UTC

Transport Minister Norman Baker has launched the UK government’s strategy, Driving the future today - a strategy for ultra low emission vehicles in the UK, to drive forward the ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) industry. The new strategy signals a major change in the way vehicles will be powered in the future and reaffirms the government’s commitment to provide new opportunities for the motor industry to help grow the UK economy.

The European Commission’s second annual award for outstanding sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP) has been launched with the theme of the ‘integration of economic, social, and environmental policy criteria.’ The winning regional or local authority will gain Europe-wide coverage for their plan and a prize of US$13,000. A sustainable urban mobility plan helps cities and local authorities meet the transport needs of their citizens and businesses in an effective and sustainable way. The award recognises

One of the ten key projects launched in 2006 by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport aims to build the world’s most intelligent highways. In a world where eighty per cent of traffic accidents on expressways are attributed to driver negligence, Korea records the lowest level of traffic safety among OECD member countries. The smart highway project aims to reduce the accident rate and encourage people to use expressways more conveniently by integrating information, automobile and road mana

Four major bridges over the lower Mississippi are to get intelligent transportation systems (ITS) upgrades, thanks to a US$10 million grant from the US Department of Transportation TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) fund. The project will expand existing ITS systems in each of the three states to complement previous state and private investments.

Nokia’ Here in-car navigation business has launched a complete connected driving offer, which it says is the only end-to-end driving solution on the market today, to help car makers and in-vehicle technology suppliers connect the car and the driver to the cloud. The offering includes Here Auto embedded in-car navigation, Here Auto Cloud always-on access to dynamic services such as real-time traffic updates, and Here Auto Companion, a customisable mobile and web application.

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) in Ontario, Canada, where collisions with wild animals cost the province more than US$95 million annually, has installed wildlife sensor and alert systems to reduce the number of animal-vehicle collisions on its highways. The MTO has installed two types of systems – one uses laser tripwires to detect animals and the other uses radar, an alternative that was found to address some of the challenges posed by laser systems. Neither system has yet been determined to be

Ecuador’s Municipal Public Transport Company of Guayaquil (EPMTG), which was created to manage traffic and pedestrian access routes in the Ecuadorian city, is to implement an intelligent transportation system (ITS) from January 2014. A traffic management centre will monitor the city’s 350,000 vehicles using cameras, photo radar, traffic signals and variable message signs. Around 1,500 intelligent traffic lights will be connected to 150 cameras. An international tender to implement the system was laun

Transportation officials in the Dallas area are to introduce an Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) along the 28-mile US 75 from the city to its northern suburbs. ICM works by collecting data about traffic conditions, then sending it through software that can analyse the data and help operators select the best strategies for managing it. A web interface ensures all the relevant agencies working on the corridor are aware of what is happening. Commuters will be advised of the situation via a new website

The Minnesota Cup, said to be the largest new venture competition in the US, encourages the development of breakthrough ideas from across the state. One of 57 semi-finalists, traffic management specialist Smart Signal Technologies is now a finalist in the High Tech Division of the 2013 Cup. Smart Signal Technologies offers a set of technologies to improve traffic on signalised corridors by enabling transportation agencies to calculate accurate queue lengths and travel times, utilising already-installed

TransCore, working with its Canadian partner Electromega, has been selected by the City of Montreal to deploy TransCore’s TransSuite advanced traffic management system (ATMS) at the city’s traffic control centre, Centre de Gestion de la Mobilité Urbaine (CGMU). The City of Montreal is the second largest in Canada; it has nineteen boroughs with 845 km of arterial roads, 4200 km of local streets and more than 2,000 traffic signal controllers.