Michigan infrastructure vision
An innovative infrastructure project proposed by The Interstate Traveler Company (ITC) has won strong backing from the Michigan House of Representatives Task Force, as well as being awarded a Michigan's Going Green Award.
Mobile communications could revolutionise traffic management
Rudolf Mietzner looks at how machine-to-machine technologies and applications will affect the automotive sector in the coming years
No in-road equipment for Queensland's free flow toll bridge
By May this year, the new Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, which is being built alongside an existing bridge, will be open. With it will come an end-to-end free-flow tolling system. Interview with Sue Caelers, Queensland Motorway Ltd. Queensland Motorways Ltd owns and operates 61km of roadway in the area around Brisbane, Australia. This includes the Gateway Bridge and the Gateway Extension, Logan and Port of Brisbane motorways.
Cost-effective alternatives to traditional loops
Traffic signal control is a mainstay of urban congestion management. Despite advances in vehicle detection sensors, inductive loops, which operate by using a magnetic field to detect the metal components in vehicles, are still the most common enabler for intelligent signalised junctions.
US lagging behind in ITS - with link to report
The United States is lagging behind other world leaders in the use of new technologies to address traffic congestion, CO2 emissions, traffic crashes, and other major challenges according to a report issued yesterday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).
Developments in urban traffic management and control
Mark Cartwright, Centaur Consulting, discusses developments in urban traffic management and control. Despite the concept of UTMC (Urban Traffic Management and Control) having been around for some years now, there remains a significant rump of confusion as to its relationship with its similar-sounding cousin UTC (Urban Traffic Control). To many people, the two are one and the same. However, this is not the case.
250,000 Efkon OBUs for Malaysia
Efkon Asia, the Kuala Lumpur-based subsidiary of Efkon AG, Austria, has received an additional order for 250,000 mult-lane free flow On Board Units (two piece OBU with integrated contactless Mifare Smart Card) based on high speed bi-directional active ISO CALM compatible Infrared.
Will standardisation increase ITS interoperability?
Theoretical balance Kallistratos Dionelis, secretary general of ASECAP, comments on the European Commission's new ICT Standardisation Work Programme. I've just read a proposal from the European Commission on the 2010-2013 ICT Standardisation Work Programme. As ASECAP Secretary General this is one of my responsibilities. I work to receive information, to disseminate information and to build bridges and mutual understanding between policy-makers and the industrial world, between ASECAP and others.
Amphibious bus may replace ferry
Leading international public transport group, Stagecoach, is undertaking trials of an amphibious bus - 'amfibus' - on the River Clyde near Glasgow in Scotland.
Vehicle data translator for road weather monitoring
Sheldon Drobot, Michael Chapman and Amanda Anderson, NCAR, and Paul Pisano, FHWA, detail latest results of testing of a vehicle data translator for road weather monitoring and information applications. The use of vehicle sensor data to improve weather and road condition products, envisioned as part of the US Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration's (RITA's) IntelliDriveSM initiative, could revolutionise the provision of road weather information to transportation syste
Free-flow upgrade to Holland's Westerschelde tunnel's toll system
Unbroken service Technolution's Winifred Roggekamp and Dave Marples describe efforts to upgrade the Westerscheldetunnel's tolling system to give free-flow capability. Until 2003 the Flanders region of Zeeland, in the south-west of the Netherlands, was connected to the mainland only by ferry. The new Westerscheldetunnel, a 6.6km toll tunnel, improves communications with the region considerably, taking some 100km off the alternative road journey. In 2006 it was recognised that the toll plaza for the tunnel ne
SmartWater deployed to deter thefts from parking machines
The Isle of Wight Council (IWC) in the UK has deployed crime-busting SmartWater traps, following a spate of thefts and vandalism from its 140 ageing Parkeon DG-Series Pay & Display (P&D) machines in the last year.
TTI teams with Inrix for 2010 Urban Mobility Report
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has selected Inrix as the exclusive private provider of traffic information for the 2010 Urban Mobility Report.
Growing use of PC-based systems for urban traffic control
Siemens Mobility's Mark Bodger discusses the growing use of PC-based systems for urban traffic control. Across the ITS sector, there is a common trend of taking traffic and travel management out of the hands of bespoke solutions, realising the use of common, open-source technologies and solutions and enjoying all the attendant economies of scale and ease of use which that implies.
Turkish ferry crossing uses electronic toll collection
Turkey-based tolling specialist Aselsan has deployed its electronic toll collection technology for Izmit Bay Car Ferry, on the Marmara Sea.
Positive incentives an alternative to road user charging?
The Netherlands has been looking at incentivising rush-hour avoidance. The intention is to better understand road users' motivations and find alternatives to congestion charging. Something significant needs to happen if we are to adequately address the traffic congestion and other issues caused by the ever-rising numbers of vehicles on our roads. Congestion or distance-based charging is seen as one way of managing demand and raising revenue for improvements to transport infrastructure. However, charging is
EU project to make urban freight management more sustainable
Urban freight policies are becoming more common in European cities and regions. However, it is still difficult to evaluate and transfer the knowledge gained from the different city logistics measures implemented by local authorities. The SUGAR project aims to tackle this by establishing a systematic approach towards best practices identification and assessment, and by developing urban freight plans and actions.
Canada's largest EV project
Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Canada President and CEO Koji Soga and Hydro-Québec CEO Thierry Vandal have announced electric vehicle trials in Canada.
Need for harmonisation in ITS standards
As the calendar rolls over, and we hop from continent to continent and World Congress to World Congress, where Memoranda of Understanding and cooperation agreements are the headline news, it is easy for those not intimately involved to forget that standards definition is a well-nigh continual process. Significant progress has been made in recent months towards achieving the critical mass and economies of scale which are going to drive development and deployment in, amongst other things, cooperative infrastr
Legalities of in-vehicle systems and cooperative infrastructures
Paul Laurenza of Dykema Gossett PLLC discusses the paths which lawmakers may go down on the route to making in-vehicle systems and cooperative infrastructures a reality. The question of whether or not to mandate in-vehicle systems for safety and other applications is a vexed one. There is a presumption on some parts that going down the road of forcing systems' fitment is somehow too domineering or restricting. Others would argue that it is the only realistic way of ensuring that systems achieve widespread d