News

Consumers worldwide expect electric vehicles to travel farther, require less charge time and retail for a lower price than automakers are offering, according to a new survey from Deloitte.In fact, consumers' expectations around performance and purchase price are so divergent from the actual offerings available today, that no more than two to four per cent of consumers worldwide would have their expectations met, according to the survey.

TRL has formally launched its latest software product to help keep the UK's roads moving when an incident or planned event threatens to create significant congestion. TEST - Tool for Evaluating Strategies for Traffic - has been developed for operators of traffic control centres to predict the consequences of actions they undertake on their network, in response to an incident.Incidents, events and road works all have the potential to impact traffic patterns and flows and can often cause significant congestio

Volvo Trucks has announced it will deliver a total of 100 FE hybrid trucks to 13 selected European countries by 2013. Last week, the company chose Vienna's historical Lusthaus pavillion as the venue for the first delivery of its hybrid truck in the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) to Spar Austria, which, with 74,000 employees, is Austria largest private-sector employer.

Polaris Industries has announced the acquisition of Goupil Industrie, a privately owned, France-based manufacturer of on-road, commercial electric vehicles, built on a modular design that offers many functional options and appeals to a wide variety of customers. The move will add Goupil vehicles to Polaris’ growing small electric vehicle product portfolio, while becoming part of a global brand will expand Goupil’s reach, both within and outside its existing European sales base. Goupil, which reported approx

Chrysler Group, working in partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE), will deliver 10 demonstration fleet Ram 1500 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) pickup trucks to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

Plans are in hand in Brazilian city Sao Paulo for a package of key road projects intended to improve connectivity. These will include two stretches of new road for the Nova Odessa/Americana/Santa Barbara and Campinas/Nova Odessa link. State funding will also be available for the widening of the Estrada dos Amarais road, in addition to the repaving of the Lix da Cunha road. Upgrading roads will also ease access to Viracopos airport, while the state authorities have asked Transport Regulator Artesp to evaluat

The Malaysia authorities are now offering four key road projects for tender. The four projects are for a road linking Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang spanning at 12km, the 4.2km Gurney Drive-Lebuhraya Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu bypass, the 6.5km Penang-Butterworth Tunnel and the 4.6km Lebuhraya Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass. The project is to start in 2015 and have an estimated total value of US$2.55 billion. The deadline to submit pre-qualification exercise is January 2012 while the deadline of

Research is underway on the Mersey Estuary in the UK, mapping tidal flows. The data will be used by the designers of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, currently being designed. This profiling work is being carried out close to Runcorn and Widnes and is mapping the strength and direction of currents in the Mersey Estuary. Part of the development of the Mersey Gateway Project, the surveying work has been carried out by specialist contractor ABPmer using Acoustic Doppler Profiling equipment. The work measured the

Los Angeles city is teaming up with ACS to create a new pricing system that is part of a parking strategy designed to relieve traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, and improve the efficiency of downtown LA's transit operations.

Austria-headquartered Efkon Group has announced that its Efkon India subsidiary has received four prestigious tolling and ITS contracts valued at some US$8.8 million in total. The company has received a repeat contract from Oriental Structural Engineers to provide the complete ITS product-mix for the Nagpur Bypass project. This contract includes the delivery of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) for 117 kms and 44 lanes of semi-automatic toll system integrated with a weigh-in-motion (WIM) system. Ef

Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has published the 2011 Congested Corridors Report, the first nationwide effort to identify reliability problems at specific stretches of US highway responsible for significant traffic congestion at different times and different days. Researchers noted that the corridors included in the report were identified by the data itself.

Telvent GIT has successfully launched Maryland’s “511” Traveler Information Service for the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration. The service is currently operational and providing information to an average of 14,000 callers and web site visitors each week. Features include an automated interactive voice response (IVR) telephone system for users to access traffic information dialing the “511” code and using voice commands, and a companion website showing traffic information and

Road safety continues to improve in France, according to the latest official statistics. Data from the French Interior Ministry reveals that there were 3,980 road fatalities in the country between 1st November 2010 and 31st October 2011, the lowest number of road-related deaths recorded since 1945. During October 2011, there were 377 road deaths, a 6.4% decline over the same period in October 2010. The French authorities hope to further improve road safety with the planned introduction of a new driving lice