UTC

UK highways servicing contractor, Ringway, has successfully delivered a scheme on behalf of Solihull Council to improve travel links in the Solihull area that includes a new variable bus lane, the first of its kind in the UK.The variable bus lane uses the Ringway-installed CCTV and digital signage to adjust the status of the bus lane in order that it does not remain empty during peak traffic times. “This pioneering bus lane is just one aspect of the ANITA Project, which has seen Ringway provide a dedicated

Germany's conservative CSU party has said that it will issue a draft bill on a new road toll for cars in autumn 2011. It says that even if car taxes were lowered, extending the national tolling system from trucks to cars, would raise billions of euros over the next few years. However, Chancellor Angela Merkel is on record as saying that no tolls for cars will be introduced during the current legislative period.

A total of 102 school buses in Cobb County, Georgia have been installed with digital video cameras to capture number plate information of drivers who refuse to stop when a school bus is unloading or loading children. The district has 1,188 buses and almost 10 per cent of that total will be equipped with the $200 cameras. Those who violate the law will face a fine of $300 for an initial offence. For a third offence within five years, the fine would increase to $1,000. The cost for the cameras will be covered

Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App

McCain has won a three-year contract to supply around 900 traffic controller cabinets to North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDoT) which will include North Carolina versions of both the 332 and 336S. The base mounted 332 controller cabinet has an industry reputation of being durable and offers plenty of inside space, while the 336S is smaller and ideal for pole mounting. Both cabinets' designs include environmental friendly, mercury-free construction, energy efficient power supply, and ‘normally e

Iteris has been awarded the prime contract from the US Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) for the National Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Architecture Evolution and Support programme, with a value of up to US$12.4 million over a five-year period. Over the last fifteen years, Iteris has provided the US federal government support in developing the National ITS Architecture and facilitating its implementation across the country. This task order-based contract, which is expected

Skolkovo foundation has held a tender for the development of a smart city concept which has been won by a consortium of Russia-based Cognitive Technologies IT company, Ernst & Young consulting company from the UK and Japan-based Panasonic. Skolkovo, near Moscow, is also known as the Russian Silicon Valley, and the contract is worth US$3.06 million.

Capita Symonds’ Innovations team has secured a new contract on the UK Highways Agency Traffic Information System (Hatris) programme. The contract, which is an extension to the company’s current work on the scheme, will see the team taking the project through to December 2014. The Hatris system, which has been developed and enhanced by Capita Symonds since 2005, is used to monitor and report on vehicle journey times across set routes on the UK motorway and trunk road network. This enables the Highways Agency

Activu Corporation, a leading provider of IP-based visualisation and collaboration solutions for mission-critical command and control centre environments, has announced that its solution has been selected, as part of Florida Department of Transportation’s ITS initiative, for deployment at the Southwest Florida Interagency Facility for Transportation (SWIFT) SunGuide Center and the Sarasota/Manatee County satellite transportation management centre (STMC) in District One.

GreenRoad, a specialist in driver performance and safety management, has released details about UK fleet driving behaviour revealing that the most common risky manoeuvre is harsh braking; January is the most dangerous month and 11 pm is the most dangerous time to drive. By analysing driver performance data GreenRoad discovered that HGV truck drivers are the safest, followed by cars, vans and buses. By contrast, speeding is the most dominant unsafe driving behaviour in North American fleets, and cars are ope