Urban Traffic Control

Jaime Lerner, visionary urban planner from Brazil and pioneer of globally successful public transport ideas, is the winner of the first Leadership in Transport Award, created by the International Transport Forum, at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector that comprises 52 member countries. The award was conceived to honour public figures that have, through exceptional vision and leadership, made a lasting positive impact, resulting in major advances for transport.

US Traffic Corporation has been awarded a procurement contract by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC-DOT) to provide advanced solid-state traffic control devices to expand system upgrades across the city. The agreement calls for the company to supply traffic control cabinets, intersection signal controllers, as well as related software and hardware over the next several years to replace aging electromechanical controller systems throughout New York City.

According to the Moscow government, the introduction of ITS, currently being deployed, will increase the capacity of city's roads by 20 per cent. Pre-commissioning of the system is scheduled to begin in April. Moscow government plans to ingrate management of parking spaces, install cameras in traffic lights, and equip passenger land transport with Russia’s Glonass navigation system. Installation of a Glonass device is estimated at just over US$1,000 for a city bus and about half that amount for private flee

The Victoria Park Tunnel, a significant infrastructure improvement to connect the Auckland harbour bridge to the Central Motorway in Auckland, New Zealand, has deployed a SwiftGate automated lane closure system. At the heart of the infrastructure project is an additional on-ramp built to increase the accessibility of the northbound highway lanes directly from urban downtown streets. This additional access is only available during peak hours when a movable barrier is shifted out, which meant that the ramp en

The latest national traffic signal assessment conducted by the US National Transportation Operations Coalition (NTOC), a group of transportation associations, shows that gradual but steady progress is being made on the management and operation of traffic signals despite continued funding challenges. NTOC has released the 2012 National Traffic Signal Report Card and it scores a modest four point improvement over the 2007 result. The effort to improve the nation’s traffic signal systems is driven by benefits

EU Member States will in future have the right to apply the polluter-pays principle when setting road tolls on trucks and lorries. They will be able to levy charges for external costs and vary tariffs in order to ease congestion during peak hours and to encourage fleet renewal. Earmarking of revenues for transport infrastructure was the key point of an informal deal reached on Monday evening between Parliament and Council representatives on the revised Eurovignette directive.

Telvent has announced the award of a contract from the Beijing Traffic Police to help to expand Beijing’s urban traffic management system. The company will implement its Telvent Smartmobility Traffic technology on more than 200 traffic junctions, which will enable Beijing authorities to improve traffic flow, increase drivers' safety and reduce air pollution.

McCain has announced results measuring the effectiveness of its adaptive signal control software deployed on the city of San Marcos's new 'smart corridor'. The study revealed the system significantly improved traffic flow on San Marcos Boulevard, the second busiest arterial in San Diego County, California.

A major programme to upgrade traffic lights at 78 junctions and 100 pedestrian crossings across Norfolk, in the UK, with new energy-saving LED signals from Siemens is nearing completion. The retrofit project to supply, install and maintain all 178 sites is estimated to provide up to 78 per cent power consumption and carbon savings for Norfolk County Council (NCC). The new contract includes an innovative cost benefit payback solution provided by Siemens Financial Services.

A team of IBM experts assigned to Nairobi have provided a framework and roadmap to the city to improve the flow of road traffic and increase revenues from the transportation sector. The recommendations complement Nairobi's considerable on-going investment in underlying roadway infrastructure and include making traffic information more readily available to citizens, motorists, police, policymakers and planners so that better transportation decisions can be made in the near and long term.