UTC

Councils across England will receive a share of US$410 million for major local roads maintenance, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced. The Challenge Fund will be used for one-off major infrastructure schemes by local authorities to improve life for local residents and businesses. The 31 schemes being awarded funding across the 28 local authorities include safety repairs, bridge renewal, carriageway and drainage improvements, as well as upgrading street lighting in a number of areas to bring

An imaginative and systematic approach to monitoring and evaluation has won Bremen, Germany the European Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) Award, while Östersund in Sweden has been presented with the European Mobility Week Award for its work on sustainable travel options. Bremen’s interactive web platform was used to obtain feedback from residents and a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis was carried out using this and other data. Five different scenarios were then examined showi

Bristol City Council in the UK has unlocked funding from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund to support the installation of CycleEye cyclist sensor alert systems on a number of buses operated by the European Green Capital’s main operator First West of England. Designed by Bristol-based Fusion Processing, CycleEye has been developed to reduce the growing number of cyclist collisions and casualties. Fitted to the side of a bus, CycleEye operates night and day in all weathers, using radar and camera sensors t

Colin Sowman looks at California’s ‘smartest’ road which will open this spring to counter congestion and accidents on one of the Bay Area’s busiest interstates. Interstate 80 (I-80) is one of the busiest roads in the San Francisco Bay area with up to 270,000 vehicles using the corridor every day. The section between the Carquinez Bridge in Crockett and the Bay Bridge not only suffers congestion during the working week but also at weekends. Traditional remedies such as building additional lanes (there are al

Smart cities are going to be amazing community hubs that will be more sustainable, efficient and supportive of citizens, according to a new report, Australia - Smart Cities - People, Transport, Cars, Buildings from reportbuyer.com. The concept of smart communities is based on intelligent infrastructure such as broadband (FttP) and smart grids, so that connected and sustainable communities can be developed. However, they cannot be built within the silo structure that currently dominates our thinking; a holis

A webinar, "Cooperative Automation: Activities in the European Project i-Game”, to present a brief overview of the on-going and planned activities in V2X communications under the European project i-Game will take place on 26 March at 1600 CET. The main aim of this section of i-GAME is to develop interaction protocols and message sets in the context of cooperative automation. Next to the development activities in i-GAME, an international Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC) will be organised in 2016. T

The first commercial implementation of Safelane automated traffic management has been deemed a success by its developer, Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS). Traffic management firm Chevron used Safelane during its management of a full carriageway closure on a bridge replacement project for Balfour Beatty on the M56 in Cheshire, UK. Safelane is part of the first collection of temporary road maintenance safety solutions combining modular electronic perimeters and variable message signs (VMS), launched l

US Senators Cory A. Booker and Deb Fisher, members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, have sent a bipartisan letter to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administrator Mark Rosekind to request an update on agency policies related to automated vehicle technology and to urge the NHTSA to embrace policies that promote innovation in and the improved safety benefits of the technology. “These technologies promise to significantly reduce roadway accidents, shorten

Colin Sowman looks at California’s ‘smartest’ road which will open this spring to counter congestion and accidents on one of the Bay Area’s busiest interstates. Interstate 80 (I-80) is one of the busiest roads in the San Francisco Bay area with up to 270,000 vehicles using the corridor every day. The section between the Carquinez Bridge in Crockett and the Bay Bridge not only suffers congestion during the working week but also at weekends. Traditional remedies such as building additional lanes (there are al

The new headquarters of Highways England, the company that will run motorways and major A roads, has been opened today by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. The new company, which replaces the Highways Agency on 1 April, marks a step change in how England’s roads are maintained and managed and will be responsible for delivering more than US$22 billion of investment by 2021. The new company will have longer-term funding to be able to plan ahead and invest in skills and equipment to speed up essential wo