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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and non-profit organisation Partnership for New York City have announced six finalists for the inaugural Transit Tech Lab programme. The eight-week project will allow the technology companies to introduce products to New York’s transportation agencies which are expected to improve subway and bus services. Participants will employ predictive maintenance to help reduce cost and subway delays, deploy a platform for transit network planning, utilise comp

US space agency Nasa is moving into the final phase of its four-year programme to prove that it can safely control drones flying over urban centres. Drones, less commonly called unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), are likely to form an increasing proportion of the transportation mix for future cities, but questions remain over their safety – particularly in built-up, heavily populated areas. Nasa will test them in two areas – the gambling hotspot of Reno, Nevada, and the Texan city of Corpus Christi.

Moscow is the most gridlocked city in the world, according to a survey of snarl-ups by Inrix. The company’s annual Global Traffic Scorecard found that road users in the Russian capital lost 210 hours last year because of congestion. Inrix weights the data for population, and found that the next four cities on the congestion roll-call were Istanbul, Turkey; Bogota, Colombia; Mexico City; and São Paulo, Brazil. Brazil had another entry on this unwanted list, with Rio de Janeiro in seventh place. Russ

The Dallas Entrepreneur Center Network (DEC) – backed by tech giants AT&T, Cisco and Microsoft - is launching an initiative to help regional companies and entrepreneurs develop urban technologies. The DEC says its Innov8te Smart Cities Incubator will support technologies which seek to improve mobility, citizen engagement, inclusion, infrastructure, governance and public health as well as public safety and sustainability. The incubator - located in the Dallas Innovation District and Smart Cities Livin

Flir has upgraded its thermal traffic sensor and detector with traffic data collection features. The company says ThermiCam2 uses thermal energy emitted from road users – rather than light - to detect vehicles and vulnerable road users at night, over long distances and in harsh weather conditions. According to Flir, the solution can be used to detect vehicles and bicycles approaching an intersection, detect wrong-way drivers, count and distinguish vehicles from bicycles and collect traffic data using

Conduent Transportation is to modernise the tolling system on ExpressLanes in Los Angeles County to help reduce congestion and improve safety along the I-10 and I-110 corridors. The eight-year contract is an extension to a six-year partnership with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). The scope of the project includes the installation of overhead scanners and automatic vehicle identification equipment which corresponds with the FasTrak transponders installed on commuter v

Saber, a UK highway condition and inventory specialist, has developed skid analysis software to help reduce the risk of road traffic accidents. SkidAnalyser, part of a suite of software tools for managing highway survey data, is cloud-based and analyses information collected by Saber’s road safety vehicles. These measure levels of skid resistance in wet conditions. The company says the idea is to make raw data from surveys available within days of collection – and this can in turn alert highway authorit

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation on road deaths make sobering reading – but they are particularly shocking when you consider how the relative poverty of countries contributes to high fatality rates, says Adam Hill Around 1.35 million people died on the world’s roads in 2016, while road traffic injuries are now the leading cause of death among young people, according to new statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Perhaps the most sobering point from its latest research

Lyft is donating $700,000 to bring more transportation options and free-rides to under-served residents living in East Oakland, California. The ride-hailing company is working with the city of Oakland’s mayor Libby Schaaf and non-profit organisation TransForm to establish a free bike library. The money will be used by TransForm and its partner organisations East Oakland Collective and Scraper Bikes in three initiatives. Lyft and TransForm will fund the East Oakland Collective, a community group, in pil