic monitoring a

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has issued a Notice of Intent to Award to Serco to integrate and run the state’s five transportation management centres under a six-year, US$355 million contract. The Commonwealth Transportation Board will make the final decision at its June meeting. The project will operate all five centres, including managing the Safety Service Patrol, under a single advanced active traffic management system platform, providing greater consistency and efficiency and enabli

Intelligent transportation systems supplier McCain has expanded its distribution network with an agreement with Walker Brothers to distribute its traffic equipment in South Carolina. Under the terms of the new distributor agreement, Walker Brothers will have exclusive distribution rights to McCain’s ITS, NEMA, and Caltrans traffic controller cabinets; Model 2070 and NEMA traffic signal controllers; the entire ATC eX controller series; intersection control software; and McCain’s new and improved Transparity