JOIN US FOR THE ITS WORLD CONGRESS ALL-ACCESS DIGITAL EVENT
Welcome to this first issue of ITS World Congress Innovation News, which helps kick off a dynamic virtual event series for the global ITS community. We are disappointed, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, not to gather in Los Angeles next month for the ITS World Congress, but the spirit of innovation to solve transportation challenges is more important than ever right now.
I hope you will join us for this virtual engagement to learn from leaders around the world on how different countries are using technology to solve challenges during this difficult time.
The ITS World Congress All-Access digital event series will be a unique opportunity to experience education sessions, discussion groups, recommended content, solutions and case-studies, a knowledge and resources
centre, and other online opportunities to connect our global community of intelligent transportation leaders and influencers. We are committed to ensuring that our global community can convene virtually to connect, discuss the latest trends in the industry, and be at the forefront of recovery and innovation.
In this first edition of the ITS World Congress Innovation News, you will find more detailed information about
A Sensor for Every Challenge
the event, which will open on 16 September. You will also see stories about companies that planned to exhibit in Los Angeles and the innovations they had in store for attendees. Beyond ITS World Congress All-Access, we are looking forward to seeing everyone at the ITS America 2021 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, 17-20 May and the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles, 18-22 September 2022!
www.itsa.org
Shailen Bhatt, president & CEO, ITS America: "The spirit of innovation to solve transportation challenges is more important than ever right now."
NP2 tri-protocol tags facilitate interoperability
As agencies increasingly seek interoperable solutions and handsfree options for simplified travel across the contiguous United States, TransCore has announced its release of NP2 tri-protocol tags, which allow for seamless travel across tolling regions.
NP2 tags are tested and approved by the three governing agencies – IAG, OmniAir, and FCC – and provide toll operators a near-term, tag-based option for facilitating inter-regional interoperability.
With customisable settings and software, NP2 is designed
to help capture revenue across all vehicle classes and uses, and its software is intended to be updated and reconfigured as business needs evolve without costly tag recalls. This also means agencies can customise features and design configurations and applications to meet unique business needs, while offering a choice in hardware to meet the driving habits of their customers.
Additionally, Transcore says the NP2 is one of the most accurate, secure tags on the market today. This means operators can offer an immediate choice for tag-
based interoperability without sacrificing performance, no matter where in the United States their customer is travelling.
While establishing universal North American interoperability may demand significant time
commitments and investment in infrastructure, technology, communication, and network development, NP2 tri-protocol tags offer a tag-based choice for customers seeking interoperability today.
www.transcore.com
ITS WORLD CONGRESS TAKES LONG ROAD TO LA
As the epicentre of the movie industry, Los Angeles has seen a few unexpected plot turns in its time.
Following the Covid-induced cancellation of this year’s ITS World Congress, you might be forgiven for thinking that TV coverage of the Oscars red carpet would be the closest you’d get to the City of Angels.
But think again: delegates will be able to make their way in person to the Golden State for the ITS World Congress - although there is a catch: it’s not for another two years.
In a surprise twist of which Hollywood would be proud, ITS America has announced that LA will be host city of ITS World
Publisher / MD
Andrew Barriball
CEO Roger Adshead
Editor
James Foster
Adam Hill, David Arminas
Congress 2022 - the first time it has been held in the US since 2014. It will run from September 18-22 2022 at the Los Angeles
Convention Center.
“Los Angeles is the perfect venue for the 28th ITS World Congress," said ITS America
Sales team
Dan Emmerson, Graeme McQueen, Fulvio Bonfiglietti, Yvonne Tindall
Simon Ward, Andy Taylder
president & CEO Shailen Bhatt.
"Given the necessity of cancelling this year’s event there, we are particularly pleased to showcase it in 2022. It is a city in which smart mobility is transforming how people get around, which clearly aligns with our vision at ITS America: a better future transformed by mobility – one that is safer, greener and smarter.”
The Chinese city of Suzhou, which had been slated to hold the 2022 event, will now be World Congress host in 2023.
The events alternate between North America, Europe and Asia, with next year's congress still scheduled to be held in Hamburg, Germany.
SIEMENS ANNOUNCES EVENTFLOW, AN EXCITING NEW TECHNOLOGY
Siemens Mobility’s Digital ITS Lab in Austin, Texas, has just developed an exciting new technology that is currently being considered by several agencies in the US. It is piquing the interest of cities trying to figure out their “new normal” - now defined by workfrom-home scenarios, resulting in changes to commuting and traffic patterns and a growing frequency of new, sudden events or large gatherings of
people.
Named EventFlow, this new service takes predictive traffic management to the next level, using state-of-the-art AI and machine learning to help cities prepare for sudden or new traffic patterns stemming from unofficial popular events. These are events that are not necessarily part of a city’s official schedule but can still be determined by increased internet or social media activity.
In urban environments, where such events could result in sudden traffic jams and blockages, this AI-enabled capability allows traffic managers to identify and predict sudden event locations and times – and connect directly to roadside infrastructure to deliver important information that informs traffic managers and directs drivers.
Siemens says it’s a level of capability that hasn’t really
been seen in the marketplace before but is sure to be utilised and appreciated more as traffic managers grapple beyond planning around traditional 9-5 workday and rush hour traffic schedules. EventFlow will enable them to stay nimble enough to deal with any new changes that may come their way. It’s a new level of flexibility as every city strives to cope with change.
www.siemens.com/digitallab
No change for AECOM’s tolling clients with Shimmick
AECOM has transferred the part of its business that operates and manages customer service centres and cash collection operations of toll roads to its affiliate, Shimmick. The team’s mission has always been to operate high-quality infrastructure as a partner of
choice and this mission won’t change. Shimmick’s O&M team is the same team clients have been working with for over 25 years, with the same operations and management expertise in toll systems, contact and walk-in centres and cash lane collections. With no vested interest
in roadside or back-office systems, Shimmick provides its clients with an added layer of operational transparency, insight into system and asset performance, and tailored approaches for overall backoffice and front-facing customer improvements and integrity.
“We are excited to continue our journey supporting the tolling industry as a trusted partner,” said Brad White, VP of Shimmick’s O&M division. “Although we have a new name, for our clients and partners, nothing has changed. You will continue to enjoy working with the same management team, benefit from the same expertise and project experience, and will continue to receive the same award-winning solutions. The entire Shimmick team looks forward to providing the same outstanding contact centre accountability, operational efficiencies, innovative solutions and exceptional experiences for your customers.”
www.shimmick.com
www.aecom.com
A Fresh Approach to Getting you There.
We believe nobody should be stuck in traffic, nobody should have to hunt for parking, and nobody should be limited by a single-vendor solution.
We craft innovative solutions while never forgetting who they’re for... Our families. Our friends. Our neighbors. All of us.
www.q-free.com | www.intelight-its.com Getting You There
McCain’s cloud-based solution, Swarco MyCity, is the answer
There are more than 270 million vehicles currently registered in the United States. In a nation of 327 million people, it’s an astounding statistic. Reduce the population number by children and those who don’t drive, and that’s more than one vehicle for every qualified driver in the country.
Now consider another statistic. Right now, those vehicles are generating billions of bits of data every minute of every day as they move through our traffic system. As traffic management information becomes more complex, customer expectations of time-stamped event data are already pushing the limits of data storage capability. But sometime in the not so distant future, when America’s fleet
becomes fully equipped with CV technology, vehicles will generate position, direction and speed data multiple times every second, sharing that information with other vehicles, road-side sensors, traffic signals and ultimately, a host of end users.
In the interim, there’s massive upside but it’s tempered by a daunting downside. On the upside, the data will allow us to develop analytics, improve safety, track performance measures, perfect signal timing, improve traffic flow and predict trends over time. Data will play a key role in creating faster commutes and less congestion which will result in reducing emissions and improving air quality. The daunting side? What do we do with all that data?
It’s clear that the
collection and distribution of transportation data will exceed the capacity of existing resources. In a world of exponential data growth, we can only add more local storage capacity so many times, but it’s not just about where we put it, it’s also about how we
can get at it. Data can provide virtually limitless information, but without the ability to easily access, retrieve and crunch it, they’re just numbers.
According to McCain, the answer is its cloud-based solution, Swarco MyCity www.mccain-inc.com
THE IMPRESSIVE BENEFITS OF A DATA-RICH ENVIRONMENT
Walk into virtually any traffic operations centre and you will be confronted by people flipping between different screens and CCTV monitors, and individually viewing a large number of stand-alone applications to try to understand a comprehensive picture of their live traffic, weather, incident, and snow conditions from these disparate sources.
That’s not the case at Colarodo DOT.
Thanks to a partnership with Esri, CDOT now has a system, underpinned by the Esri ArcGIS solution, that facilitates information from many sources and providers to be brought together seamlessly in a single place.
quickly via common browsers and applications. These offer unprecedented levels of detail.
The resultant, tightly integrated and extremely rich information source can then be accessed and viewed simply and
For instance, this innovative development gives CDOT not only a state-wide view, but one that drills down into individual incidents, or helps them more effectively manage traffic and snow removal during winter
conditions. In addition to the weather and road condition data, CDOT can see the location of every individual snow plough in real-time; understand if they have their blades up or down; how much material they are currently spreading; all delivered to the comprehensive operational dashboard.
Individuals with the appropriate permissions can draw upon, use, add to or otherwise influence information from right across an organisation - not just that generated or owned by their own departments. The consequent removal of institutional barriers results in across-the-board performance improvements and significant operational savings.
Additionally, business decisions over when and where to invest in infrastructure maintenance and improvement can now be led by the head and not the gut.
ITS International ran a full feature on the development and results of the partnership between CDOT and Esri which can be read at https://www. itsinternational.com/its7/feature/ colorado-dot-locates-data-richenvironment www.esri.com
Strain Gauge STRIP SENSORS
Keeping our ITS community connected in 2020
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and Reed Exhibitions are excited to launch their 2020 virtual event series for the ITS World Congress community –ITS World Congress All- Access. This digital education event series which begins next week (September 16 – October 8) will be an immersive experience delivering interactive education sessions, discussion groups, recommended content, solutions and case studies, a knowledge and resources centre, vendor solutions and other online opportunities to connect our global community of intelligent transportation leaders and influencers – all accessible on demand.
ITS World Congress All-Access will explore relevant and timely industry topics such as intelligent, connected and automated vehicles, equity and accessibility, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), incentivising people to move differently, Mobility on Demand/MaaS, cybersecurity, best practices for utilising data, sustainability, workforce, traffic management, safety, customer experience, pandemic impacts on transportation and more! The ITS America events team is committed to ensuring that our global community of intelligent transportation leaders are able to convene virtually to connect, discuss the latest trends in the industry and be at the forefront of recovery and innovation as we all prepare for 2021.
“We are disappointed not to gather in person, but the spirit of innovation to solve transportation challenges is more important than ever right now. Join us for this virtual engagement to learn from prominent leaders about how they are using technology to solve challenges during this difficult time,” said Shailen Bhatt, president and CEO, ITS America.
“While the circumstances this year are unique and challenging for everyone running organised events, we are enthusiastic about the opportunities to engage digitally to provide strong education and training, to connect global ITS professionals for discussions and meet ups, and to chart the course for 2021 events to be conducted in a safe and healthy environment. Together the industry will create momentum for the new era of mobility and transportation technology,” said Will Wise, group VP, Reed Exhibitions. "Educational programming remains a
core element of the overall ITS America Events experience, which is why ITS World Congress All-Access is offering the ITS community vital information on the industry’s newest and most relevant technologies and solutions,” said Jaime McAuley, event director, Reed Exhibitions. The programme includes five core themes: Seamless Mobility and Changing Behavior; Disruption on the Digital Highway: Data; Intelligent, Connected and Automated Vehicles; Sustainable Transportation; and Planning for the Future Transportation Ecosystem.
"ITS World Congress All-Access is offering the ITS community vital information on the industry’s newest and most relevant technologies and solutions"
Jaime McAuley, event director, Reed Exhibitions
ITS World Congress All-Access will also offer other educational opportunities, such as a State DOT Roundtable on safety, networking chat rooms, MOD/MaaS workshops, City DOT discussion on equity, high profile keynote speakers and fireside chats.
In addition to the educational opportunities in the form of webinars, keynotes and roundtables, ITS World Congress All-Access will allow intelligent transportation professionals to source new vendor solutions, technologies and innovations. The ITS World Congress All-Access Knowledge Center will include vendor solution showcase pages and a sponsor directory.
The vendor solution showcases are customised with sponsors’ featured content, such as white papers, case studies, eBooks, presentations, press kits, videos and other engaging and helpful information for attendees. Participating sponsors include Econolite, International Road Dynamics (IRD), OTT HydroMet, Syntony, Bosch Security Systems, Cubic Transportation
Systems, Kapsch TrafficCom and more.
All ITS World Congress All-Access educational live sessions are complimentary. If attendees are interested in the content on demand, they may purchase a premium pass for $95, which grants access to the entire library of content as well as past webinars and networking events. Members of ITS America, sponsors, speakers, non-profits, academia, public
Session Highlights: A sampling of available sessions
Seamless mobility and changing behaviour:
• Transit rethink: How does transit adapt to a future that includes on-demand services?
• Accessibility for all: Addressing transportation gaps
• The role of transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) in Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS): New perspectives on fully integrated mobility marketplaces
• Equity can’t wait
• Does MaaS contribute to sustainable transportation?
Disruption on the Digital Highway: Data:
• What do I do with roadside data?
• Safety is job one
• Novel data sources and efficiency metrics for the new age of mobility
• Getting beyond data distraction: How data is driving mobility outcomes
• Accelerate cooperative driving automation (CDA) deployment with open source software for ITS (OSS4ITS)
Sustainable Transportation:
• Pathways toward fully-electric vehicle fleets
• Mobility energy productivity implications of shared, connected, and automated vehicles
Intelligent, Connected and Automated Vehicles:
• SOS--save our Spectrum -- the 5.9 GHz band and V2X
• Automated bus consortium programme
• AV shuttles in the US – Lessons learned from planning to deployment
• Freight ports and crossings
• Cooperative driving automation (CDA): The latest in US research, resources, and findings for global improvements in safety and mobility
Planning for the Future Transportation
Ecosystem:
• Safety potential of cooperative automation technologies
• Infrastructure readiness for cooperative automated transportation
• How the workforce of the future is being developed – a NOCoE Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) awards story
• Are you prepared? Perspectives to consider when transforming to fully connected mobility.
• Building our workforce to deploy ITS
agencies and Transportation Tech Leaders Program members are eligible to receive complimentary premium passes.
The ITS America Events team put together a few tips to help attendees get ready for the virtual event and maximise their experience. These include logging in a few minutes early to familiarise yourself with the platform; check out the knowledge centre and see what's planned for the event; identify sessions you want to join and decide which registration option is best for you; check out the programme schedule for topic areas; spend some time in the knowledge centre to see the vendor solution pages and explore more content, webinars and innovations; and participate in session Q&As and join the virtual networking events and chat rooms.
Be sure to participate in the digital education series to learn about advancements, research and innovative ways to deploy intelligent transportation technologies that save lives, improve mobility, and promote sustainability while increasing efficiency and productivity.
For more information on ITS America Events, please visit www.itsamericaevents.com
To see more information and a programme schedule for ITS World Congress All-Access, please visit www.itsamericaevents.com/ its-all-access/en-us.html
About ITS America
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America advances the research and deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility, promote sustainability, and increase efficiency and productivity. Our vision is a better future transformed by intelligent mobility: safer, greener, smarter. For more information, please visit www.itsa.org.
Experts in traffic enforcement technologies, PARIFEX develops fixed and mobile systems using the most advanced and innovative technologies. Its latest creation offers the most comprehensive traffic monitoring solution in one single light equipment
A look back and a look forward - ITS and critical infrastructure
The transportation and critical infrastructure sectors have always interested Will Wise, Group VP - ITS America Events / Reed Exhibitions, and the ITS community impresses him.
In my 30-year career in technology events and media, the transportation and broader critical infrastructure sectors have always been important personally to me - very interesting to monitor for business trends, societal change and evolution, and to help stimulate market innovation and collaboration.
Across working in the software development, embedded systems, Internet of Things (IoT), and IT/Network/Wireless infrastructure markets, more recently physical security; cyber security; digital payment solutions/e-commerce; drones and advanced vehicle technologies; and now a deep dive focus on the ITS sector – one of the ongoing opportunities and challenges is to balance product design and use case deployments amidst the need for reliability and safety. It often is a fine and tricky balance between innovation and disruption and the need for scalable and secure systems. Sometimes overlooked is the need for both technical integration and people/cross functional teams’ integration, and the factor of organisational and societal “readiness”.
Speaking to this, an element of the ITS sector that I am very impressed with is the sense of community, purpose and responsibility, coordination across public
"Our ITS America Events team is excited about now and the future"
Will Wise, Group VP - ITS America Events / Reed Exhibitions
and private sector entities, as well as an open discussion of technical and leadership/ strategic objectives - while ensuring a commercially strong economic sector. I experienced this dynamic first-hand as an attendee at the ITS America 2019 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, and at the ITS World Congress Singapore 2019. These attributes are guiding principles for my Reed Exhibitions team working with
About Reed Exhibitions
Will Wise, a Group VP at Reed Exhibitions, is responsible for ITS America Events, ISC Security Events, and Gaming/ Hospitality and Ecommerce sector events.
Reed Exhibitions is a leading global events business. It combines faceto-face with data and digital tools to help customers
ITSA and the ITS partnering associations around the world as we produce top-quality events/conferences and enable yearround education and connections. Our ITS America Events team is excited about now and the future. With the ITS World Congress All-Access virtual education series kicking off next week, ITS America 2021 in Atlanta, the ITS World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles, and ITS America 2023 in Dallas, planning and strategy is all full speed ahead for success.
Amidst all the forward-thinking dynamics, we are all in the middle of massive disruption and stress and need to reimagine a lot of what and how we do things during this pandemic era. This presents a lot of uncertainty, strain on budgets, and political change and discourse while at the same time putting the need for full transparency and creativity on the front burner. This is a major opportunity for leadership across our ITS community as urban planning and cities are re-designed, intermodal innovations and efficiencies evolve, equity in transportation is addressed head on, emerging technologies are responsibly embraced, and with sustainability goals and plans starting to be seen as doable vs. merely concepts - all while keeping safety, security and quality of life as the top priorities.
learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 500 events in almost 30 countries across 43 industry sectors, attracting more than seven million participants.
Reed events, organised by 35 global offices, leverage industry expertise, large data sets and technology to enable
its customers to generate billions of dollars of revenues for the economic development of local markets and national economies around the world.
Reed Exhibitions is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. www.reedexhibitions.com
Tire Anomaly & Classification System
Seamless integration with IRD’s weigh station software
VectorSense™ tire sensors provide 3-D data from tire footprints
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Millions of vehicles screened and thousands of violations detected
They get smooth-flowing traffic.
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You get safety alerts and data to maximize mobility.
Bosch empowers you to build a safer transportation ecosystem with analytics-driven video solutions.
Bosch intelligent IP cameras enable video as a sensor technology that delivers automatic incident detection and data on roadway usage and traffic flow for better highway and urban infrastructure planning.
The Tire Anomaly and Classification System (TACS™) screens and identifies commercial vehicles which are unsafe due to missing or underinflated tires.
Covid-19 and transportation: Maintaining critical operations in times of crisis
In response to Covid-19, transit and transportation leaders are rethinking resiliency, which is no longer just about having a backup facility. Transportation agencies need to prepare to operate networks safely and efficiently to support essential workers in a disaster-type scenario. Phil Silver, transportation leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the premier sponsor of the ITS World Congress All-Access, talks about how Covid-19 is impacting transit and transportation along with what resiliency looks like for these agencies going forward.
QWhat were the major impacts of Covid-19 on transportation?
AAt the peak of the shutdowns, passenger use of airports and mass transit was down 90 per cent. Use of roads by private vehicles was 60 per cent lower and use of commercial vehicles was down 10 per cent. Public transit was down 76 per cent and had to keep operating to get essential workers to their places of employment.
In transportation, volume equals revenue. Less fuel consumed means less gas tax collected. Fewer trips mean lost revenue for tollways. Airports depend on revenue from parking, retail sales, and airline landing fees. Just because there are fewer
airplanes flying to an airport doesn’t mean airport costs go down. Similarly, roads and bridges still need to be maintained. All the capital costs associated with operating these agencies continue. You can’t close an operations centre and tell employees to come back when the pandemic is over. Our transportation networks must be up 100 per cent of the time. At the same time, transportation agencies and authorities must keep employees safe and healthy. Organisations are turning to the cloud to meet these needs.
QWhat are some of the challenges transportation agencies face around remote work?
AEmployees who require highperformance computing systems often can’t easily operate in a remote environment. Computer-intensive systems for heavy engineering, computer-aided design, and computer-aided engineering applications typically do not function well in a traditional virtualised or VPN environment.
Going forward, we will need to make sure we have technology and networks in place to enable the people who manage critical activities using high-performance computing systems to work from more than one location.
Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC), an organisation that maintains and operates
"Our transportation networks must be up 100 per cent of the time. At the same time, transportation agencies and authorities must keep employees safe and healthy. Organizations are turning to the cloud to meet these needs"
Phil Silver, transportation leader at AWS
"The cloud enables mission-critical applications to be accessed from any location. It makes it simpler for agencies to support new public health and safety technologies and capabilities. It removes the heavy lifting that on-premises infrastructures require and allows agencies to control costs"
four tunnels and 51 miles of highway in Virginia, was able to do this with the cloud. ERC migrated its customer relationship management (CRM) and tolling backoffice systems to AWS to manage the approximately 250,000 monthly toll invoices and the 1,000 calls it receives each day. These services made it simple for call centre employees to transition to a remote working environment and access the appropriate VPN tools and security in any location.
QHow will transportation agencies need to adapt to protect the health of transit operators and passengers going forward?
AThey will need to reduce risk and do everything they can to reassure workers and the public that airports, bus terminals, rail hubs, subway stations, seaports, ferries, and more are safe. To do that, many transportation agencies are already exploring how to use touchless, voice-enabled screening and artificial intelligence-driven thermal triage systems to screen passengers and employees before they enter critical facilities.
Parsons Corporation, an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, is an example of this, with its new DetectWise health screening solution. These types of systems can go a long way toward restoring confidence in the safety of the transportation system.
QHow can the cloud help the transportation system become more resilient?
AThe cloud enables mission-critical applications to be accessed from any location. It makes it simpler for agencies to support new public health and safety technologies and capabilities. It removes the heavy lifting that on-premises infrastructures require and allows agencies to control costs. The AWS Cloud also makes disaster recovery and business continuity more accessible and enables fast recovery of data.
Transit agencies, municipal departments of transportation, airports, and seaports will generally just have one single point of failure. States like Florida, New York, and California have enabled multiple regional traffic
management centres to provide for failover in a disaster recovery scenario. Finally, the cloud enables cross-jurisdictional data sharing so government organisations can better deploy limited resources. Overall, it’s about building resiliency into our systems, and the cloud does that extremely well. Going forward, transportation agencies of all types need that kind of resiliency so they can keep operating, regardless of the type of disaster they may face.
About AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Worldwide Public Sector helps government, education, and non-profit customers deploy cloud services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies, and increase innovation across the globe. With AWS, you only pay for what you use, with no up-front physical infrastructure expenses or long-term commitments.
For further information, visit www.aws.amazon.com/stateandlocal/
Jenoptik‘s Civil Security is making the world safer with advanced security solutions. We capture, analyse and act against public safety threats such as serious organised crime and border control violations through the use of real-time predictive data analysis.
We specialize in:
• Vehicle Identification
• Person Identification
• Driver Behaviour Detection
• Big Data Analysis
• Data Processing
We turn data into knowledge.
www.jenoptik.com/civil-security
Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter and get more information about JENOPTIK Light & Safety
MULTIPLE OIML R134 APPROVALS FOR INTERCOMP
In further OIML R134 certifications for the company’s scales and sensors, Intercomp has announced it has received OIML R134 certification for its LS630-WIM scales. Operating in pairs, these scales provide wheel, axle, axle group, and gross vehicle weights (GVW), and are capable of communicating wirelessly to indicators or software.
Manufacturing scales and sensors at its global headquarters in Medina, USA, Intercomp is demonstrating its dedication to providing the highest quality certified products for providing vehicle weights. Based on highly accurate strain gauge technology, Intercomp’s OIML R134 certified products now
include strip sensors at low and high speeds, LS-WIM (weighin-motion) axle scales at low speeds, and now the LS630WIM scale. The latter two are NTEP certified in static mode within the US, and join the
LP788 portable low-profile scale which is OIML R76 certified for static weighing.
Recognising the advancement of uses and acceptance of WIM throughout the world, Intercomp points out that it
continues to create certified products for fixed and portable uses, with static, low-speed and high-speed weighing devices available for integration into WIM systems. www.intercompcompany.com
RTMS Echo uses per-vehicle data to create an understanding of your roadways. The data collected helps deliver insights needed to meet your agency’s objectives and gather the information you need to make informed decisions about your roadways.
To learn more about the value of per-vehicle data in the RTMS Echo, visit: marketing.imagesensing.com/per-vehicledata
Video-as-a-Sensor technology for intelligent infrastructure solutions
As street and sidewalk congestion and connected vehicle use increases, city planners and traffic engineers face new issues. The challenge to choose technology solutions that can assist today and adapt as autonomous vehicles take to the road is quite complex, as Bosch points out.
IP cameras with built-in video analytics have the capability to act as video sensors in ITS solutions. According to Bosch, these intelligent devices enable detection and monitoring solutions that provide realtime alerts to safety risks while gathering roadway usage information to provide insights for data-driven decisionmaking.
These video sensors can
deliver automatic incident detection and verification for slow or stopped vehicles, queues at exit ramps, vehicles travelling the wrong way, objects in the road, and other traffic events. By communicating with highway information solutions, the cameras can trigger notifications to drivers to improve situational awareness. This technology enables automated triggers to dynamic message signs, beacons, and DSRC broadcast messages for smart vehicles to alert drivers to safety issues. It also enables early incident detection and mitigation by
enabling traffic operations centres to implement workflows to resolve road irregularities faster.
This same technology can also enable solutions that enhance the safety of intersections and pedestrian crossings, including detection of pedestrians in a crosswalk to alert the traffic controller to preempt traffic signals to increase safety as well as broadcast messages to smart vehicles alerting them to the presence of pedestrians.
According to Bosch, from improving traffic flow to pedestrian safety initiatives, and more, Video-as-a-Sensor technology enables a range of solutions to meet the needs of city planners and senior traffic engineers worldwide. www.bosch.com
Q-FREE TO UPGRADE LARGEST FREE-FLOW TOLLING OPERATION IN PORTUGAL
In a major coup for the company, Q-Free has announced it has been awarded a contract to upgrade nearly 100 free-flow tolling locations along 500km of four major highways in Northern Portugal. The network is the largest tolling operation of its kind in the country. The award underlines Q-Free’s longstanding ethos of strong ongoing relationships and active support for its customers: the company designed the original installation between 2009 and 2011 and has maintained it ever since.
The award was made by toll road operator Ascendi, in collaboration with Infrastructures of Portugal (IP), the nation’s government highways agency.
Luis Miranda, Q-Free’s VP of western and southern
Europe, puts the contract into perspective. “It was over a decade ago that we designed and installed a state-of-the-art tolling system and we have maintained
it ever since to the customer’s satisfaction. Nevertheless, for the contract renewal, there was a competitive bid, which we won.
Oriux innovation provides impressive results for Minneapolis LRT
The city of Minneapolis wanted to reduce delays caused at traffic intersections from repeated light rail transit (LRT) preemptions and also to eliminate stops between LRT stations. The transit authority turned to Oriux, the evolution of Peek Traffic, to find a solution. The company applied innovation to develop and deploy a customised solution.
Results were immediate and impressive.
Former wait times to service a phase movement were recorded as high as 11 minutes. After deployment, maximum wait times are about four minutes. Also, LRT travel time was reduced by one minute, allowing the transit agency to
remove one train set from daily operation.
“The ultimate solution involved a unique combination of features in GreenWave, Oriux’s Linux-based local intersection software, including LRT preemption, peer-to-peer logic, pedestrian overlaps and transit signal priority (TSP),” says Gustavo de la Pena, VP of sales, Oriux.
Peer-to-peer logic and TSP work in conjunction with time-of-day signal coordination plans to allow trains to move from station-to-station without stopping in between. When trains are not present, TSP allows extra green time to be given to non-transit vehicle phases and extra walk time to be
given to pedestrian movements.
“The system is monitored on Oriux's Spinnaker ATMS software by both city traffic staff and transit staff, giving complete visibility of real-time operations and historical logs for maximum civic benefit,” says de la Pena, adding that the powerful TSP logs in Oriux's GeenWave software provide transit agencies with a clear understanding of the impact of TSP events on general traffic.
Oriux says its GreenWave features the most advanced light rail train preemption and transit signal priority in the market and is the preferred traffic controller by many of the major transit agencies in North America. www.oriux.com
a highly competitive market, our technology, and support for our customers, has continued to evolve and remains state-of-
The upgrade will encompass virtually all components along the network of triple-gantry toll charging stations, using faster DSRC sensors, smaller lasers, the company’s advanced VRE700 higher resolution cameras hardware. The new solutions will extend the life and increase functionality of the tolling network dramatically. “We are confident the installations will meet and surpass their expectations,” said Miranda.
Q-Free’s Portugal offices in Lisbon and Porto will handle the upgrade and full deployment is expected to be completed by 2022.
TAKE BACK CONTROL
Getting the optimal performance from your network is the role of operations. With Esri’s location intelligence, bring together real-time information from disparate sources to help you keep your system operating at peak performance. You need technology that
■ Gives you a single, comprehensive view of your network, integrating your sensors; cameras; and weather, traf c, and construction data for real-time situational awareness.
■ Brings greater actionable intelligence to your traf c operations center.
■ Helps you understand and analyze your traf c patterns to plan for future growth.
Learn how you can take back control and tackle your mobility challenges using Esri technology.
go.esri.com/take-control
Parsons iNET next-gen advanced transportation management system
The Parsons Intelligent NETworks (iNET) Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) is working around the clock for dozens of transportation agencies worldwide; has received 10 local, national or international awards in the last six years; and is currently deploying for some of the most advanced application use cases around.
New, innovative iNET deployments include fuzzy logic based mainline metering for the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge; management of sea and land port operations for Port of Oakland; implementation of the connected vehicle bus on shoulder (BOS) operations in San Diego; as well as implementation of
the latest integrated corridor management (ICM) solution in New York. New iNET traffic signal systems modules have been successfully implemented in locations like London, Vancouver, Toronto, Macau, Halifax and Mississauga.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Parsons ATMS solutions are enabling highperforming remote operations via the company’s virtual transportation management centre (VTMC) capabilities for nearly 20 agencies.
With six newly developed modules, iNET supports traffic prediction, event prediction using machine learning, voice driven assistance using artificial intelligence, connected vehicle applications, edge computing, on-board video analytics, big data and a new data analytics platform. The solution supports all key active traffic management (ATM) strategies including variable speed limits, queue warning, dynamic lane management, hard shoulder running, reversible lanes and adaptive ramp metering.
The 2019 International Road Federation (IRF) award for implementing reversible express lanes in Atlanta is just another example of the innovation and excellence of iNET. www.parsons.com
3D-LIDAR ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGY FIRST FOR PARIFEX
To meet French road enforcement department needs to maintain the control effort on vehicles and motorised two-wheelers, while significantly increasing offender detection rates, Parifex has developed the Vigie doublesided interception fixed radar. The company says this is the first stationary speed enforcement system using 3D-Lidar technology.
As part of a programme to modernise its national radar installation base, the French department wanted to deploy digital speed control devices with simultaneous shots of the front and rear of the infringing vehicle, within a single, roadside device.
The Vigie double-sided 3D-Lidar unit which Parifex developed has a tracking feature
and is able to take front and rear photos of vehicles and motorcycles. This means that it can obtain both the face of the driver and the licence plate. Having front and rear shots of an offending vehicle significantly improves offender prosecution rates.
Parifex says that this cutting-edge technology enables it to offer a range of other applications for smart cities and connected and autonomous vehicles. Indeed, the company has developed ITS systems allowing vehicle identification, red light running detection, automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR), intelligent counting, as well as a range of other applications using 3D-Lidar technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI),
including machine learning techniques. Moreover, Parifex is currently taking part in autonomous vehicle tests by providing a tracking solution, for instance located on a roundabout, that can monitor vehicles, and even pedestrians
or other vulnerable road users. Since the system is able to calculate speed and distance for each object it observes, it can autonomously transmit critical safety information to connected vehicles.
www.parifex.com
Loops just aren’t cutting it anymore.
Don’t rely on yesterday’s technology for today’s safety applications.
When safety is critical, our Flex sensors are stepping up to do the job; whether it be touchless crossings for bicyclists and pedestrians, activating warning signs for motorists at dangerous junctions, or enabling dynamic speed limits on highways.
Agencies around the world are discovering how our sensors can be used for more innovative traffic safety applications that cannot be solved effectively with traditional loops. And because they’re wireless, they can be installed further away from power and detect what loops cannot.
Simply put, it’s time to replace your loops. And we can help.
IRD’s TACS screens vehicles for unsafe tyres
IRD’s Tire Anomaly and Classification System (TACS) is an innovative technology that identifies potentially dangerous tyre anomalies before accidents occur. Tyre anomalies are conditions such as underinflated, flat, missing or mismatched tyres. These tyre problems can result in vehicle imbalance, reduced maneuverability, improper load distribution, reduced braking performance, poor fuel economy, and reduced tyre life. Pavement damage can also result from increased loads on tyres when adjacent tyres are flat or mismatched in size.
Agencies responsible for commercial vehicle inspection and enforcement have implemented TACS to carry out pre-screening for tyre problems
in advance of inspection stations. In this application, TACS is used similarly to weigh-in-motion (WIM) to identify vehicles with safety issues and flag them for enforcement, while allowing safe vehicles to bypass inspection. These agencies have found TACS to be an effective solution for identifying vehicles with tyre problems that are sufficiently serious to place unsafe vehicles out of service. TACS may be integrated into existing weigh station management software so that inspectors can see exactly which tyres to examine.
Industry is also interested in tyre safety screening. Damaged tyres lead to breakdowns, expensive roadside repairs and increased costs due to freight delays. TACS is capable of screening at highway speeds,
so it is well suited to use in scenarios where the drivers of commercial vehicles are alerted when tyre problems are identified. IRD has supplied
TACS for a number of systems that use message signs to warn drivers of underinflated tyres that could pose a safety risk. www.irdinc.com
TDS KEEPS TRAFFIC AUTHORITIES IN THE LOOP
Traffic Data Systems (TDS) is showcasing its latest development in the field of loop-based traffic monitoring and classification systems.
The first deliveries to customers of the new TMCS-IP, which works across up to eight lanes and uses a continuous measuring process, are due this month.
The German firm says it is currently the only manufacturer with a valid Federal High Research Institute (BASt) certification with the highest accuracy class (A1) and feeder cables of up to 300m.
Even though there are more modern detecting technologies, none have reached the quality level of loop-based detectors, says TDS CEO Florian Weiss.
“Some of our staff have more than 50 years’ experience in
developing and manufacturing such traffic counters and classifiers,” he says.
The TMCS-IP is supplied in a solid all-aluminium enclosure with the same degree of protection against dust and water (IP67) as the company’s OIML R134-1 certified Weigh in Motion system – and in fact, the company’s WIM experience has been used to develop the hardware and software for the TMCS-IP, Weiss explains. TMCS-IP can be upgraded to a WIM system if required.
The TMCS-IP can be connected to a field bus modem for top-hat-rail mounting via an RS232 connector, operated as an EAK (loop detection and classification unit) on a control module via an RS485 interface. It can also communicate with a TLS central control room via the integral modem or ethernet
interface using TLS-over-IP.
“The eight real-time detector modules for double loops provide precise and reproducible vehicle signatures (pattern recognition) and are used as a basis for traffic volume detection speed measurement and vehicle classification,” Weiss says.
This enables a large number
of adjacent loops to be operated without faults occurring due to the shared use of lead-in cables. Fixed loop frequencies, which are arranged in a narrow channel spacing of the permissible frequency band, are used.
www. traffic-data-systems.com
Island Radar develops blocked rail crossing detection system
detection system with Federal Rail
the Island Radar Vehicle Detection
Central to the system is a nonintrusive sensor that identifies and holds the detection of a stopped train at a crossing. Through contact closure relays, the Island Radar Blocked Crossing Detection system alerts message signs located at junctions and intersections, in advance of the crossing, allowing motorists the opportunity to reroute themselves. More importantly, this information enables improved route planning by traffic operations centres that can improve routing of emergency first responders in medical emergencies.
The Island Radar Blocked Crossing Detection system is proving to be the safe, smart, and simple choice for providing advanced traveller information at blocked railroad crossings. www.islandradar.com
Redefining Transport Management
At Cubic, we believe that to take the right path, you sometimes have to create it. That’s why we’re working to bridge the gap between traditional traffic, tolling and transport management technologies and deliver a single seamless ITS offering that delivers actionable insights to enable the optimization of transport and drive mobility as a service. Through linking all modes of public and private transport, with data from road sensors, traffic lights, intersections and more, we’re helping agencies enhance their situational awareness and deliver more seamless journeys to all road users.
Intelligient Travel Made Real.
How Jenoptik ANPR technology helps limit the spread of Covid-19
The ongoing spread of Covid-19 poses serious challenges to authorities around the world. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology has proved to be an effective tool to support authorities in their duties to control borders and prevent the entry of infected persons.
In Western Australia, a state of emergency was declared in March and extended in August 2020 under the Emergency Management Act as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Strict border controls were put into place to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Western Australia and keep communities safe. In order to support border control authorities, Jenoptik Vector cameras were installed at several Covid-19 road checkpoints along the Western Australian border. These
data back to the TraffiData back-office software and cross referencing these against a daily updated list of known Covid-19 patients. If a hit is received,
can then react instantly and deal with the person who triggered the alert.
This customised ANPR solution by Jenoptik has
database of current infections and has thereby enabled them to effectively reduce the spread of Covid-19. www.jenoptik.com
THE ROLE OF SMART CITY TECHNOLOGIES IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
The fight against Covid-19 has brought change and a new way of life for many citizens across global cities. As a result of public transport restrictions and social distancing requirements, there have been significant increases in the number of pedestrians, cyclists, and private cars on our roads. This has created many new challenges, as cities that previously relied on public transport must now adapt to accommodate more vulnerable road users.
While educating road users on road safety remains critical, technology application can also allow cities to better respond to traffic flow and allow the proper amount of green time for cyclists and pedestrians. By harnessing the power of data
analytics and machine learning, new technologies including Cubic’s Gridsmart system are helping cities around the world to adapt.
Gridsmart, a complete omnidirectional-imaging, realtime computer vision product,
works with traffic controllers to actuate intersections for cars, bikes, and pedestrians to help improve safety. Cubic’s Gridsmart is now being installed in the Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem (AIMES) as part of an innovative new
project with the University of Melbourne.
Cubic’s Transport Management Platform (TMP) is another, award-winning technology that is already installed in the AIMES. It uses testbed sensors to gather data from public, private and active transport, which can be used to reduce congestion and improve traffic patterns.
Cubic recognises its responsibility to work with governments, education providers, city planners, transport operators, and technology providers to ensure that road users are kept safe. The company is inviting readers to check out its Roadmap for Resilience for more detailed information.
www.cubic.com/projectrebound
ORIUX - Technology innovator of Intelligent Transportation Systems, providing the world with safer roads and better mobility.
The ultimate sensor in ITS.
Transforming data into intelligence
With traffic management centers constantly working to keep traffic moving safely and efficiently, there is an ongoing intense pressure to meet the challenges of the road. Did you know you can leverage the power of your networked devices to provide valuable insight? By combining the high-quality video from IP cameras with ITS-specific applications, the camera can become the ultimate sensor in ITS, working to turn raw data into useful intelligence. This gives TMC’s a real-time advantage to understand what’s happening on the road.
Download the free eBook to learn about the IP camera as the ultimate sensor: www.axis-communications.com/ultimate_traffic_sensor
www.axis.com/traffic
RTMS ECHO UNLOCKS POWERFUL DATA
Image Sensing Systems has announced that the new RTMS Echo unlocks the power of per-vehicle data by providing extremely accurate, eye-opening data, which helps gain new insights, optimise decisions and realise results. Data is the key source to fuelling new insights and the results from those insights impact agency core directives.
As communities continue to flourish and grow, traffic and congestion levels increase on roadways creating stress on infrastructure, impacting roadway safety, efficiency, and producing environmental concerns. In order to
prevent congestion, delays, and potentially dangerous situations for drivers, transportation planners need accurate, reliable traffic data about the current conditions on their roadways. Image Sensing Systems says RTMS Echo is the key component to getting the data needed to provide drivers with safe, congestion-free roadways.
“The RTMS Echo creates traffic data that is an asset for roadway performance analysis rather than an obstacle,” said Seth Anderson, radar product manager for Image Sensing Systems. “Transportation professionals around the
world make important decisions every day that impact the effectiveness of our complex, multimodal transportations systems. With RTMS Echo, transportation professionals can be confident in the datadriven decisions they are making today, and into the future.”
The per-vehicle data accuracy of the RTMS Echo is industry-leading and can be easily formatted to deliver the insights needed
objectives. RTMS technology provides insightful and reliable data maximising existing infrastructure and optimising the safety and efficiency of every community.
www.imagesensing.com
MG Squared’s innovative mounts enhance CCTV maintainability
When an innovative solution to maintain cameras while minimising lane closures and bucket trucks on the new Tappan Zee Bridge, (formally known as the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge) was needed, MG Squared answered the call. Over 60 custom designed camera lowering devices are in operation on this remarkable structure, spanning the Hudson between Tarrytown and Nyack New York, just north of New York city. This project highlights, once again, how the team at MG Squared can improve surveillance camera maintainability while boosting camera efficiency and overall safety.
project is that it required three different mounting customisations that had never been done before anywhere in the world,” said Martin Maners, VP and general counsel - MG Squared. “The first unique application is an integrated
tower mounted lowering device. Cameras needed to be placed on the concrete superstructure of the bridge itself. However, how would they efficiently conduct maintenance on cameras on the
outside of the superstructure 125 ft (38m) above the water line?”
The MG Squared team worked with TZC to design a system where the winch box – the location where lowering and raising of
the camera takes place – was sited on a platform inside of the superstructure.
The second unique application is a gantry-mounted lowering device. MG Squared, innovated with 20 ft (6m) pole extensions that were built as separate add-ons to the gantry support structure. Utilising guide wires, the cameras can be lowered to hand holes where the operator is able to use the removable winch to operate the system.
The third unique application is a pole-mounted lowering device. However, the placement of the poles on pier caps, 20 ft (6m) below the bridge deck, required the winch mount hand hole to be elevated on par with the bridge deck level and with a 5 ft (1.5m) gap from the pole to where the operator stands. MG Squared designed and built a customised winch extension box to solve the problem.
www.mgsquared.com
Why the IP camera is the ultimate traffic sensor
coupled with AI accelerator chip technology, the IP camera is clearly a platform for growth for the ITS environment”.
Axis Communications, a leader in IP traffic solutions, has launched a new eBook called The Ultimate Traffic Sensor that discusses the benefits of using videobased solutions for traffic
management. The free eBook takes readers through the value of leveraging the power of networked devices, like the IP camera, to provide valuable insight to what’s happening on the road.
ECONOLITE
Anthony Incorvati, segment development manager for transportation at Axis, says: “In this new eBook, I explain why the IP camera is the ‘ultimate traffic sensor’. With the open nature of the camera now
The eBook explores how IP cameras are now powerful computers equipped with lenses and are no longer the simple image-capture devices that they once were. With the open platform from Axis, 3rd party developers, like Citilog and others, are enabled to create ITS-specific applications on the cameras, such as automatic incident detection, license plate recognition, or wrongway detection. Combine these analytics with high-quality video and you have the ultimate sensor working to turn raw data into useful intelligence.
Download the eBook to learn how network video-based solutions are the ultimate traffic sensor. This is a valuable resource and should be considered for anyone in ITS that is looking to gain a deeper understanding of how their sensors can play a key role in the traffic situations they manage. www.axis-communications. com/ultimate_traffic_sensor
RAISES THE INNOVATION BAR
BY INTRODUCING CENTRACS MOBILITY
Econolite introduces Centracs Mobility, a highly flexible cloud-based software solution platform, designed to provide added value and actionable information, augmenting the traffic management software toolset. The new software solution combines all the proven capabilities of Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS) currently deployed in over 325 agencies in North America, with the cloudbased data analytics of signal performance measures (SPM), signal timing optimisation, and real-time signal control.
Centracs Mobility’s flexible architecture enables cities and transportation agencies to custom tailor it for their specific
traffic control needs, maximising their investment. The solution can be easily integrated with the latest in sensor technologies and can be customised for any deployment level, delivering the highest levels of traffic management interoperability and automation.
“Centracs Mobility is truly the next-generation cloud-based traffic management software solution,” said Kirk Steudle, Econolite senior VP of systems. “Centracs Mobility was developed based on user-feedback and designed to address the dynamic traffic control needs of today’s data-driven roadway networks and smart city multimodal transportation environments.”
The foundation of Centracs
Mobility is the Centracs Essentials Suite, which includes the fundamental traffic data analytics, signal status and display, and automated traffic data reporting of Centracs SPM. Centracs SPM is the cloud-based highresolution traffic data collection and analytics platform based on advanced optimisation algorithms leveraging the Purdue Link Pivot analysis with Red and Green Occupancy Ratio. For existing
Centracs customers, Centracs Mobility can be deployed as a simple software upgrade. www.econolite.com
THE MOBILITY R-EVOLUTION: THE FIRST EVER VIRTUAL ITS EUROPEAN CONGRESS
Ertico – ITS Europe’s revolutionary Virtual ITS European Congress is coming! On 9-10 November 2020, Ertico will engage mobility pioneers and ignite debate in an innovative, safe and secure, as well as eco-friendly event – the first of its kind for the ITS community. Its revolutionary format will exploit all the advantages of a virtual setting and at the same time ensure the exchange of expertise, best practice and ideas.
The Virtual ITS European Congress offers the same benefits of a face-to-face congress except you can have everything with just one click: live streamed sessions, interviews, key presentations of the latest ITS trends, networking opportunities for meeting industry experts
and stakeholders, Q&A sessions and B2B meetings and a concept library that will be accessible to all participants.
Hosting the ITS Congress virtually means pushing forward the digital evolution already in progress throughout our society, inspiring further sustainable mobility and
Star Systems’ Tavos reader raises the bar for toll systems
Star Systems International recently introduced its Tarvos Integrated Reader which takes UHF RFID reader performance for electronic toll systems to a new level by providing best-inclass speed, read accuracy and reliability.
Tarvos also supports an additional high-performance antenna, providing additional flexibility in lane coverage.
Tarvos is designed for highdemand vehicle identification and tolling applications, with the ability to simultaneously run Multi-Protocol Applications. Tarvos’ unique capability of reading multiple protocols simultaneously, enables seamless integration with current infrastructure and legacy transponder base, providing
Tarvos supports Gen2V2 embedded crypto security along with ISO 18000-63 secure overthe-air communications channels for applications where security is a concern.
Designed with the user and programmer in mind, Tarvos
which provides easy integration into a variety of different applications.
Tarvos is designed and IP67 certified for rugged outdoor weather conditions
www.star-int.net
crisis with a positive and Bird rate before the 1st of
WORLD’S FIRST AND ONLY
OIML R134-certified low and high speed weigh-in-motion systems for enforcement and tolling applications
From 5 km / h to 120 km / h for HGVs (Heavy Goods Vehicles) and from 5 km / h to 140 km / h for LGVs (Light Goods Vehicles)
With only 3 rows of OIML-certified Lineas® sensors
Temperature range - 30 °C to + 75 °C with up to 85 % RH
Rugged design for harsh (hot and cold) environments
www.traffic-data-systems.com
Certified by:
Swiss Confederation
Federal Institute of Metrology METAS
Applied offers VRU safety at a Glance
Applied Information has launched a configurable Internet of Things (IoT) pedestrian crossing system which it says improves safety at mid-block crosswalks.
The base configuration features a pedestrian crossing sign with push-button activated flasher, IoT connectivity, knockdown detector, Glance remote monitoring and connection to the free TravelSafely smartphone app.
Additional features include a configurable message sign and radar-based driver feedback. Multiple units can be connected wirelessly for boulevard and traffic circle deployment. All options may be solar powered.
“Crosswalks should be a safe place for pedestrians, yet more than 500 people are killed each year using them in the US,” said Peter Ashley, vice president of business development for Applied, based in the US state of Georgia.
“Using a combination of technologies, the crossing creates an active safety zone that engages the pedestrians and drivers to be more alert.”
When the crossing is activated, alerts of approaching motorists are sent to TravelSafely, notifying drivers that pedestrians are on the crosswalk ahead.
The crossing’s radar detects if a vehicle is approaching the crosswalk at an unsafe
speed and provides an audible warning to pedestrians using the TravelSafely app.
The system also uses overthe-air software updates for uploading multiple flashing lights patterns and configuring the digital message sign.
Applied’s pedestrian crossing safety system is part of the Glance Smart City Supervisory platform, which enables cities to manage traffic and ITS assets on one web-based application.
Key product areas are smart traffic signals, school zone flashing beacons, emergency vehicle preemption, transit and freight priority and ITS systems. www.appinfoinc.com
ITS World Congress provides a unique opportunity to examine the latest innovative uses of traffic technology. One trend is the increased use of detection data - presence, volume, occupancy, and speed - to power dynamic information for drivers. And the benefits of this data go well beyond traffic information within mapping and navigation systems that are used by motorists to get to their destinations efficiently. This data can help save lives.
In Clinkum Bank, UK, wireless sensors provided by Sensys Networks are used to trigger warning signs about turning vehicles and stopped traffic ahead, reducing accidents at a junction with dangerously poor visibility.
Across other UK motorways, the widely-deployed MIDAS (Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling) system leverages real-time speed data from those same wireless sensors to set dynamic
WIRELESS SENSOR DATA IS SAVING LIVES
speed limits, reducing injury accidents by 13 per cent. And in Israel, sensors provide occupancy data, alerting traffic operations to potential accidents, which leads to improved emergency response times.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia employs speed enforcement systems powered by the wireless sensors in their roadways. Wireless sensors can also
pinpoint the precise instant vehicles enter intersections after a traffic signal has changed to red. As a result, the technology is used around the world to provide red light violation data and drive automated red light enforcement systems.
Now, the same wireless technology is being used for automatic bicycle and pedestrian detection at intersections, triggering
dynamic warning signs that alert motorists of vulnerable road users in potential blind spots, thus assisting agencies’ Vision Zero goals.
What all of these innovative systems have in common are wireless roadway sensors providing a level of real-time data and detection accuracy that is critical for such safety applications. www.sensysnetworks.com
Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Blocked crossing notification from Island Radar, making your journey smoother by avoiding life’s delays.
-Oliver Goldsmith
WORLD CONGRESS ALL-ACCESS
ITS World Congress ALL-ACCESS, an immersive digital education event series delivering interactive education sessions, discussion groups, live Q&As, recommended content, and vendor solution presentations in the form of case studies, keynotes and expert panels – all accessible on demand.
The ITS World Congress All-Access digital experience will explore connected and autonomous vehicles, mobility on demand, cybersecurity, best practices for utilizing data, and COVID-19 impacts on transportation, all contributing to a safer, greener, smarter future. The ITS America events team is committed to ensuring that our global community of intelligent transportation leaders are able to convene virtually to connect, discuss the latest trends in the industry and be at the forefront of recovery and innovation as we all prepare for 2021.
