UTC

Journeys on London Underground could be improved through Transport for London (TfL) harnessing wi-fi data to make more information available to customers as they move around London, new research has shown. The four-week TfL pilot, which ran between November and December last year, studied how depersonalised wi-fi connection data from customers' mobile devices could be used to better understand how people navigate the London Underground network, allowing TfL to improve the experience for customers.

The Illinois Tollway and Pace Suburban Bus, along with regional project partners and local officials, have activated the I-90 SmartRoad on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. It includes advanced technology to provide real-time roadway information to drivers and a dedicated Flex Lane for Pace buses to use whenever traffic conditions warrant. The 16-mile SmartRoad incorporates active traffic management using cameras, sensors and overhead gantries to more quickly bring detailed road information.

Opticom Analytics enables users of Global Traffic Technologies’ (GTT’s) GPS-enabled emergency vehicle pre-emption hardware to assess intersection performance, reveal problem areas and make corrections to provide a faster, safer emergency response. The web-based analytics platform collects data logs from the Opticom-equipped vehicles via a Wi-Fi or cellular connection and allows departments to view critical information about their department’s vehicles as they pass through an intersection.

The Western Australia Government to provide an investment of US$103 million (AU$129 million) over the next four years for improvements across the State's cycling network. The funding will allow at least 95 kilometres of cycling path to be added to the network, as well as a range of community cycling initiatives. It includes US$44 million (AU$55 million) towards filling gaps on the current Principal Shared Path (PSP) network around Perth and US$23 million (AU$29 million) in grants for local governments.

Transport for London (TfL) has begun an eight-week public consultation on plans to make trams in London ‘cashless’. The proposal would see existing cash ticket machines, which only sell a small number of the more expensive paper tickets every week and do not allow customers to top-up their Oyster card, removed from the tram network. As the ticket machines, which were installed when the tram system opened in 2000, have such low usage and have now reached the end of their useful life

Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS) has implemented its DATEX journey time solution (JTS) on Highway’s England’s US$1.9 billion (£1.5billion) A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon upgrade scheme, enabling an average of 85,000 drivers daily who use the 21 mile stretch of road to navigate the roadworks. The project incorporates 26 Bartco UK VMS-Cs variable message signs which display journey times from their locations to the end of the affected stretch of road

Following a vote on the 2018 European Union general budget by the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN), chair Karima Delli said that, by adopting its 2018 budget, the TRAN Committee has given clear priorities for the future of mobility in the EU. She went on to say that in a period of great uncertainty for the next EU budgets due to Brexit, it is very important that the EU secures and speeds up research and innovation programmes such as SESAR.

Two major new road schemes worth more than US$388 million (£300 million) are set to cut congestion and improve journey times for hundreds of thousands of drivers in Merseyside and Cheshire, UK. Highways England has set out its preferred options for upgrading the key route to the Port of Liverpool and creating a new junction on the M56 near Runcorn following public consultations earlier this year.

As part of plans to promote clean alternative fuels, the government is offering US$28 million (£22 million) in funding for projects in the UK to develop low carbon waste-based fuels for planes and lorries, with matching funding from industry. Trials of sustainable jet fuel, made from waste materials, have taken place in Europe and North America and now the launch of a UK competition intends that British experts will conduct pioneering research in this sector. The Department for Transport has already had int