News

Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies, is to be part of the team carrying out a project to establish the feasibility of turning a Solihull car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, the 12-month Net-Form project seeks to develop a secure, dynamic data management platform that collects, aggregates and optimises energy collected by large populations of grid-connected

Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) is to provide the city of Grand Prairie in Texas with its Opticom emergency vehicle pre-emption (EVP) solution. Opticom works alongside intersection controllers to help ensure emergency vehicles can move through intersections rapidly and safely. The system has been deployed at 22 of the city’s busiest intersections, allowing Opticom-enabled emergency vehicles to send a request to the intersection controller ahead of its arrival and turning the signal green to expedite it

Blank out and lane control dynamic message signs developed by SES America (SESA) have been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and are now included in the MassDOT Qualified Traffic and Control Equipment List. SESA’s blank out signs offer customised solutions to meet the needs of a wide variety of projects and are capable of displaying multiple phases of both text and graphics messages, in any colour and any size. The company’s lane control signs (LCS) provide intelligence via N

A smart bus parking system has been implemented by local company Eaglevision at the Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange in Singapore, utilising the Sensit smart parking platform developed Dutch parking technology company Nedap. Sensit IR sensors and Sensit Flush Mount sensors, which detect the vehicle occupancy status and duration of parking, have been installed in individual parking spaces, connected to an electronic information display, to guide bus drivers to the nearest available parking bay.

Beijing is aiming to gradually replace its petrol-powered taxis with greener new energy vehicles to help reduce air pollution starting from this year. The city currently has about 71,000 taxis in total, out of which 67,000 are conventionally powered. It has mandated that all petrol-and diesel-powered taxis being taken out of service must be replaced by electric or liquid petroleum gas (LPG) powered cars. Any new taxis should be electric or other types of new energy cars. The project is expected to cos

Blackpool’s revamped tramway system is proving popular than ever, with ticket sales showing that five million journeys have been recorded so far since April 2016, building on the increases in passenger journeys since the tramway re-opened in 2012 and topping the five million passengers mark for the first time since 1994.

A consortium of Salini Impregilo and Astaldi has won a contract valued at US$418 million (€397 million) for the design and construction of the Naples to Cancello section of the Naples to Bari high-speed railway line in Italy, part of the Scandinavia to Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Network (TEN).

Released today, 2 March, the ITS Australia Smart Transport for Australia report is a review of the nation’s smart transport technology industry, identifying future opportunities for safer, more efficient and sustainable transport.

The London Borough of Havering has introduced Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to crack down on dangerous driving and parking during the school run. The pilot scheme uses Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs), making anti-social driving a criminal offence in areas around schools.

Dynamic message signs supplier SES America has been recognised by NQA, a third party accreditation body, following a month-long evaluation of its systems and services, including all steps in manufacturing and maintaining ITS equipment while focusing on customer satisfaction.

From 1 March 2017, UK drivers caught using a phone while driving will face tougher penalties. Under new legislation announced by the Department for Transport, offenders will receive six penalty points on their licence and a £200 fine, up from the previous three points and £100 penalty.

A new study from Sweden’s National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) which aims to improve understanding of the differences between inhalable particles in highway versus railway environments has indicated that older types of trains produce more particulate emissions in railroad tunnels than do newer ones. Dust binding, improved paving and reduced studded tyre use could reduce coarse particle levels in road tunnels.

Spanish connected vehicle systems developer Ficosa has presented its latest connected car and autonomous vehicle technologies at Mobile World Congress 2017. Sharing a stand with Panasonic the company showed its latest connectivity solutions for different sectors, from retail and automobile, to communication, security and logistics.

Tolling arrangements for the new Mersey Gateway in the UK have been announced. Both the new bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge will be tolled from autumn 2017. The Mersey Gateway is a new road bridge across the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal in north-west England, which began construction in May 2014.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Transdev have agreed to jointly explore development of mobility services with fleets of electric driverless vehicles for public and on-demand transportation. The companies will collaborate to develop a comprehensive, modular transportation system to enable clients to book rides, and mobility operators to monitor and operate self-driving car fleets.