UTC

Moves to make life easier and safer for vulnerable and impaired road users are gaining strength on both sides of the Atlantic. A recent webcast by the US Roadway Safety Institute, based at the University of Minnesota, showcased work in progress on a positioning and mapping methodology using Bluetooth and smartphone technologies to support situation awareness and wayfinding for the visually impaired.

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) will partner with ITS America to host a free Accelerating Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Deployment Day on 12 June during the 2016 ITS Annual Meeting in San Jose, California. The workshop is open to the public and will focus on accelerating deployment of advanced ITS such as connected vehicles and smart cities. It will highlight the USDOT's ITS program, discuss the nuts and bolts of connected vehicles, provide an overview of ITS funding and discuss th

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) will focus on the benefits of intelligent traffic signal solutions for emergency vehicles at emergency medical services congress EMS2016, to be held in Copenhagen from 30 May to 1 June. The company will discuss using pre-emption priority control systems, technology to give emergency vehicles priority at signal-controlled intersections, allowing first responders to respond to incidents faster and more safely. In addition, on 31 May, GTT's market and development direct

Drivers who use cellphones while driving will soon face tougher penalties in British Columbia, Canada, after the government announced significantly higher fines, more penalty points and earlier interventions for repeat offenders, including driving prohibitions, as part of its push to eliminate distracted driving, a leading factor in deaths on BC roads. Effective from 1 June, the current penalty of $167 for distracted driving will increase to $543 for a first offence ($368 base fine, plus $175 in penalty

Road transport organisation the IRU, the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Operation Lifesaver Estonia (OLE) have joined forces to raise awareness about level crossing safety amongst transport professionals. Their recently-published Level Crossing Safety aims to raise awareness of professional drivers of how to avoid risks potentially leading to a collision and reduce related accidents at this key interface between road and rail infrastructure. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Swedish city Linköping has introduced an innovative solution to enable drivers to locate available parking bays for motorists with disabilities. The designated parking bays, spread over 23 parking areas across the city, are equipped with Nedap’s wireless in-ground Sensit sensors which detect the occupancy status of each individual parking bay in the street and the parking duration. The sensors, which Swarco Sweden integrated with the city’s LinPark parking app, process occupancy data in real-time and dis

According to New York City Department of Transportation’s (NYC DOT) 2016 Cycling in the City brief, New York City has seen a recent dramatic increase in cycling, with the claim that the city has seen a 320 per cent increase in daily cycling between 1990 and 2014 and a 68 per cent growth in daily cycling between 2010 and 2014. The brief uses data collected by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) as part of its annual Community Health Survey, where 25 per cent of adult New Yorkers (almost 1.

Increasing traffic congestion, rising vehicle fleet size and growing technological advances will drive global traffic management market through 2021, according to the latest TechSci Research report, Global Traffic Management Market by Transportation Mode, By System Type, By Region, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021. According to the research, the global market for traffic management is projected to surpass US$22 billion by 2021, due to rising demand for traffic management in roadways, ra

State Department of Transportation (DOT) executives in charge of intelligent transportation deployment will participate in a DOT roundtable, sponsored by HNTB, on 12June at 1500-1445 McEnery Convention Center as part of ITS America 2016 San Jose. These leaders will discuss their states’ experiences, successes, failures, challenges, and lessons learned in launching ITS projects while, on broader scale, endeavouring to prepare their states’ infrastructures to meet and support tomorrow’s ITS mobility dema