March April 2026

March/April 2026 | www.itsinternational.com

International

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND URBAN MOBILITY

Kiwi routes Road user charging lessons from New Zealand

Also…

How the West was one – V2X connects three US states What’s keeping WiM experts up at night?

Georg Kapsch: ‘We’ve been dealing with AI for 50 years’

North AmericaEdition

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Contents

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March/April 2026

05 COMMENT

34 WEIGH IN MOTION We asked some WiM experts to speak freely and tell us what is worrying them and the answers may surprise you

06 NEWS DIGEST 08 CONTRACTS & DEALS

37 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 10 INTERVIEW

21

ITS veteran Georg Kapsch: “We are used to dealing with the ‘predecessors’ of AI: artificial intelligence is nothing new”

Emovis is helping to enhance customer service for drivers on Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise network

“In the V2X industry, there’s been this chicken-and-egg problem. We’re the chicken. We need to lay the egg.

Let’s get started...”

43 URBAN AIR MOBILITY

21 AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES We must ensure AVs fulfil their promise: not just as a technological marvel, but as a force for public good, says Henriette Cornet of Urban Innovate

27

24 ROAD SAFETY Red-light running and speed enforcement specialist Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions is now adding driverbehaviour prediction to its toolkit

27 INNOVATION Pairing analytical rigour with creativity and imagination begins to deliver meaningful improvements for customers, says HNTB’s Michael Inabinet

37

What if our roads could talk? AI is quietly transforming corridor safety and emergency response, says Simon Davidoff

40 TOLLING 14 V2X DEPLOYMENT

Drones have potential in logistics – but it may not be quite as simple as it appears: Beate Kubitz takes a look at the rules and regulations...

47 PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS

North AmericaEdition North America area only

NA 03 The marketplace model for

monthly parking has been scaled in North America under real-world conditions, says Josh Eisen of Spacer Technologies

31 ROAD USER CHARGING Authorities getting to grips with the ‘user pays’ principle should take a look at New Zealand’s 50-year old RUC system March/April 2026 | www.itsinternational.com

International

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT AND URBAN MOBILITY

NA 07 DoTs can bring evidence about

Cover story 50 not out Image:

Kiwi routes Road user charging lessons from New Zealand

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43 Follow us on Bluesky

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Also…

How the West was one – V2X in the US Georg Kapsch: ‘We’ve been dealing with AI for 50 years’ What’s keeping WiM experts up at night?

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North AmericaEdition

the effectiveness of safety measures and infrastructure improvements to elected officials and funding bodies, says Inrix’s Ahmed Darrat

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03

Next-gen Smart AI Laser 360° MOBILITY SOLUTIONS Trigger Vehicle classification Vehicle volume measurement MAIN FEATURES On-board AI Classification Fog immunity technology Based on Stark Platform

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art: donaldecompany.com

COMARK+ LASER

COMMENT

R TOGETHVEE!

WE MO

“THOSE WHO DRIVE THE MOST MUST PAY THE MOST”

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Editor Adam Hill Email: ahill@ropl.com Tel: +44 1322 612062 Sales Director Dan Emmerson Email: demmerson@ropl.com Tel: +44 1322 612068 Head of Digital Sarah Biswell Email: sbiswell@ropl.com Tel: +44 1322 612078 Staff Writer David Arminas

Design Team Simon Ward, Andy Taylder Data & Marketing Manager Alan Cansick Email: acansick@ropl.com Tel: +44 1322 612061 Office Manager Kelly Thompson Email: kthompson@ropl.com

“

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or countries all over the world, when it comes to the future funding of road infrastructure, there isn’t any other game in town except road user charging (RUC). There, I’ve said it.

Those who drive the most - and cause the most wear to roads – must pay the most, in exactly the same way that you would for any other utility.

This seems logical. Yet drivers (and I am one) seem to be a special case, both in our own minds and in the minds of our elected representatives. This means the political desire required to introduce RUC will be considerable. Politicians will need to make the case clearly and with enthusiasm to the public. The usual, dreary range of knee-jerk cheerleaders in the media and elsewhere will shout it down. The argument will be reduced by opponents to the infantile ‘war on motorists’ trope. It may be electorally poisonous.

But drivers – all of us - need to be educated. The technology is there for RUC. The money isn’t going to come from anywhere else. And if you want an example of how it might work, look south.

There isn’t any other game in town except road user charging

In 1977, New Zealand’s government introduced a per-kilometre charge based on weight and the RUC system was introduced to charge trucks.

Next year – half a century later – the plan is that a national RUC system will be ‘open for business’ in New Zealand. The government proposes extending it to all of the country’s 3.5 million light vehicles.

“You still pay for the roads – but you pay in a different, fairer way,” explained Chris

Publisher/ Managing Director Andrew Barriball Email: abarriball@ropl.com Tel: +44 1322 612057 CEO Roger Adshead Email: radshead@ropl.com Editorial Consultant Geoff Hadwick

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Bishop, New Zealand’s transport minister.

And it should also be straightforward: “Paying for RUC should be like paying a power bill online, or a Netflix subscription.”

On p31 of this issue of ITS International, you can read more from the speech he made at ITS UK’s RUC Conference. There’s a lot about the practical nuts and bolts of making it work, and the trade-offs that may be required. Allowing private providers to run the system is one potential flashpoint. But whatever you think, it is unarguable that fuel revenue is going down as take-up of electric, hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles goes up. Once again, roads need to be paid for if they’re going to be kept in a state that makes it possible to drive on them. Someone has to pay, and that someone is us. ITS

Adam Hill EDITOR

Have your say Email me at ahill@ropl.com

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ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

05

NEWS DIGEST

Singapore-based ST Engineering Urban Solutions signed a memorandum of understanding at Intertraffic Amsterdam with Swarco ITS, Umovity and Ouster to trial traffic controllers, sensors and emerging technologies under diverse traffic conditions. ST, along with Singapore's Land Transport Authority and A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research, is to set up a Living Lab to provide a real-world environment to test and evaluate solutions "to address the challenges of conventional traffic signal systems". ST's Agil Smart Digital Junction Suite uses edge processing and AI to optimise traffic signal timings based on real-time traffic conditions.

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Public transport users in the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria will temporarily be able to travel free in a bid to ease financial pressure as fuel prices rise due to the US and Israel's war on Iran. In Victoria, travel will be free statewide on trams, buses, trains, metro and V/Line from 31 March to

30 April; while in Tasmania bus riders and users of the Derwent River Ferry will not pay until 1 July. Victoria state premier Jacinta Allan insists: “This is a temporary measure to help with the cost of living.”

Bus drivers trained to prevent harassment The UK bus and coach industry has launched a national driver training programme - led by

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Australian states make mass transit free in response to Iran war

the Confederation of Passenger Transport - to help tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG). Research suggests that women are more likely than men to feel unsafe on public transport. The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee has just released a report which criticises ‘unacceptable levels’ of VAWG across London’s transport network. The CPT bus initiative aims to equip drivers with the awareness, confidence and practical tools to recognise, safely respond to and report incidents of harassment or violence.

Thessaloniki (Greece), Tartu (Estonia), and Eindhoven and Helmond (Netherlands).

The idea is to share ideas and technologies to reduce emissions, improve quality of life and respond to increasing mobility and energy demands within urban environments.

These include dynamic kerbside allocation, parking management, prioritisation of public transport and active

and shared mobility. The cities involved focus on large-scale deployment, integration and demonstration of solutions in real-world conditions.

TfL joins €16.4m CoreSpaces initiative

ITS World Congress 2027 to co-locate with Highways UK

Transport for London (TfL) is among a number of organisations cooperating in the €16.4 CoreSpaces programme which brings together 45 partner organisations from across 10 European cities including

Next year's ITS World Congress in Birmingham, UK, will be colocated with the Highways UK event at the NEC Birmingham, in adjoining exhibition halls.

The Congress will remain an international event, focusing

on ITS, mobility and policy; while Highways UK will address national priorities related to highways infrastructure, operations and procurement.

"The co-location creates additional value for visitors, delegates, exhibitors and partners by encouraging meaningful engagement across both events, while ensuring each retains its own identity and purpose,” says Joost Vantomme, CEO of Ertico - ITS Europe, which is hosting the Congress.

Mobilidata and Kodiak AI deals for Haas Alert Drivers in Belgium and in the US are now receiving safety messages on the road from Haas Alert in two separate developments. First off, drivers get real-time alerts from ambulances and fire trucks in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of northern Belgium.

Safety Cloud by Haas Alert has been integrated with Mobilidata, the public-private collaboration created by the Flemish government to enable real-time information sharing between road users, infrastructure and digital platforms. Meanwhile, Kodiak AI, a US provider of AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology, has integrated Safety Cloud into its autonomous trucking solution.

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Singapore Living Lab takes shape with new collab

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NEWS DIGEST

Quarterhill has signed a multiyear deal to handle New Jersey Department of Transportation's Weigh in Motion and trafficvolume system locations.

The company, which says it is broadening its Software as a Service portfolio across ITS applications, will provide maintenance, inspection, repair,

and data awareness solutions.

The deployment features the SecurOS Auto Hazardous Cargo module, which uses advanced licence plate recognition and placard decoding to identify vehicles carrying dangerous goods in real time.

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ISS monitors dangerous vehicles on Brazil's BR-101 Brazilian road concessionaire Arteris Litoral Sul is using ITS technology to monitor dangerous cargo and improve incident response on BR-101 highway. Brazil’s BR-101 is a critical logistics route connecting the cities of Itapema and Balneário Camboriú in the southern state of Santa Catarina. Arteris Litoral Sul has deployed SecurOS from ISS (Intelligent Security Systems), a provider of video intelligence

Star Systems transponders used for Thailand tolls

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calibration and installation oversight for around 95 WiM sites and 50 TVS sites across the US state. Quarterhill's remit includes maintenance and calibration of statewide trafficmonitoring systems; repairs and system upgrades to support reliable performance; support for traffic-data collection and reporting infrastructure; and installation oversight for monitoring equipment and sensors.

Hitachi takes control in Turin Hitachi Rail will incorporate its latest communications-based train control signalling system for the Rebaudengo–Politecnico section of Turin’s planned Metro Line 2. Hitachi was awarded a contract from the client InfraTO

Thailand, the systems integrator leading the M-Flow project as well as various tolling upgrades in the south-east Asian country.

Intertraffic announces Asia edition

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for a fully-automated metro system for the north-western Italian city, including all rolling stock. The total value of the deal is around €481.6 million.

In its final configuration, Line 2 will extend around 28km and will include 31 stations, with all vehicles being made entirely in Italy. The opening of the first section is planned by 2033.

Star Systems International has supplied transponders for a tolling operation in Thailand.

The Chara transponder is being used in the new M-Flow system, which seeks to switch Thailand from manual cash payments to electronic toll collection. “Toll tags are just as important as the roadside infrastructure,” says Star CEO Robert Karr.

“Without reliable transponders in every vehicle, even the most advanced gantry and detection system can’t perform at its full potential.” Star Systems is working with FETC International

Intertraffic is spreading its wings. The event’s organiser RAI Amsterdam - has announced the launch of Intertraffic Asia, with the first show to take place in Bangkok, Thailand.

The new event will run from 28-30 April 2027, and joins the established Intertraffic portfolio, alongside flagship events in Amsterdam, Mexico, and China. It is a response to Asia’s rapidly growing demand for smart, safe, and sustainable mobility solutions and the expansion is supported by a strategic partnership between RAI Amsterdam and VNU Asia Pacific, headquartered in Bangkok.

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Quarterhill to oversee New Jersey's WiM sites

Scaling up ITS pilots is a challenge - but without working out post-pilot funding, ownership and public engagement, you will be left with just "a really impressive science project". That was one of the key conclusions from an OnLogic webinar moderated by ITS International editor Adam Hill. The speakers were Sheldon Sun, VP product engineering, OnLogic, and Tony Abuta, Intel technologist - smart cities and intelligent transportation. They offered solutions for overcoming the hurdles agencies face when trying to scale up their pilot projects.

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Don't let your ITS pilot just be "a really impressive science project"

Search YouTube for ‘OnLogic Edge AI for Intelligent Transportation Webinar’

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CONTR ACT & DE AL S

NCTA launches I-485 real-time data pilot North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) is piloting Lanternn by Valerann on the I-485 Express Lanes around Charlotte, NC. Lanternn is an AI-enabled cloud platform which gathers and analyses real-time data from NCTA’s existing traffic camera network and navigation platforms, as well as third-party sources to build up a continuous picture designed to identify and verify on-the-road incidents quickly.

The pilot focuses on identifying roadway impacts such as crashes, stopped or slowed vehicles, pedestrians on the roadway, wrong-way drivers, and other problematic events that disrupt traffic flow.

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Swarco wins €24m Asfinag deal Swarco has won a long-term contract worth €24m with Austrian motorway operator Asfinag to upgrade messaging technology for the country’s motorists. Swarco Futurit, headquartered in Austria, will deliver and service up to 2,100 LED displays of various sizes over the next 10 years, with the first available from July this year. As part of the agreement, Swarco will also deliver replacement parts, maintenance, servicing and software over the next 25 years.

The plan is to expand Austria’s existing IG L system into a unified, modern platform with additional displays and sensors.

Tapco acquires MS2 Tapco has acquired transport data specialist MS2 (Midwestern Software Solutions). It's the latest buy by Tapco, which last year brought Logix ITS into its fold. MS2, a provider of traffic-count data and analytics software, says its cloud-based solutions are used by more than half of US state departments of transportation. In all, more than 250 state and municipal agencies, municipalities, counties and cities, are using its software to manage transportation data and assets, it adds. The firms suggest that together they offer a comprehensive North American ITS device and data platform.

Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions has grown its footprint in the Baltic region with the acquisition of an ITS business in Vilnius, Lithuania. Fima is a long-term partner of Jenoptik, and the two companies have worked over the last 15 years on traffic enforcement and tolling projects together in Latvia and Estonia, as well as Lithuania. With its Latvian subsidiary, Fima will mainly act as a regional sales, service and project management hub.

The companies' joint projects have included the introduction of the first average-speed installations in the Baltics and the implementation of a nationwide e-tolling system based on ANPR technology in Lithuania.

NoTraffic raises $90m to speed roll-outs Traffic management specialist NoTraffic has received $90 million in funding which allows it to scale operations across North America.

The company says it currently operates in more than 40 states and provinces across the US and Canada including metropolitan areas such as Houston, Phoenix and Oklahoma. It will now focus on accelerating roll-out while broadening its portfolio of softwarebased mobility applications. The Series C funding round was led by PSG Equity, along with M&G Investments, Grove Ventures, LifeX Ventures, Meitav Investment House, and Next Gear Ventures.

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Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) has received a $350 million boost to grow its driving risk assessment business. The massive investment is led by tech investor TPG and Allianz X (the investment arm of insurer Allianz), with participation from US insurer State Farm. Using driving data from vehicles, phones, and IoT devices helps insurers to identify risk and to tailor insurance policies accordingly. The investment will be used to scale CMT's global road-safety platform, advancing AI models for real-time driving risk assessment and crash detection.

Jenoptik acquires Lithuanian ITS business

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INTERVIEW

Georg Kapsch (right) with Samuel Kapsch (centre) and Adam Hill at this year’s Intertraffic Amsterdam

“WE’VE BEEN DEALING WITH AI FOR 50 YEARS: COMPUTING POWER NOW MAKES THE DIFFERENCE” Artificial intelligence – we’ve been here before, says Georg Kapsch. Adam Hill sat down with him to find out more about what part is a buzzword and what part is real change…

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eorg Kapsch has been CEO of Kapsch Group, including Kapsch TrafficCom for more than two decades. He has seen his fair share of ‘hot topics’ in intelligent transportation during that time. So where does he see the current vogue for artificial intelligence taking the ITS industry…

for society. Because, of course, from a technology perspective, it is fascinating, it is great, it’s amazing - and to apply it in our products and our services will support our customers and ourselves a lot. This is my personal perspective: when it comes to the social impacts, I think one needs to see it from a different perspective - because there’s lots of strengths for society.

You’ve been in the industry for a long time: you’ve seen trends come, go and come back again. If you are and I are sitting here in two years’ time at Intertraffic Amsterdam 2028, what are we going to be talking about?

To be honest, I think we’re going to be talking about the same things! Well, maybe a bit more about how we apply artificial intelligence. Particularly when it comes to AI, we need to figure out what are the advantages and what are the disadvantages

Everyone talks about AI. But what I’m getting now is more scepticism, more ‘yes, but..’ There is less ‘AI is coming, AI is good’. It’s much more as you’re describing: What’s the point? Where could we use it? Where shouldn’t we use it?

Well, overall, or regarding our industry? In our industry, first, it’s important that we are very cautious in regards to if the data we are using is clean. That’s a prerequisite. Just use clean data - how we process data, how we analyse it, and what we’re

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INTERVIEW going to do with it – in order to protect people. And of course, we can use it for many different topics, many different ideas, both in tolling and in traffic management. It’s a bit of a different application, because in traffic management it’s about scenarios and prediction; and in tolling, it’s more about not just ANPR, but about analysing vehicle data.

Do you think then that as in the same way that AI is a huge opportunity for the traffic and transport and tolling industries, is it also one of the main challenges at the moment?

Well, I think when we’re just talking about our industry, it’s a bit of a challenge, but it’s not huge.

Why not huge?

Because we are used to dealing with - let me put it this way – the ‘predecessors’ of AI. Artificial intelligence, as such, is nothing new. Society is dealing, and science is dealing, with AI for 50 years or even more, and it’s just the computing power now that makes the huge difference – that’s what we didn’t have 50 years ago. So when it comes to our industry, I think the advantages of using AI weigh higher than the disadvantages. But I think there are other areas, particularly when it comes to social media, where applying AI is way more threatening.

Samuel [Kapsch, chief operating office at Kapsch TrafficCom] was speaking earlier about the different uses of AI, that we need to think a bit more clearly: just saying ‘AI’, as I have been, isn’t actually very helpful.

Could you talk a bit more about the way that we need to try and differentiate the uses of AI in ITS? Look, I think we need to have a pretty clear and realistic view and perspective on AI. We have to keep our feet on the ground.

If you look, you always have waves; they appear and disappear.

It was the ‘paperless office’ 40 years ago; we have no paperless office today! Then it was ‘digitalisation’ - as if you wouldn’t have digitalisation in the 1980s already. Now it’s AI. And this is very

often buzzwords, simply buzzwords, that everyone is talking about. But just a few people really have a clue what it is, and that makes it a bit risky, because we create expectations that might not be fulfilled. And what Samuel was saying is there are two different areas to apply AI. One, of course, is the internal one: how to make our processes more efficient, and how to increase speed, how to be more accurate in, for instance, legal cases. The other one, which is way more important for the market – and, by the way, is more fun - is applying AI in our solutions. And that’s what we’ve done for almost three decades, because we’re doing ANPR. And this is machine learning, and machine learning is a kind of AI, and always was. But of course, the pace of applying all of that has changed - and that’s the challenge. Every day, something new is coming up. But these are real opportunities - both, as I said previously, in traffic as well as in tolling.

Where do you see the main areas of use in tolling? For example, will AI improve the user experience? Will it decrease revenue leakage?

I think it’s about revenue leakage. The user experience, I think, will not change because all that is running in the background.

But the experience and the business cases for the road operators and the toll chargers will change.

In what sense? Why would AI change it for them?

Because you can better analyse where you are losing money and what to do in order to not lose money. And you can use infrastructure, like tolling systems. Traffic management is a different story: the user experience will be a different one, because AI helps to improve scenario calculations and predictions. By fusing data, you are going to be way faster and way more accurate getting proposals of how to change traffic light signals, for instance. And this would, of course, have a huge impact on customer experience using primarily an urban environment network. So that’s where you have a better user experience.

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More cities need to introduce measures to cut emissions, says Georg Kapsch

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You mentioned the importance of keeping your feet on the ground. It seems to me that you’re speaking in terms of AI simply improving some processes, but not necessarily changing what we do - not creating completely new paradigms that we haven’t even thought of?

But the paradigm is changing because it changes the way we work, it changes the way we develop, and it totally changes the technological approach in regard to development. Totally.

It’s not just about coding. This has a deep impact on the architecture, how systems are designed - and this is the big deal.

Does that mean that you can foresee new applications that, at the moment, we’re not even thinking of? AI will simply make some things so much easier that other applications, other ways of working, other business models, they will appear as a result of AI, but at the moment, we just can’t see them?

Well, I think - but maybe I’m wrong - I think we have been seeing all of that for quite a while already, but we didn’t have the tools to really do it. And AI now enables us to realise things we couldn’t do in the past. We had them in our mind from a strategy perspective, from a vision perspective - but there was no way (or just a very expensive or complicated way) to get there. AI facilitates it now.

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We are used to dealing with the ‘predecessors’ of AI: artificial intelligence, as such, is nothing new

So that really is seeing AI as a facilitator, not as a creator.

For the time being, yes. But you never know what happens. If the algorithms start to really work on their own, then of course they could develop things we were not even thinking about. But that’s where the threat really starts!

And that’s a wider society problem?

From a threatening perspective, I think our industry is not really affected, but many others are. I just repeat what I said earlier: social media is one of them where you have a huge risk potential.

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ANPR is machine learning, and machine learning is a kind of AI

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INTERVIEW

So I asked you at the beginning: if we sat down in two years’ time, what would we be talking about? And we’re still going to be talking about AI. How far will it have moved? Do you think two years is a long time?

Well, two years is long and short at the same time!

That’s a politician’s answer. You said you didn’t do those!

Yes, you’re right! But I want to explain it. Why is two years long?

Because many things could be done way faster, and we are waiting for political decisions, and therefore two years is long, because that somehow withholds us from implementing what we would like to implement. It’s short because the dynamics in technology are very, very high. That’s why it’s short and long at the same time.

We’ve talked in quite narrow terms: what would you say about the environment for the industry more generally?

I think it’s about the willingness of public administrations to take decisions and provide the regulatory and legal framework that we can proceed with implementing our solutions. And this is not just me, this is the entire industry. So everyone is talking about sustainability: but sustainability doesn’t mean just to reduce [road] lanes and increase bike lanes. It doesn’t mean to just put trees in every street. This goes far beyond and we are way too slow in taking decisions for, let’s say, intelligent traffic management systems - future systems. So we did trials, we did pilot projects proving that we are able to reduce congestion by 20, 30% - but then it stopped, no roll out. And that’s where we need the public sector.

But that also requires money from public authorities?

Of course, of course. But in the end, it will pay off, because you reduce emissions. I’m talking about Europe here: according to European law, you have to fulfil certain environmental KPIs as a city. And if you don’t, you are penalised. So in the medium to long term, it pays off. Secondly, in terms of tolling, why don’t we go forward with the road user charge? Why don’t we go forward with city tolling and trying to manage traffic and influence traffic commuters’ patterns by charging dynamically? Why don’t we introduce hot lanes, for instance, in Europe? These are all political decisions. It doesn’t make it better if we postpone them, and people understand this: if you are transparent and honest with your voters - even if it hurts - the voters understand. ITS ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

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V2X DEPLOYMENT

How the West was one Motorists driving across Utah, Colorado and Wyoming are now protected by a V2X ‘digital seatbelt’. Blaine Leonard of UDoT explains how it works to Adam Hill…

In short, the big idea was to connect drivers across three states. Colorado and Wyoming “both had some real maturity in their V2X deployments, and… were willing to work together to demonstrate that this could be done across borders”.

Federal funding The $20 million of federal money comes to Utah – where the bulk of the physical work is happening, Leonard says. UDoT then allocates and shares some of those funds for the work being carried out in the other two states. Matching funds have been raised from state and private monies too.

Typically, Utah’s interaction with its neighbours comes as part of freeway

“

In the V2X industry, there's been this chicken-and-egg problem. We're the chicken. We need to lay the egg. Let's get started

“

W

hen it comes to Vehicle to Everything technology, it’s fair to say Utah Department of Transportation (UDoT) is an early adopter. “We started deploying V2X in 2015,” says Blaine Leonard, transportation technology engineer at the agency. “We firmly believed then and still firmly believe now, that the technology will save lives. We lose way too many people on our highways every day and every year, and anything we can do to forestall that catastrophe is worthwhile. And we looked at V2X and said: ‘This holds enormous promise.’”

The desire to engage with, and learn about, the technology led to this early deployment. So it is no surprise that UDoT was one of the agencies awarded US Department of Transportation money in 2024 to deploy, operate, and showcase secure, interoperable V2X deployments.

“We've been the happy recipients of a couple of federal grants around V2X deployment, so when this opportunity came up, the concept that really intrigued us was broad-scale deployment and interoperability across jurisdictional boundaries,” Leonard says.

Blaine Leonard UDoT

operations. “One of the things that happens in Wyoming frequently during the winter is they get large snowstorms with lots of wind, and they close I-80,” Leonard says. “So we have fairly decent communication between our freeway operations people, our traffic operations people, and adjacent states to understand those kinds of issues so we can compensate in how we manage. So we have those kinds of interactions on a fairly regular basis. V2X allows us to take the next step and provide warnings to our drivers in a digital way about those events. There's a construction workzone condition here, the freeway is closed because of winter snow whatever it might be - and potentially warn drivers of those conditions while they're still in a place where they can make choices.”

One of the issues with V2X, Leonard says, “is the safety proposition is a two-way street - it depends not only on us deploying on the roadside, but the OEMs putting this capability in their cars”.

Safety is the long-term goal, “but we recognise it's difficult to get those safety outcomes until we get the automakers on board”.

So what to do in the meantime? “In 2015, we looked around and said: what use

© Ouster

UDoT began deploying V2X on its roads in 2015

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V2X DEPLOYMENT

Holy Grail UDoT introduced it on one corridor with its transit agency, Utah Transit Authority, as a partner. Early studies found a 6% improvement in schedule reliability - especially during peak times when there's a lot of traffic. While that may not sound much, Leonard says: “Their Holy Grail goal is a 4% improvement.

And so we felt like it was very successful.”

Achieving measurable benefits with buses gave UDoT the justification to spend money to scale up the project, while looking for other use cases to leverage in the short term.

“It became pretty clear that a snow plough preemption was a very similar use case,” Leonard says.

UDoT also added emergency vehicle preemption to the mix, and these three elements became the core of the agency’s programme.

Three-state programme Other safety applications followed, including travel information messages and weather impact warnings on a small scale – and then came the three-state programme Connecting the West with the most recent Accelerating V2X grant from USDoT. “Transit signal priority is not something I'm going to cross the state line with,” smiles Leonard. “This city bus is never going to go to Denver [in Colorado]. What are the benefits that we can see? How do we leverage this? So these traveller information messages (TIMs), warning drivers of various kinds of roadway conditions or hazards, became the low-hanging fruit. But we quickly discovered that these three states were all using TIMs in different ways, such that if I were to cross the border, I couldn't see their TIMs. We view V2X as a ‘digital seatbelt’. The information we provide to the driver becomes a tool to help prevent the crash in the first place.”

Even before the latest USDoT grant was awarded, the three states had got together to work out standard guidance to advance TIMs. By the time it came to make the proposal for the Connecting the West project, Leonard says: “Interoperability was one of the big picture items that needed to happen. The other thing was that, in the V2X industry, there's been this chicken-and-egg problem.

Do we deploy first, or the automakers deploy first? And we basically came out with this proposal and said: ‘We're the chicken. We need to lay the egg.’ Let's get started. Let's deploy broadly. Let's deploy interoperability, in the hopes that this will start to entice the automakers to think about a business case that may work for them. So that's kind of an underlying motive here.”

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case can we apply in the V2X world that will give us measurable benefit in a small scale?

And transit signal priority – TSP - came out as the winner in that discussion.”

Wyoming frequently sees winter snowstorms on I-80

The chance to work operationally with TIMs across other states was particularly appealing. “If a vehicle is driving across the country and crossing jurisdictions, this is the thing that really matters,” Leonard says. “I like to look at V2X as sort of the Swiss Army knife here. We didn't do it just to do TSP, we didn't do it just to do pre-emption - but it does both of those things, and TIM messaging, and, and, and…

So we're putting in one system that has lots of capabilities - including some we haven't tapped yet.”

Vulnerable road users One of the key areas which UDoT is just starting to get involved with is vulnerable road users. The agency is using Lidar specialist Ouster’s BlueCity system, integrated into Econolite’s Cobalt controllers and EOS firmware.

“One of the benefits of Lidar is that it sees pedestrians - radar does not. So they started to deploy this at more and more intersections, and we looked at it and said, well, now wait a minute, if the Lidar can see the pedestrian, and we have a roadside unit at that intersection, and the Lidar can tell us where the pedestrian is - we can tell the driver where the pedestrian is.”

UDoT is developing a VRU warning system. “Roadside Lidar reports where the pedestrians are; the edge computer turns that into a sensor data-sharing message [SDSM] that gets sent to the car,” Leonard explains. “The on-board unit knows where the vehicle is, now knows where the pedestrian is, and can decide: is the pedestrian in front of us? Should we warn the driver?”

And when automakers start to put V2X on their cars, applications such as red-light violation warning, left- and right-turn assist

“become possible and very beneficial once you get enough vehicles equipped in the marketplace”.

“The beauty of the red-light violation warning is there may only be two cars in the entire state that have V2X installed - those cars get the warning,” he says. “It doesn't require large footprint of deployed vehicles.

So we're excited about some of those kinds of opportunities.”

V2X at ‘inflection point’ He believes the industry is at an ‘inflection point’. V2X has that precious, often indefinable thing: momentum.

“In the last few years, we've had some real momentum around what we need to do, with broad deployments of interoperable V2X,” Leonard muses. “In 2017 the problem we had was we could buy hardware from several different vendors and they wouldn't talk to each other. We're really beyond that: we have system interoperability. We have guidance documents on how to do this. We now have some federal leadership and federal funding.”

And he points out that, while there is currently limelight on the Connecting the West project, there are larger deployments going on in Georgia and Florida.

“And now's the time, I think, for the automakers to say: ‘Okay, we've got to jump into this game and we now have all these other things - maturity, interoperability and scaling – happening’,” he concludes. “And I firmly believe that there are other agencies out there that are interested in doing this, but haven't been as aggressive as we've been.

They're being a little more cautious. But if the automakers would say: ‘Okay, we're going to do this’, people would come out of the woodwork. ITS ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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© Bryan Roschetzky | Dreamstime.com

Developing Trust: the Greater Houston Area

Trust the process Texas A&M Transportation Institute is using V2X to showcase an ‘interim future’ on the roads around Houston; Robert Brydia talks to Adam Hill about vision and Trust

I

n autumn 2024, US Department of Transportation (USDoT) collectively awarded $60 million to Arizona’s Maricopa County DoT, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), and Utah DoT (see How the West was one, p14) to deploy, operate, and showcase secure, interoperable Vehicle to Everything (V2X) deployments. TTI liked the look of the original Notice of Funding Opportunity when it was released nationwide. “We felt like we had an opportunity to put forth a project proposal that would be a little different than an IOO [infrastructure owner operator] and covering a broad range of potential applications,” TTI senior research scientist and division head Robert Brydia explains. “Our interest in V2X has certainly been in play for quite some time and we’ve had previous projects in this arena. The Saving Lives with Connectivity grant was an ideal opportunity to continue to push forward.”

Forward-thinking and progressive The TTI-led project - Transforming Roads: Unleashing Smart Technologies (Trust) -focuses on 15 different use cases across a 4,000 square mile area including Bryan/ College Station and the Greater Houston

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Metropolitan Area. That’s a very big area, with diverse challenges.

“In general, the region allows for rural, urban and suburban areas and encompasses approximately seven million people,” Brydia explains. “There are dozens of IOOs in the region and we’re lucky enough to work with five that are forward-thinking and progressive in their desire to try innovations on their roadways to improve safety and mobility.”

The IOOs are: Texas DoT (TxDoT), City of College Station, City of Houston, Fort Bend County and Missouri City. Each of the use cases is geared towards safety and mobility.

The choice of IOOs was both strategic and lucky, Brydia admits. “Obviously, TxDoT went in at the forefront as they are the largest IOO as the state DoT. The City of Houston was engaged with TxDoT in a significant deployment of V2X (SPaT/Map) at 1,100 intersections. The City of College Station has been a long-time collaborator in research endeavours and was enthusiastic about continuing that. Missouri City and Fort Bend County came to the table later as some challenges with the existing infrastructure in other locations became apparent. That’s the lucky part as they were already engaged in V2X programmes on their own and we can

both benefit from the collaboration.”

In addition to the five IOOs, there are around 20 other partners on the project, ranging from OEMs to telecoms and data providers to ITS equipment suppliers and deployers. “Guiding them all towards fulfilling the project vision is certainly a significant undertaking,” Brydia says. “That’s not to say there’s infighting or anything else—there isn’t. But 25 different organisations and agencies mean there are multiple opinions and thought processes that must be navigated towards unity.”

Traveller information It’s Brydia’s job as Smart project lead to lay out the vision and lead everyone on that path – but he insists that TTI has learned from its partners, too: “Everyone brings something to the table and has their own areas of expertise and contributions.”

At its core, he sees V2X as traveller information—a conversation between vehicles and infrastructure. “We’ve been doing that in transportation for decades; with signs, signals, markings, flaggers in construction zones, horns, inappropriate hand gestures,” Brydia continues. “V2X is the next generation of that messaging - electronic - without the inappropriate hand gestures!”

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V2X DEPLOYMENT

Larger scale A combination of the two makes sense.

“Direct is broadcast directly into the air to approaching vehicles and so has a range of approximately 1,000 feet,” Brydia points out. “So while it’s very fast, you can only affect vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the information need. That works out well for things like intersections, but is very inopportune for needs that are on a much larger scale, such as flood warning and wrong-way driving. In those cases, you want to alert people in a much wider swathe of the transportation system—that’s the value of Network use cases where you send the information to the cloud and then disseminate from there.”

“

The world isn’t going to switch to fully-equipped, connected vehicles for at least two decades—we have to do something in the meantime

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SPaT-enabled intersections for VRU identification and protection Traffic signal pre-emption and priority Transit fleet integration Every day a game day Enhanced highway construction worker safety

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Incident management Adverse weather events/flooding Planned construction and special events Curve speed warning

How TTI’s Trust V2X initiative rolls out

9. Roadway flood warning 10. Houston SPaT-enabled intersections 11. Right turns on red warning 12. Red light violation warning 13. WWD detection 14. Emergency vehicle response time and safety

© TTI

TTI favours a combination of Direct and Network V2X. “Direct is where information is broadcast from the side of the road into vehicles at the location to receive it in a timesensitive manner for safety critical items, like conflicts at intersections,” he explains.

“Network is where the information goes up into the cloud and then we are integrating it into a development version of Google Maps to showcase the consolidation and single access point of numerous types of traveller information.”

“

Not that Network is perfect either, of course. “The challenge with Network is the same with all traveller information—you get a full situational awareness, you need 43 websites, two emails, four text messages, five apps on your phone, etc!” he says. “There’s no centralisation of the information.”

Hence the collaboration with Google on building the development version of Google Maps which will consolidate all the Network use case information/alerts into a single cohesive platform. “This has never been done before,” Brydia says. “In the future, we’d like to bring in Direct messages as well—for the moment, that’s handled by OEMs and their telematics platforms, but the world isn’t going to switch to fully-equipped, connected vehicles for at least two decades—we have to do something in the meantime. Google Maps provides an opportunity to showcase what that interim future could be and how powerful it could be.” ITS

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Road flood warnings are among the very practical applications for V2X

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PARKING

North AmericaEdition

© ITS International | Adam Hill

The North American parking model Europe hasn’t adopted yet The marketplace model for monthly parking is no longer theoretical – it has been scaled in North America under real-world conditions, explains Josh Eisen of Spacer Technologies

E

urope is widely recognised as a global leader in urban mobility. With accessible public transit, rapid EV adoption and ambitious smart city policies, European cities have set the standard for how people move through dense urban environments.

But one critical component of the mobility ecosystem has received far less attention: the optimisation of long-term parking. While payments, enforcement, and short-stay parking have steadily modernised, monthly parking in many European cities remains structured in essentially the same way as it has been for decades. As travel patterns evolve and mobility becomes more dynamic, this overlooked segment is beginning to show its age.

Meanwhile, in North America, a different approach has emerged. Not through regulation or top-down planning, but through market pressure. Over the past decade, monthly parking has quietly shifted from a fixed real estate product into a flexible, datadriven service. The result is a marketplace model that Europe has yet to fully embrace.

Monthly parking built for a different era In much of Europe, long-term parking still reflects an earlier set of assumptions: predictable commutes, full-time office attendance, and long-term contracts that ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

rarely change. Monthly parking is typically secured directly through operators or property managers, with limited flexibility and little opportunity for short-term adjustments.

Large amounts of private supply remain disconnected from the broader market. Residential buildings, multifamily developments, and small commercial properties often have underused parking capacity, but there’s no convenient infrastructure in place to access or monetise these spaces. At the same time, long-term pricing remains largely static, even as demand fluctuates by neighbourhood, season or work pattern.

Digital tools have improved how drivers pay, but not how the market itself functions.

In other words, while customer transactions have been modernised, the underlying structure has not.

A market-driven shift in North America In the US and Canada, monthly parking has evolved in response to changing behaviour.

As hybrid work disrupted predictable commuting schedules and electric vehicles increased demand for reliable, long-term access to specific spaces, property owners faced pressure to generate new revenue from existing assets.

In response, monthly parking began to resemble other subscription-based services.

Drivers select parking with the expectation of flexibility rather than permanence.

Landlords list unused or partially-used spaces without needing to renegotiate leases or overhaul operations. These assets, once invisible to the market, have become both discoverable and usable, while delivering new ancillary revenues to asset owners.

This shift did not emerge from public policy or large infrastructure projects; it developed because the traditional model no longer aligned with how people lived and worked.

Why the marketplace model took hold Several forces converged to make this marketplace model viable for long-term parking.

With the rise of hybrid working schedules, commuter patterns became less predictable and rigid contracts became less appealing. EV adoption created demand for guaranteed consistent access, rather than the daily search, for charger-equipped spaces. At the same time, property owners and building managers needed ways to improve asset performance without investing major capital, while cities needed clearer insight into how long-term parking was being used in this new paradigm.

The marketplace approach addressed all of these pressures by treating monthly parking as a dynamic asset whose supply © ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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© ITS International | Adam Hill

PARKING North AmericaEdition

Long-term parking has begun to resemble other subscription services

could expand - or contract - based on availability. Pricing could reflect real demand rather than annual assumptions, and usage data could inform planning decisions instead of relying on static inventories. Further, the introduction of non-core parking assets, like unused spaces in residential buildings, enhanced options for monthly parkers.

Over time, monthly parking shifted from a background utility into a measurable, adaptable component of urban mobility.

Europe’s conditions have changed Many of the same forces that reshaped North American parking are now firmly present in Europe. Hybrid and remote work have significantly reduced the number of five-day commuters in major cities. EV adoption is accelerating even faster than in North America, emphasising the importance of dependable long-term access.

All of this has multifamily and commercial landlords facing ongoing pressure on net operating income and cities rethinking how parking fits alongside transit, micromobility, and kerb management. The conditions are ripe for treating long-term parking as a dynamic market, with parking facilities becoming anchors within broader mobility hubs.

When vehicles have a guaranteed, off-street home, facilities can layer in complementary services with greater confidence they will generate returns.

Underutilised monthly stalls, for example, can be repurposed as secure bicycle storage or e-scooter docking areas. The same logic applies to electric vehicle infrastructure, with predictable monthly demands making it more viable for building owners to invest in charging stations.

When commuters shift from on-street parking to dedicated monthly facilities, kerb space can be reassigned to dedicated bus

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© ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

lanes, protected bike corridors, micro-loading zones for e-commerce deliveries, or turned into micro-parks or outdoor dining areas.

There is also a measurable impact on congestion. A meaningful portion of urban traffic is generated by drivers searching for parking, and guaranteed pre-determined monthly access removes that circulation entirely.

Seen through this lens, long-term parking is not separate from mobility policy. It is part of the infrastructure that enables cities to rebalance streets toward higher value uses. And yet that market has yet to truly arrive, with long-term parking still treated primarily as a static real estate function rather than a mobility service. Much of the available supply remains fragmented and difficult to access, and data around demand for space is limited.

The cost of standing still Underused residential and multifamily parking spaces remain “dark inventory”, unknown to local drivers and parkers.

Operators lack granular insight into where demand is rising or falling, while cities have limited visibility into long-term parking behaviour even as they make broader mobility decisions. EV charging infrastructure attached to parking assets is often underutilised or poorly monetised. And commuters lack flexible, affordable monthly options—even though that capacity exists in the form of these underused spaces.

As cities continue to integrate transportation modes, monthly parking can no longer be viewed as simple storage. It influences commuting patterns, supports EV adoption, reduces daily circulation traffic, and shapes how drivers interact with the broader mobility network.

The technology exists to connect longterm parking with transit access, charging

availability and neighbourhood demand.

Data from these systems can inform policy decisions and infrastructure investment as parking becomes part of the mobility stack rather than a standalone afterthought.

This data has been key to the evolution of long-term parking in North America.

Subscription-based access systems and mobile platforms allow drivers to manage monthly parking much like other digital services: adjusting locations, modifying commitments, and confirming availability in real time. For operators and asset owners, occupancy is no longer an annual assumption but a daily metric. This data layer also carries broader planning implications. As cities move toward transit-oriented development and reduce parking minimums, flexible monthly inventory can function as shared infrastructure rather than siloed supply. Aggregated demand insights help operators and planners understand where long-term parking pressure is rising or falling, informing pricing strategies, transit coordination, and kerb allocation. In this model, data does more than digitise payment; it reshapes how inventory is distributed, how demand is measured, and how parking integrates into the wider urban mobility system.

Europe’s status as a leader in mobility and commuting convenience has always been rooted in system-level thinking. Harnessing available technology to modernise the longterm parking ecosystem fits squarely within that tradition.

Europe doesn’t need to reinvent the model — it needs to adopt it The marketplace model for monthly parking is no longer theoretical. It has been tested and scaled in North America under real-world conditions. Europe doesn’t need to reinvent the model here; it simply needs to adapt it to local regulatory frameworks, urban planning and public-private relationships.

The success of the parking marketplace model in North America implies that it’s not a question of whether long-term parking will become more flexible and data-driven in Europe, but how quickly that transition will occur. Cities and operators that move early will gain the data, revenue and mobility advantages that others miss.

Europe has led the world in mobility innovation for decades. Monthly parking marketplaces are the next frontier and Europe shouldn’t wait to catch up. ITS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Josh Eisen is CRO of Spacer Technologies Follow us on LinkedIn

@ITS International Magazine

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TRAFFIC DATA

North AmericaEdition

Data, Documentation and Demonstrable ROI Rather than guessing at the effectiveness of safety measures and infrastructure improvements, DoTs can bring evidence to elected officials and funding bodies, says Inrix’s Ahmed Darrat

U

S state transportation agencies are tasked with keeping millions of people safe on thousands of miles of roads, all while their budgets come under close scrutiny.

When agencies make costly investments in infrastructure and safety improvements, they must demonstrate a clear, measurable return on investment.

This is why many transportation agencies are turning to data analytics partners to quantify safety gains with clear data and public documentation. These partnerships show exactly how agencies are making roadways safer.

Transportation agencies and their partners are using real-time and historical data to improve roadway efficiency, save taxpayer money, and make travel safer for everyone. Data such as vehicle speeds, travel time, crash data, and even hard braking can be used to understand how motorists move and how transportation agencies can more effectively deploy resources to benefit the most people.

But this is not a story about data. It’s a story about outcomes. By leveraging mobility data and analytics, transportation agencies are producing real, measurable gains in safety. And that means more people make it home to the people who are counting on them.

We have worked with numerous state agencies to help improve roadway efficiency and safety. This is the future of transportation safety: transportation agencies leveraging historical and real-time data to support performance-based decision making with measurable results.

Below are two examples of how state transportation agencies have used data and analytics to make their highways and roadways safer and more efficient.

PennDoT: Real-Time Data and Crash Reduction at Scale Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDoT) oversees 40,000 miles of highway and more than 25,000 bridges.

One of the biggest safety challenges the agency faced came from secondary crashes caused by sudden slowdowns, when vehicles travelling at high speeds come upon slowed or stopped traffic unexpectedly. These “shockwave” collisions are often more deadly than the initial crash on high-speed highways or interstates.

PennDoT’s options to address this challenge were partially dictated by funding.

The state and its taxpayers had a limited appetite for the major capital expansions that a massive hardware-based system would require.

PennDoT’s solution took advantage of real-time and historical speed data

provided by Inrix to create 23 virtual queue protection corridors across 1,150 miles of road. The agency used real-time speed data to identify emerging crash risks before they happen. By seeing where sudden slowdowns were occurring, the agency could trigger automated warnings to alert upstream drivers that they were approaching slow or stopped traffic.

The return on investment was immediate. According to publicly available documents from PennDoT, its virtual queue protection corridors reduced total crashes by 11% and saved $55.6 million in user costs. Most importantly, it reduced fatal truck crashes by 46%.

PennDoT achieved these measurable outcomes without adding expensive and time-consuming roadside infrastructure. The agency’s virtual detection solution leveraged existing digital signs and data. These safety gains came thanks to the agency’s ability to think outside the box as to how to maximise its assets and resources within a dynamic data platform.

Ohio DoT: From Corridor Ranking to Quantified ROI Leveraging data doesn’t have to be reactive.

Transportation agencies are also using data to continuously diagnose roadway problems before they cause crashes. Ohio DoT (ODoT) uses mobility data, such as vehicle speeds,

After snow and ice events, Ohio DoT’s Snipe programme leverages historical and real-time speed data to measure road recoveries

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TRAFFIC DATA North AmericaEdition

One of the biggest safety challenges PennDoT faced came from secondary crashes caused by sudden slowdowns

© Jennifer Pitiquen | Dreamstime.com

travel times, and crash data, to focus its resources on places where they can produce the highest measurable returns.

The agency’s Transportation Operations Analysis and Screening Tool (Toast) uses data to identify underperforming corridors, prioritise operational improvements, and support targeted signal optimisation. Toast scores each corridor on travel-time reliability, bottlenecks, safety, and incident clearance to identify operationally sensitive corridors. This data-driven picture into its roadways helps ODoT secure dedicated funding for targeted improvements that produce measurable returns.

ODoT has reported benefit-cost ratios as high as 40:1 for Toast-identified signalimprovement projects. To produce this scale of measurable returns on these investments of time and resources, Toast requires network-wide speed and travel-time data to unearth the corridors in the greatest need of improvement. Understanding the efficiencies of different corridors allows ODoT to compare corridor efficiency and focus resources where they will do the most good.

Data-driven insights also help ODoT efficiently respond to winter storms. After snow and ice events, the department’s Snow and Ice Performance Evaluator (Snipe) programme leverages historical and real-time speed data to measure road recoveries against a baseline provided by real-time traffic monitoring. This metric helps the agency monitor how quickly and efficiently its maintenance crews restore roads to safe operating conditions.

ODoT’s visibility into road conditions via real-time data replaced more subjective reporting on how quickly roads return to normal speeds. Data creates a much more accurate picture of road conditions and helps the department optimise its resource deployment. Using Snipe’s data-driven insights, the department met 99.3% of its winter recovery goals in 2024-25.

Finally, ODoT’s SmartLane system is using travel data in its real-time dashboard to dramatically improve travel time and safety on its I-670 pilot. SmartLane uses real-time data to monitor congestion on the

interstate, which passes through the heart of Ohio’s biggest city. During peak congestion, when vehicles are moving at slower speeds, ODoT opens highway shoulders as travel lanes to improve travel-time reliability and throughput.

The results are real and measurable.

According to ODoT, commute times on I-670 have dropped from 10-30 minutes during peak congestion to just 5-7 minutes.

Road capacity has also increased by 25-30% during peak travel times.

With Toast, Snipe and SmartLane, the lessons are clear. Data does not just justify projects. It measures and validates them, all without significant additional capital expenditures.

The Shift to Continuous Measurement Both Pennsylvania and Ohio are among the top 10 states with the busiest highways. One of the key elements to each state department’s measurable safety and efficiency gains is quality data and continuous measurement.

Traditional traffic studies are periodic.

Using these studies to understand complex roadways is a little like looking at a series of photographs. Continuous measurement turns those photographs into a real-time movie that shows what is happening on roadways now and what might happen in

the future, with the ability to pan to other areas to understand the context. This real-time insight allows agencies to measure ongoing performance and verify results.

State agencies are shifting to continuous measurement with real-time data because those solutions are affordable and scalable.

Gathering and analysing traffic data doesn’t require expensive hardware like dense roadside-sensor networks. The costs of using real-time data to improve safety are significantly less than infrastructure-heavy alternatives. Continuous measurement delivers measurable results. Agencies can easily document safety gains to calculate and defend ROI. Rather than guessing at the effectiveness of safety measures and infrastructure improvements, agencies can bring quantifiable evidence to elected officials and funding bodies. This is the future of transportation safety—using real-time data to support performance-based decision making. ITS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ahmed Darrat is chief product officer at Inrix

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PennDoT’s virtual queue protection corridors reduced fatal truck crashes by 46%

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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Autonomous transportation needs more than just tech — it needs the right mindset The biggest challenges aren’t technological—they’re about mindset, collaboration and the willingness to rethink how we move, suggests Henriette Cornet of Urban Innovate

I

’

ve called five countries home, but my journey in transportation and innovation truly began during my PhD in Munich in 2008. Over the past nine years, I’ve focused on a field that continues to captivate me: autonomous transportation technology and its potential to revolutionise public transit. My journey has taken me from Singapore to Brussels and now to San Francisco, working across academia, NGOs and industry. What I’ve learned is that the biggest challenges aren’t technological—they’re about mindset, collaboration, and the willingness to rethink how we move.

Singapore: A testing ground for the future My transition from the German automotive industry to Asia was driven by a desire to explore the “new tech” frontier. Singapore, with its reputation for innovation and efficiency, was the ideal place for that. While electric mobility presented engineering challenges, ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

autonomous technology promised something far more transformative. But I quickly realised that if deployed only for private car ownership, the consequences for our cities could be dire—more urban sprawl, more isolation, and a widening gap between those who can afford cutting-edge mobility and those who cannot.

From 2017-20, I led the Design for Autonomous Mobility team at Tumcreate, a joint research lab between the University of Munich and Nanyang Technological University. Our mission was ambitious: to conceptualise a public transit system using approximately 30-passenger AVs. My team didn’t just design the vehicles; we focused on how they interacted with passengers and other road users. Using virtual reality and emotional design, we explored how to build trust in shared autonomous spaces.

Singapore’s unique advantages—a wealthy city-state with strong central coordination—allowed us to move swiftly from vision to implementation. The early nuTonomy pilots and AV shuttles from EasyMile and Navya, though slow and cautious, were

groundbreaking in shaping public perception of shared, autonomous mobility.

Singapore’s Land Transportation Authority (LTA) developed the Technical Reference 68 (TR68), a foundational “driving licence” for AVs, to which I was proud to contribute. TR68 set standards for everything from basic vehicle behaviours to safety protocols, ensuring that autonomous vehicles could operate safely and predictably.

Yet, as pioneering as Singapore’s approach is, it also has its limits. What works in a city-state doesn’t always scale to larger, more diverse regions. The lessons we learned in Singapore—about the importance of public trust, regulatory clarity and systemic integration—are universal, but the application must be tailored to local contexts.

Europe: Collaboration is the key In 2020, I moved to Brussels to coordinate the Show project, the largest EU-funded initiative for autonomous transit at the time.

With 450 people across 70 institutions in 13 countries, it was a masterclass in © ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES tech leaders are motivated by the market potential—for instance, the recent $16 billion investment round in Waymo—but my interest lies elsewhere. I want to know: What can we do with this incredible technology? How can we use it to make our cities more livable for everybody? These questions drive my work, and they’re why I’m so passionate about ensuring that public transit and people remain at the forefront of technological adoption.

© TUMCREATE

The conceptual Dynamic Autonomous Road Transit (Dart) system from Tumcreate, Singapore

collaboration. Industry competitors, universities, cities and NGOs sat at the same table, sharing knowledge and building evidence together. This culture of cooperation, rooted in a concern for societal impact, is Europe’s strength. But it’s not without its challenges.

The administrative layers in EU projects can be overwhelming, and the tension between public transit ambitions and the lobbying power of the automotive industry is real.

One of the most striking aspects of the Show project was the diversity of approaches. In some cities, autonomous shuttles were deployed in pedestrianised zones, while in others, retrofitted buses operated in the depot. Each deployment required negotiations with local authorities, data-sharing agreements, and careful consideration of how the technology would integrate with existing transit systems. The project reinforced a critical lesson: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The key is to adapt the technology to local needs, not the other way around.

During this time, the CCAM (Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility) partnership was created in direct collaboration with the European Commission. It brought together stakeholders from across Europe to define research priorities and ensure the continent’s competitiveness in autonomous mobility. While the partnership was a step in the right direction, it also highlighted the challenges of balancing innovation with the need to protect economic interests. As a representative of an NGO advocating for public transit, I often found myself navigating tensions between stated ambitions for sustainability and the reality of where funding was directed.

Still, I believe Europe is waking up.

There’s a palpable shift in momentum, a growing recognition that the continent can lead the way in shaping the future of an integrated autonomous mobility system within existing ecosystems. Europe’s strength has always been its ability to balance

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progress with purpose, and I’m optimistic that this spirit will guide the next chapter of mobility innovation.

California: Where tech meets reality In early 2024, I made the move to California—the epicentre of tech innovation.

Living in a city where I can hail a Waymo robotaxi at any time is still exhilarating. The entrepreneurial energy here is unmatched, and the capacity to turn innovation into realworld deployment is staggering. I remember the first time I rode in a Cruise vehicle in the summer of 2022. After years of testing slow-moving shuttles in Europe and Asia, the experience felt like a leap into the future.

The vehicle merged seamlessly into traffic, assertive yet safe.

But the event of October 2023, which led to Cruise’s suspension, was a stark reminder of the challenges that come with rapid deployment and the incident underscored in the entire industry the need for robust regulation and public trust in autonomous technology.

In any case, what I find most striking in California is the contrast between the technological prowess and the lack of emphasis on how these innovations can serve the public good. Many entrepreneurs, investors, and

A call to action This is why I founded Urban Innovate. I want to connect practitioners who believe emerging technology can—and should—improve mobility for everyone. We’ve developed Pulsur, a tool that analyses public sentiment around technology to ensure no one is left behind. My goal is to help public transit stay at the forefront of tech adoption, ensuring that the needs of real people—not just early adopters—are met.

Across continents, one truth stands out: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

What works in Singapore may not work in Brussels or San Francisco. But by sharing best practices—whether it’s Singapore’s AV licensing, Europe’s collaborative models, or California’s real-world deployments—we can build better systems.

I’ve met deeply committed people worldwide who are working to improve mobility for everyone, regardless of budget or politics.

It’s a field driven by passion, curiosity, and persistence. The success lies in collaboration—between sectors, between countries, and between mindsets. Only then can we ensure that autonomous transportation fulfills its promise: not just as a technological marvel, but as a force for public good. ITS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Henriette Cornet is CEO and founder of Urban Innovate and co-director of the Autonomous Vehicles and the City Initiative at the University of San Francisco www.linkedin.com/in/henriette-cornet urban-innovate.com

Riding with Cruise in July 2023 in San Francisco

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ROAD SAFETY

Driver distraction is a major cause of road collisions

A holistic view of risk Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions is promoting Vision Zero, and talking about predicting driver behaviour – and what AVs mean for safety: Adam Hill finds out more…

A

t this year’s Intertraffic Amsterdam, Jenoptik put up a huge ‘Vision Zero’ board at its stand, on which it invited people to sign their names in support of reducing road deaths.

The Germany-based traffic enforcement specialist is known as a manufacturer of cameras which help improve road safety.

“But really focusing on Vision Zero is a step beyond that, and it really adds purpose – and it is so important in a company that people see a purpose to what they are doing,” explains Tobias Deubel, head of division at Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions. “Vision Zero is a global initiative and something which every single exhibitor here can sign up to, because it's the right thing to reduce fatalities and death in the world. If you are in a privileged situation to lead a market, if you have a global presence in more than 40 countries - and we have tens of thousands of systems out there - this privilege also comes with, let's say, the ambition to drive something as valuable as Vision Zero.”

Tipping point Having been known as a manufacturer that deals in speed measurement, Jenoptik says it is moving from primarily detecting what's happened to predicting what is going to

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ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

happen. “Of course, we are a business,” says Deubel. “We want to provide systems and applications to our customers. But then there's also the development side of things, where we believe that with the capabilities of artificial intelligence these days, we are at a tipping point where we can offer so much more in the future than just red light and speed enforcement like we did in the past.”

Gavin Eaton, global head of R&D at Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions, continues this train of thought. “There's an acknowledgement that there are many factors to fatalities and serious injuries that stretch from speed to distraction, to not wearing seat belts, to impairment, and we're adding within our system the ability to detect more of those risk factors,” he says. The company is also pivoting to look at the patterns happening on the roads, to “evaluate risk more holistically” for the customer.

“So this is actually looking at what's the risk of the road, rather than just a pure enforcement application,” Eaton says. “And then, of course, that leads on to: how can we predict what kind of behaviours, what kind of infrastructure is dangerous - or more dangerous?”

And how easy is it to add those advanced applications to existing technology? Previously, Eaton admits, this was

“quite difficult” to do. “But for us now, all of our new products, they're all fully AI-enabled.

So all of the AI technology that we build to be able to do those detection, classification and tracking tasks can be run in our camera systems at the roadside. They can be run in our back office, they can be run in our cloud solutions, so each one of them is automatically able to be applied across the board in all of our products.”

Game changer The element of prediction has the capacity to change the game for both traffic enforcement and road safety. It’s one thing to measure the speed that a vehicle is travelling.

“But now we can extract far more information from what we collect via our sensor data and our video data to look at what risk factors are there,” says Eaton. “How fast are vehicles travelling in comparison to each other? How many near misses are there?

How many levels of mobile phone use or not wearing seat belts? And we can use that information to actually build a picture of the risk profile, the dangers that attach to that road, and then predict what are dangerous areas, and what are less dangerous areas.”

As vice president global sales services, strategy & product management at Jenoptik Smart Mobility Solutions, Danute Eberle is

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ROAD SAFETY

“

We are at a tipping point where we can offer so much more in the future than just red light and speed enforcement

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© Juan Moyano | Dreamstime.com

work with governments and officials to help introduce such legislation and make use of the technical capabilities that we actually have.”

Having global clout enables the company to do this. “This is where the circle closes, somehow,” he goes on. “Vision Zero is something we are putting at the forefront of what we're doing, because we believe we can contribute to safer roads. We're not just building cameras or just providing a service - we can actually change the world for the better. That's big ambition, yes, but we are in a position to play a role in that.”

Cameras are often seen as the foot soldiers in a revenue-generating war on motorists. But Deubel insists that’s far from the truth. “What we suggest to customers is take money that you earn from these programmes and reinvest it into education of members of the public, reinvest it into education in schools, in marketing campaigns. Or even just reinvest it into infrastructure, into better streets, because our technology adds safety to the roads. There is no debate about making school zones safer and protecting kids. In the US, for example, there's a lot of engagement around school zones, school bus safety, and from there it potentially grows.”

Existential threat Looking further ahead, autonomous vehicles can be seen as a significant threat to businesses such as Jenoptik. But Eaton is not so sure. “I think AVs are both a huge

opportunity and a huge risk,” he says.

“If you take AVs to be 100% reliable and without fault, then clearly you would say ‘existential risk to the business’. However, in reality, AVs don't always do the right thing.

And ultimately, a road network with AVs, semi-autonomous vehicles, non-autonomous vehicles, all interacting on a road at the same time, will actually result in a reduction in road safety initially, which will improve in the longer term.”

There is a “huge amount” of infrastructure at the roadside. “We provide a lot of information around the behaviour of vehicles - going back to AI tracking vehicles – and what's happening on the road network itself, and that really supports safety through that transitional period. And providing that further as smart infrastructure would be where we would bring value in the world of AVs in the future.”

Deubel concludes: “In a perfect world where no-one would speed, no-one would jump a red light, probably you wouldn't need camera surveillance. But with our Lidar systems, our radar systems, with the sensor integration that we have, with highly accurate measurements, we offer so much more when it comes to smart mobility.

Heading towards the wider scope of smart mobility in cities, understanding fully 3D models of intersections based on Lidar and sensor-fusion technology - I'm actually not overly concerned that there is nothing for us to do over the coming 50 years!” ITS

at the heart of the changes the company is making as it expands from ‘traditional’ speed and red-light enforcement.

“It's a focus area,” she says. “Right now, we see more and more advanced detection, whether this is distracted driving, or detecting moving-vehicle objects at an intersection, or yellow-box protection. So it's much more than the traditional measurement units - and that's where you need not only to come up with the hardware, but you need to also have a combination between the sensors.”

This could be radar or Lidar along with video analytics, for instance. “So this combination of different technologies enhances performance and accuracy,” Eberle explains.

Closing the circle This has both been driven by customer demand and Jenoptik’s eye for development.

“Of course, there are customers that ask us for new applications and for new features,” says Deubel. “But we also want to take our strength, as I said, as a global market leader to introduce these new features and options we have to the markets.

Because in our business, a lot of these things require legislation within countries and regions. If you take distracted driving: there is no legislation in many places to enforce it, so what we do is work with associations, Follow us on LinkedIn

@ITS International Magazine

Left to right: Jenoptik’s Danuta Eberle, Tobias Deubel and Gavin Eaton ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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J x0 zً Á0æ ³ِ ‫גח‬Ɏǝ ȇȇɖƏǼ xƺƺɎǣȇǕ ۭ 0ɴǝǣƫǣɎǣȒȇ z à0x 0« ‫הא׎א ًד׏ ٮ א׏‬ «nXzJÁ zً Áæ

Áǝƺ ȸȒƏƳ ƏǝƺƏƳ ǣɀȇ‫ټ‬Ɏ ɯƏǣɎǣȇǕ ٪ ƏȇƳ ȇƺǣɎǝƺȸ Əȸƺ ɯƺِ hȒǣȇ ǕǼȒƫƏǼ ǼƺƏƳƺȸɀ ǣȇ ɎȒǼǼǣȇǕً ɎȸƏȇɀȵȒȸɎƏɎǣȒȇً ƏȇƳ ɎƺƬǝȇȒǼȒǕɵ ƏɎ X ÁÁ ‫ټ‬ɀ ‫גח‬Ɏǝ ȇȇɖƏǼ xƺƺɎǣȇǕ ۭ 0ɴǝǣƫǣɎǣȒȇ ٪ ɯǝƺȸƺ ǣƳƺƏɀ Ɏɖȸȇ ǣȇɎȒ ƏƬɎǣȒȇً ȵƏȸɎȇƺȸɀǝǣȵɀ Ƴȸǣɮƺ ȵȸȒǕȸƺɀɀ ƏȇƳ Ɏǝƺ ǔɖɎɖȸƺ Ȓǔ ȅȒƫǣǼǣɎɵ ɎƏǸƺɀ ƬƺȇɎƺȸ ǔǣƺǼƳِ

³ɖȅȅǣɎ RȒɀɎ‫ي‬

áǝƏɎ ɎȒ ƺɴȵƺƬɎ‫ي‬ JƺȇƺȸƏǼ ³ƺɀɀǣȒȇɀ ‫ ڷ‬IȒƬɖɀƺƳ ȸƺƏǸȒɖɎɀ ‫ڷדו ى‬ 0ɴǝǣƫǣɎȒȸɀ ‫! ى‬ȒɖȇƬǣǼ ۭ !ȒȅȅǣɎɎƺƺ xƺƺɎǣȇǕɀ ‫ى‬ ÁƺƬǝȇǣƬƏǼ ÁȒɖȸɀ ‫ ى‬XȇƳɖɀɎȸɵ ɯƏȸƳɀ ‫ ى‬JǼȒƫƏǼ zƺɎɯȒȸǸǣȇǕ nƺƏȸȇ ȅȒȸƺ ƏɎ‫ ي‬ɯɯɯ٫ǣƫɎɎƏ٫ȒȸǕ‫ٱ‬ƏȸǼǣȇǕɎȒȇ

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INNOVATION

Creating the space to invite imagination and creativity As digital technologies continue reshaping mobility, innovation, integration and collaboration can deliver measurable public value, says Michael Inabinet, president of HNTB’s markets and services complexity. Innovation does not succeed simply because tools exist; it succeeds when organisations create conditions for new ideas to be explored, tested and scaled.

Beyond Analysis Alone Transportation professionals are, by nature, analytical. Data, precision and rigour are foundational to how infrastructure is designed and delivered. Pairing analytical strength with imagination and creativity encourages teams to look beyond optimising existing systems

“

New tools and approaches can generate excitement, but lasting impact comes from embedding innovation into everyday decision-making Michael Inabinet HNTB

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T

he transportation industry is experiencing a period of profound change. Artificial intelligence, connected and automated systems, predictive analytics and emerging modes of mobility are reshaping how people and goods move – and how agencies plan, operate and serve their communities. As this rapid transformation continues, one thing has become increasingly clear: technology alone does not determine success. Leadership does. For those making the greatest progress, it’s not just about adopting the most tools – it’s about shaping cultures that connect innovation to outcomes that matter: safety, reliability and public trust.

Around the world, transportation leaders are navigating similar challenges, even as regulatory frameworks, funding models and operating environments differ.

They are being asked to improve safety, efficiency and resilience while adapting to rising customer expectations and growing

and instead envision what could be possible if those systems were rethought entirely.

This balance — between analytical rigour and imagination — is where innovation moves beyond technical upgrades and begins delivering meaningful improvements to the lived experience of customers.

Case Study: Embedding Customer Experience Through Collaboration at Dart Dart Transform is a systemwide modernisation programme that places customer experience at the centre of long-term investment and decision-making. HNTB partnered with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dart) to embed a data-driven, collaborative customer experience framework into the programme, ensuring technical and operational upgrades are informed by how passengers experience the system day to day.

Through journey mapping, rider engagement and a hierarchy-of-needs approach, the team aligned planning, operations and design

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WMATA is attempting to enhance real-time communication to its riders

ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

© ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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INNOVATION

© ITS International | Adam Hill

around shared priorities for safety, predictability and ease of use. This collaborative leadership model helps ensure modernisation efforts deliver measurable improvements for passengers while building organisational alignment and long-term trust.

“Dart is committed to better understanding and enhancing the passenger journey across every part of our system,” said Trey Walker, the agency’s interim executive vice president/chief development officer. “Dart Transform focuses on five core elements designed to replace ageing infrastructure, strengthen system reliability and meet the evolving needs and expectations of our riders. Integrating passenger experience insights into this programme is essential to its success.”

The passenger journey mapping project plays a key role by identifying actionable opportunities for improvement that can be incorporated into this generational effort.

The recommendations are guiding station modernisation project scopes and will be delivered through short-, medium- and long-term improvements.

Dart’s planning, operations and design are aligned around shared priorities for safety, predictability and ease of use

Case Study: Strengthening Customer Communication Through Digital Signage at WMATA The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is applying technology to improve operational efficiency, service reliability and customer experience across its rail system. HNTB is supporting WMATA’s efforts through targeted digital signage initiatives that strengthen real-time communication and systemwide coordination.

At L’Enfant Plaza Station, one of the system’s busiest transfer points, HNTB delivered a digital signage pilot that integrated all existing screens into a single content management system. Previously, seven separate platforms controlled station displays, limiting WMATA’s ability to issue consistent, stationwide messages during service disruptions or emergencies. The pilot validated a unified technical approach and aligned internal stakeholders around a scalable, systemwide solution. Based on its success, WMATA plans to deploy the unified platform across its remaining 97 stations.

In parallel, HNTB supported the installation of new entrance screens at 15 Metrorail stations, providing customers with

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© ITS International | Adam Hill

Leading through Collaboration Innovation at scale does not happen in isolation. Transportation systems are interconnected, and progress increasingly depends on partnerships that span public agencies, private organisations, technology providers and communities.

Leadership today is defined by the ability to convene these groups around shared goals and align them toward common outcomes.

next-train arrivals, system alerts and agency messaging at key decision points. WMATA plans to expand the programme systemwide, enhancing real-time communication and reinforcing a more consistent, customerfocused experience.

“Improving the customer experience starts with building the right foundation,” said Randy Clarke, general manager and CEO of WMATA. “That means integrating systems, aligning teams and investing in data that supports better decisions over time. Leadership is about resisting quick fixes and instead creating an organisation that can continuously adapt and improve for the customers who rely on us every day.”

Making Innovation Endure New tools and approaches can generate excitement, but lasting impact comes from embedding innovation into everyday decision-making.

That means rethinking how success is measured and how teams are empowered to learn, adapt and apply new ideas over time. Innovation becomes durable when it is reinforced through processes, expectations and leadership behaviours — not when it relies on individual champions or isolated initiatives.

For transportation leaders, sustaining innovation requires designing change for enterprise-wide adoption. Aligning strategy, governance and delivery helps ensure innovation strengthens day-to-day operations while informing long-term investment decisions. When innovation is treated as a repeatable capability rather than a one-time effort, organisations are better positioned to adapt as technology, customer expectations and system demands continue to evolve.

A Call to Lead Differently The future of transportation will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by those who shape cultures that are open to change, grounded in purpose and focused on the most important outcomes.

By leading with intention — pairing innovation with imagination and collaboration — we can build transportation systems that are safer, more resilient and more responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.

Here is the challenge and the opportunity for all of us as leaders: create the space that invites imagination and creativity.

Empower teams to develop solutions that align with shared goals and deliver meaningful outcomes. Use the tools, yes — but remember that what ultimately matters is the experience and value those solutions create. ITS For the latest news go to www.itsinternational.com

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ROAD USER CHARGING

New Zealand’s RUC system is nearly 50 years old

A fund of information As authorities round the world get to grips with road user charging, they would be wise to look south for useful lessons…

New Zealand transport minister Chris Bishop explains

S

ome people are surprised to learn that New Zealand's road user charging (RUC) system is nearly 50 years old.

It was born out of a practical need in the 1970s to solve two pressing problems: our roads were underfunded; and demand for freight was shifting from state-owned railways to roads, but heavy vehicles weren't paying their fair share for the damage they caused.

So in 1977, the government introduced a per-kilometre charge based on weight and the RUC system was introduced to charge heavy vehicles, so those who use the roads most - and caused the most wear - contributed accordingly.

As light diesel vehicles have grown in popularity, more motorists have come to pay RUC, as motorists have chosen diesel vehicles instead of petrol vehicles. So light RUC vehicles in New Zealand, which includes light diesel vehicles and now also electric vehicles as well, account for almost 40% of total RUC revenue.

“

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You still pay for the roads – but you pay in a different, fairer way Chris Bishop NZ transport minister

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@ITS International Magazine

Into the light Despite RUC being seen by Kiwis as something originally for heavy vehicles - for truckies - today, there are considerably more light vehicles in the RUC system than heavy vehicles. For every one heavy vehicle, there are around five light vehicles.

So the system is old, but it does remain world-leading to recover the disproportionate cost that heavy vehicles impose on the road network. It's basically a licensing regime.

So you pre-purchase a licence in 1,000-km increments. Back in the day, you did that

at the post office. Today, most purchases are online. It's the driver's responsibility to monitor the distance per quarter and buy a new licence before they exceed the pre-paid distance.

Compliance is maintained through odometer checks during routine safety inspections and at weigh stations, where the police also ensure heavy vehicles have the correct licence for their weight category.

The system is not perfect, but it has endured because it's simple, broadly accepted particularly by the trucking industry - and recognised internationally as a leading example of user-pays funding.

RUC in New Zealand is legally a tax, but it functions as a charge that not only raises revenue, but also incentivises choices. The rates are set to recover the cost that different vehicles impose on the network: the RUC rates for a heavy vehicle are significantly higher than those for a car, because trucks cause significantly more road wear, occupy more space and require stronger bridges.

A truck with more axles causes less damage per tonne, so it pays a lower RUC rate.

This directly incentivises freight operators to invest in vehicles that are kinder to the roads, which is a win for both truckies - they have lower operating costs - but also for taxpayers, who avoid the cost of road wear.

Significant reforms We have announced the next steps in what I believe are the most significant reforms to our transport funding system in 50 years: the government's intention is to move all 3.5 million light vehicles to electronic road user charges and abolish petrol tax entirely.

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ROAD USER CHARGING

Auckland is likely to be the first city in New Zealand to introduce congestion charging

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paper licences. At the moment, you have to go online, buy a licence that gets sent to you in the post, and you put it on the front of your vehicle. We're changing the rule to say a digital record would be sufficient.

We're also going to allow the use of a broader range of devices, including telematics and GPS systems - which are already built into modern cars - rather than requiring a separate, government-mandated device.

We're intending to enable modern payment options, similar to a utility bill or a Netflix bill that you just pay monthly.

We're also intending to create competition. A variety of private providers can enter the market and innovate. We do want to create simplified billing.

Potentially revolutionary It is really important to implement a system that enables distance-based road user charges and time-of-use pricing, congestion pricing and tolls. There are three existing toll roads in New Zealand, and we've committed to four more at this stage. [They must be] integrated together, so that you pay for what you use on the roads: you pay for the tolls when you use a toll road, and if you drive into the Auckland CBD - which will end up being where we do the first congestion charge – at 7.30 in the morning, you pay a

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You still pay for the roads – but you pay in a different, fairer way. For decades, petrol tax has acted as a rough proxy for road usage, but that relationship has been breaking down. Petrol vehicles with better fuel economy contribute less fuel excise duty per kilometre towards road maintenance operations and improvement.

New Zealand's also seeing the very fast uptake of fuel-efficient petrol hybrid vehicles.

In 2015, there were 10,000 on our roads; today there are over 350,000 - and we've got EVs as well.

It simply isn't fair to have New Zealanders who drive less and who can't afford a fuel-efficient car paying more than people who can afford one and drive more often. So the current system is, in fact, quite regressive, particularly for lower-income people.

The approach we are taking is staged and deliberate. We're not going to simply switch all petrol vehicles to RUC . Our intention is to get the system right before we bring all vehicles into it.

So this is not that something that's going to happen immediately, overnight - but it is going to happen. We are progressing a package of changes to update regulations for electronic and user-friendly options. For example, we're removing the need for physical

time-of-use price as well.

Implementing all that into the same payment system is potentially revolutionary. We don't want to run it as a clunky government system. We want to reform the rules to allow the market to deliver innovative, user-friendly services. At the end of the day, driving on the roads is just a utility like anything else, and it should be treated as such.

A change of this magnitude can't be driven solely by technology. It has to be ultimately shaped by the people who use the system every day, and I've been asked a lot of questions since we made the announcement about privacy, data security and cost. The system will be built on choice, putting the user first. For some New Zealanders, data privacy is a really top concern, and I get that. For other people, convenience is paramount.

So we've got a sales job to do around why - but also about the how. But ultimately, we're not going to mandate a single technology. Users will be able to choose a provider and technology that best suits them, and we won't get rid of the paper options for those who absolutely need to do it. It is a once-in-a-generation reform. It is government policy to do this.

The revenue numbers are really clear.

We have a hypothecated fuel tax system in New Zealand, so every dollar for revenue charge and fuel tax goes into the National Land Transport fund, and every dollar that goes out of it goes onto the roads or some onto rail, to public transport – it goes into the transport system – and, actually, that enjoys widespread political support.

No Big Bang But it's really clear that the revenue is just going [down] as demand goes [up] because of the rise of hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles. So this is a change you can either do now and stage it and integrate it and get it right - or you can do it in 20 years in a really clunky, Big Bang, very difficult way.

And so we're getting ahead of it and doing it now, and it's undoubtedly the right thing to do.

We're launching a market engagement exercise for commercial offerings and technologies that will be available over time.

It's a real opportunity for people around the world.

So this is really the end of one 50-year journey - from RUC in 1977 to the start of the next journey. We're changing the law, doing the market engagement, looking at rolling out the system in 2027. Let's face it, it might be 2028 – but, you know, what's a year between friends for a once-in-ageneration reform? ITS z This is an edited version of a speech

given at ITS UK’s RUC Conference

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State of the Art Weigh-In-Motion Systems

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WEIGH IN MOTION

What’s keeping WiM operators up at night?

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and perhaps this is an even more visible problem.

And yet there is still the nagging sense that WiM is continually fighting to prove its worth in an industry where, admittedly, financial pressures are very real. In any business, good quality costs money. But is everyone prepared to pay?

With all that in mind, we asked WiM professionals to join us on ITS International’s therapy couch. We got these experts to settle in, relax, speak freely and tell us: what is the one thing keeping you – or your clients – up at night?

The answers may surprise you…

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hen it comes to Weigh in Motion (WiM) operation, there are a lot of variables to take into account.

From weather conditions to infrastructure decline, certification, calibration and standards, and onto transport agency budgets and the vagaries of the tender process itself – the list goes on. A well-ordered WiM operation is a vital component of safer, more efficient, more resilient roads. Highways in many parts of the world are ageing, and need careful treatment if their useful life is to be prolonged. Authorities need to know exactly what weights of vehicles are travelling – and which vehicles shouldn’t be there at all. It’s the same for bridges,

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ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

www.itsinternational.com - updated content every working day

WEIGH IN MOTION

Thomas Greene Business development & strategy, Q-Free

Václav Blahník Product manager of telematics, Cross Zlín

“Accuracy and drift management. Without confidence in the data, all other efforts lose value. Maintaining system reliability and ensuring it produces actionable, high-quality information is crucial.”

"The demand for WiM is increasing worldwide, which is certainly positive. Road authorities are aware of the necessity to invest in WiM systems and thus protect their investments in the construction and maintenance of road infrastructure. What is keeping us awake at night is that in tenders for the supply of WiM systems, they no longer intend to accept requirements for the quality and geometry of the road. The problem is the planned budgets, which are prepared on the basis of indicative offers of the WiM system itself. However, as part of the installation, it is also necessary to calculate the costs of road repairs and reconstruction. In practice, however, it happens countless times that the road authority approaches the problem in such a way that it is the responsibility of the WiM supplier, that if it needs a repaired road, it is up to it, but the price is given, unchangeable. The result is the delivered WiM that does not meet the required accuracy. This leads to the road authority's dissatisfaction with the result and subsequent distrust in WiM systems as such. Even the best WiM system is not able to substitute the basic requirements. It's like trying to build a solid house without a foundation."

Florian Weiss CEO and owner, Traffic Data Systems “Actually, it’s always the same issues that concern us as manufacturers. In general, I believe there are still too few tenders for WiM systems, even though the quality of infrastructure is declining in more and more countries, leading to restrictions on road use (speed and weight limits). Therefore, accurate data about road usage should be needed. To this day, government agencies and private road operators are not truly familiar with the topic of WiM, which leads to poorly-drafted tenders and allows some companies to claim they can offer WiM systems even though they aren’t able to do so. This results in poorly-functioning systems that provide even poorer data, a fact the customer eventually notices. The money has already been spent, the customer is not satisfied and spreads his opinion that WiM doesn’t work. For example, authorities put out a tender for the construction of a WiM system and its operation for 10 years, including two maintenance and calibration visits per year (rental trucks required), all spare parts, and any necessary sensor replacements, including installation and traffic safety measures. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that you can’t build, calibrate, and commission a two-lane WIM system for just over €200,000. Over a 10-year period, all sensors must be replaced at least once, if not twice. This can never be achieved with a budget of just over €200,000 euros. Yet such contracts are still awarded.”

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Leonardo Guerson WiM product manager and application engineer, Intercomp “A key focus in the WiM industry today is long-term stability. While achieving high accuracy immediately after calibration is important, the greater challenge is maintaining consistent performance over time and across varying environmental conditions.

Recalibration can be costly and disruptive, and in direct enforcement applications, stability must be carefully managed to

preserve confidence in the system. This industry-wide focus has also driven the evolution of high-accuracy, HS-WiM systems, particularly with strain gauge strip sensors, where developments have centred on signal stability and inherently low sensitivity to external influences. As a result, there is growing emphasis on technologies and practices that deliver stable, repeatable performance over the long term.”

Daniel Kneubühl MD, Haenni Instruments “The fact that there are still no reasonable regulations or standards in place worldwide for the legal use of these systems. By ‘reasonable,’ I mean legally enforceable rules.”

David Cornu Head of business unit traffic solutions, Kistler “The immense benefits of WiM systems for automatically detecting overloaded vehicles have been well known for many years. Many road authorities aim to implement direct weight enforcement, where overloaded vehicles are immediately fined based on WiM data - ensuring highly efficient weighing with minimal resource use and space requirements. The technology for this is already available, such as Kistler’s advanced WiM systems, which are OIML-certified for legal enforcement. However, in many countries the process required to obtain governmental approval for using WiM as a direct enforcement tool is complex and lengthy. Multiple administrative procedures, interdepartmental reviews, and regulatory hurdles often lead to significant delays, often taking several years before final approval is granted. This means that one of the major challenges for operators is seeing this goal not being implemented quickly enough.”

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

When roads think ahead AI is quietly transforming corridor safety and emergency response, says practical AI use-case specialist Simon Davidoff

Early warning before the first crash One category of technology now in use turns ordinary vehicles into rolling ITS International: supporting the ITS industry for 30 years

road-surface sensors. Using existing onboard units (OBUs) to detect suspension response, ABS activity, braking force, and wheel rotation, AI models estimate road friction. Low friction means risk: black ice, slush, wet leaves, or early freeze.

Because the system relies on vehicles already travelling the corridor, it requires no roadside hardware.

“

The value [of AI] is not replacing judgment but reducing cognitive load during a high-stress response. Each incident becomes input for improving the next one

“

T

he rain had stopped hours earlier. By evening, traffic was moving normally and weather conditions looked unremarkable. Overnight, temperatures dropped just enough to matter and residual moisture lingered on bridges, ramps and shaded stretches of the road. No obvious visual cues on cameras. But inside vehicles travelling the corridor, subtle changes were already being recorded.

Vehicle onboard systems detected suspension movement, wheel slip, braking patterns, and vibration signatures -- quietly building a real-time picture of road friction and surface degradation.

This stream of data, anonymised and aggregated across vehicles on the road, pointed to a developing risk: black ice forming before the traffic management centre (TMC) could see it or was getting alerts. Operators were not receiving calls and the corridor appeared fine.

What follows next is based on a fictitious incident, but it is an all-too-common occurrence in real life. This article is intended to be an illustration of just how clever, intelligent and practical these AI-driven use cases - and their associated, innovative technologies - have become.

As more vehicles send usable signals, accuracy increases. Confidence improves as models are continuously trained against verified conditions and known problem locations such as bridges, ramps and shaded curves.

On the morning of our fictitious incident, these signals alerted the TMC well before traditional RWIS stations or operators would have received reports.

Operators reviewed the alert alongside camera feeds and weather data, then escalated as needed.

Maintenance supervisors were notified. Emergency partners were placed on standby. Treatment plans were staged for targeted locations.

By the time the first spin-out occurred, the team and system were already moving from awareness to action.

When prediction ends, execution takes over Conditions continued to degrade, and - despite warnings - a multi-vehicle crash occurred. The TMC initiated its standard operating procedures (SOPs), supported by a cloud-based incident-management platform designed for TMC operators.

The system supported operators by: 1. Surfacing the correct SOP, ensuring no step was missed.

2. Providing the right person to call at the right time, facilitating efficient communications between the TMC, dispatchers, responders and corridor partners.

3. Capturing every action and timestamp, generating a continuous operational record and easing the documentation burden for operators.

Nothing was automated without operator confirmation. The value was not replacing judgment but reducing cognitive load during a high-stress response. © ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

37

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Post-incident analysis focused on what actually happened: notification timing, coordination delays, and response sequencing. Over time, these records allow agencies to refine SOPs based on evidence from past incidents.

Each incident becomes input for improving the next one.

Emergency vehicle priority without breaking signal operations As fire, emergency medical and police vehicles were dispatched, traffic signal priority was enabled by AI along the route.

Unlike traditional preemption systems that disrupt coordination broadly, newer approaches work within existing signal constraints. They use real-time GPS feeds from emergency vehicles, signal-timing plans, and corridor traffic conditions to create the fastest possible path through the corridor.

They consider: 1. Emergency vehicle speed and acceleration.

2. Signal state, timing cycles and transition constraints.

3. Traffic density approaching each intersection.

4. Conflicts created by multiple responding units.

The system dynamically instructed signals to turn green when needed, then returned to normal coordination once vehicles cleared the corridor.

No signal hardware was replaced. Unlike older preemption systems, this one improves its predictions over time as it learns corridor behaviour. Responders arrived faster and more safely than under standard signal operations.

What improved after the incident The immediate response ended. But the learning continued: 1. Vehicle data continued streaming friction, hazard and pothole data.

2. Incident documentations supported focused after-action reviews, identifying where minutes were lost and where procedures worked as intended.

3. Signal-priority data informed future response routing and timing assumptions for similar events.

None of these systems operated independently. None required operators to defer blindly to automation. Each supported decisions that already exist in TMC workflows, using better data and clearer feedback.

Over time, as more TMCs deploy these types of systems across a region, the entire corridor becomes: 1. More predictive, because AI sees surface changes before humans can.

2. More consistent, because SOPs are easily accessible and improve over time.

3. More resilient, because each response informs the next.

4. More efficient, because maintenance becomes data-driven.

Corridor safety shifts from reactive problem solving to incremental operational improvements.

A quiet revolution in transportation management None of the technologies require new hardware on poles. None require replacing signals.

They do not remove operators from control. They augment systems agencies already rely on, using data we already collect, with intelligence we’ve never before been able to apply at this scale. All leverage secure, cloud-based, scalable platforms. All leverage AI and software.

For transportation agencies and TMCs facing rising crash rates, shrinking budgets, and new government expectations for digital modernisation, the opportunity is not a dream, but within reach right now.

It is a practical shift toward corridors that detect risk earlier, respond more consistently and improve with each event. ITS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Simon Davidoff has held senior roles at Aecom and Siemens Mobility, and is an independent advisor to start-ups at the intersection of AI, transportation O&M and ITS commercialisation

Road conditions deteriorate AI-On Board With data from the vehicle's suspension system, ABS activity, braking force,and wheel dynamics, AI derives a live estimate of road friction

TMC

AI-Driven SOP Optimisation Transforming, human-driven response workflows into AI-driven, repeatable, documented, data-improving processes. Events become training data for the next one

Maintenance Use Case The same AI-enabled intel reveals road surface wear, allowing DOTs to detect potholes, rutting, and localized failures early - and even recommend optimal maintenance timing

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© ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

Emergency vehicles respond

AI-Transit Signal Priority Cloud-based traffic signal optimisation, using real-time GPS feeds from emergency vehicles, signal-timing plans, and predictive AI models to "learn" the fastest possible path

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Accident happens

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Getting closer to Vision Zero Protecting and Serving Generations Every 24 seconds, a life is lost on the road. Families and friends are devastated.

Let’s change it with e.g. detection of: – Speed and red light violations – Seat belt violations and mobile phone use – Illegal driving maneuvers We will get you closer to Vision Zero. Get in touch with us now!

Watch the video!

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TOLLING

© Emovis

Emovis strengthens presence in US through customer service operations for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise

E

movis, a global expert in toll-based mobility products, services and solutions, continues to reinforce its positioning in the US market through the customer service operations for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, one of the leading transportation and tolling agencies in the US. This collaboration, active since last August and approaching its first year of operation, reflects Emovis’ capability to manage end-user customer services in complex, high-demand operational environments with high quality standards.

The SunPass Customer Service Center, managed by Emovis, initiated operations in September 2025. These significant

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milestones have enabled the consolidation of a local structure and strengthened operational proximity to the client. This footprint in Florida has facilitated the deployment of a working model aligned with operational excellence and with the ambition to deliver a consistent experience for customers of Florida’s turnpike system and Florida's toll roads and bridges.

Under this contract, Emovis delivers customer service through a robust, statewide operation anchored by a large-scale Orlando contact center spanning more than 30,000 square feet, complemented by seven walk-in locations distributed across Florida and supported by a workforce of over 300 professionals.

Customer experience is central to the operating model, with digitally engaged customers benefiting from responsive chat support and intuitive self-service options through interactive voice response (IVR).

Customers requiring additional assistance— whether in person or over the phone— receive timely, comprehensive support.

Together, these capabilities highlight the strength, scalability, and effectiveness of the Emovis customer service model, as well as its continued alignment with the service expectations typical of contracts of this nature.

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is considered one of Emovis’ key strategic partners due to its scale and its benchmark role in

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© Emovis

© Giovanni Gagliardi | Dreamstime.com

TOLLING

Emovis in the US In the US, Emovis continues to expand its operational footprint and capabilities within the toll based mobility ecosystem. Anchored by its US headquarters in Miami, the company is currently developing projects across five cities in different regions of the country, supported by a growing local structure that enables close operational engagement.

This expansion is driven by an integrated approach combining tech-

nological capability, operational expertise, and customer service delivery, brought together within comprehensive free flow tolling solutions focused on efficiency and revenue protection.

From roadside systems to advanced customer service models and omnichannel engagement, Emovis’ ongoing development in the US reflects its role as a technical and operational partner supporting the evolution of the full tolling value chain.

© Emovis

the North American market. In this regard, the operation not only highlights Emovis’ ability to integrate and deploy its own solutions, but also its experience in operating services on third-party technology stacks when required by the client’s environment.

This operational flexibility is key to ensuring service continuity, accelerating adoption, and maximizing the value of existing platforms.

Emovis believes in empowering the future of intelligent mobility by driving a progressive evolution of the current technology stack, incorporating new capabilities aimed at enhancing end-user service and operational efficiency. These include the implementation of advanced IVR solutions and, in the near future, the integration of AI agent-based assistance systems. This roadmap strengthens the quality of service delivered to its clients and, in particular, elevates the experience of end users who rely daily on Florida’s toll road network.

Beyond operations, Emovis also brings its most advanced proprietary products to the customer service environment. In particular, Emovis Interact acts as a holistic omnichannel engine, enabling multiple interaction channels so that each user can choose the one that best suits their needs, while customer service teams manage interactions in a seamless and efficient manner. This approach consolidates a modern service model, designed to operate consistently in high-volume environments with diverse use cases.

Looking ahead, Emovis will continue to invest in innovation and technology to ensure that every interaction contributes to a more efficient, sustainable service, and one that is fully prepared to protect its clients’ revenues. ITS O Content produced in association with Emovis and Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise

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SMART. SAFE. SUSTAINABLE. THE WORLD’S LEADING EVENTS ON MOBILITY & TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY

7 - 10 MAR 2028

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URBAN AIR MOBILITY

The problem with drones Drones seem to have potential in urban logistics – but it may not be quite as simple as it appears: Beate Kubitz takes a look at the rules and regulations around urban airspace…

U

ncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) technology features in future transport ambitions across Europe - attracting substantial investment and huge market size predictions with governments forecasting enormous economic benefits. The use cases for drones are diverse – from transporting emergency medical materials to off-shore resupply; and from traffic circulation or incident monitoring to crop survey. While some models are being developed for passenger transport, many logistics operators are eyeing them to enable deployment for package (and even food) delivery in dense urban areas.

The European Union drone market is projected to be worth €14.5 billion by 2030, with economic benefits predicted to exceed that many times and with at least 100,000 flights per day forecast by the Drone Leaders Group in 2022. Such optimistic projections imply busy skies: one PWC UK paper - ‘Skies without Limits: The potential to take the UK’s economy to new heights’ - suggests ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

between seven and 49 airborne vehicle deliveries per minute in a city the size of Manchester, UK, and other papers suggest even higher numbers.

Enthusiasts may see skies buzzing with drones as a near-term inevitability, but the reality is that regulations going beyond the status quo are still under consideration. Current regulatory frameworks in most countries limit drone operations to within visual line of sight (VLOS) and provide for other requirements including basic identification of each drone and the registration of operators, with progressively detailed rules and operator testing depending on the size of the vehicle.

Additionally, operators must confirm that no air-space restrictions are in place before each flight (online real-time maps are maintained by most aviation authorities that must be referred to), and maintain mandated distances from crowds and other people not participating in whatever activity the drone is engaged in. These conditions generally apply to drones up to a given weight (e.g. 25kg in the UK) and within a strict definition

of ‘line of sight’ in which the operator can see the drone in sufficient detail (for instance, to direct and land it safely if other airspace users are sighted).

Complex framework For other use cases, ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) permission is required.

Currently in most countries this flight-byflight approval of BVLOS has proved to be long-drawn-out and onerous, involving multiple agencies – restricting the agile use of drones (for instance, in medical emergency deliveries or to react to a collision). However, given the complexity of ground conditions (from people to buildings or sensitive environments) and the complexity of airspace in which commercial, military and civil emergency aircraft need to be coordinated, developing the regulatory framework to manage BVLOS drone flights dynamically has proved complex.

U-Space is a series of European projects designed to develop, test and manage the flight environment for drones, particularly to test frameworks for © ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

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URBAN AIR MOBILITY

“

coordination between traditional air traffic management and innovative air mobility so that flights under specific conditions can be permitted in real time in future.

These projects are testing the interplay between the digital identification of drones, tracking them in real time, and dynamic air-space reconfigurations in which drone routes can be opened, rerouted and closed depending on information about other airspace users and aircraft. Attaining a managed flight environment will mean that more drones for different use cases will ultimately be able to operate.

While this is a complex technical challenge, there’s a further layer of management that is possibly not truly appreciated by those solving what – to them - is a safety and efficiency problem.

Over their heads Although safe management is in the hands of aviation authorities, residents tend to expect their local authorities - as democraticallyelected representatives and officials - to have some control over their environment, including the environment over their heads.

This is not necessarily a given. For instance, the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has recently published its BVLOS draft regulations to enable operations.

There, while local authorities are expected to respond to public issues and to have a clear plan for how they will do so, there is not (so far) a clear process by which local authorities can restrict flights for the benefit of residents, as the FAA is still the authority on who can and can’t fly.

Engagement around trial drone flights in the UK showed that there is some support for drone usage where there is a medical need for rapid delivery. For instance, the E-Drone project in the south of England’s Solent region looked at the potential of

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integrated logistics solutions using drones alongside traditional and sustainable last-mile delivery solutions (e.g. vans and cargo bikes).

The project uses a case study approach based on NHS patient diagnostic specimen transportation involving simulated and live trials – and helped people understand the reality of drones before a series of flights across the region were launched.

Choices and trade-offs Virtual reality headsets, surveys and ‘serious games’ helped people understand the choices and trade-offs which would be made to enable the use of drones in logistics. While there was more support of drone use in healthcare contexts, there was also a clear difference between the acceptability of overflight of commercial and business areas and of people in leisure, relaxation and home scenarios. In other words, people valued having peace and tranquillity in their homes, and in nature.

There are still issues to resolve around the integration of local authority input with the technical ‘air traffic management’ of complex drone spaces, and the final issue could be that the benefits aren’t quite as clearcut as may be assumed.

Time savings are not quite as great – because drone flightpaths will still need to respect excluded areas - and cost savings

are unlikely. One study of pathology-sample logistics in Southampton, UK, suggested that shifting to drones would more than double the costs compared to future ‘business as usual’ predictions – partly because the small payloads would require a lot of drone movements (estimated at 40 per hour around the hospital delivery point). Even these cost predictions are based on ‘near perfect weather’ and better automation than at present.

Sensitive to weather Drones are also highly sensitive to weather, which makes it difficult to guarantee deliveries. Very few have a ‘gust tolerance’ of over 50km/hour and so far there is limited resistance to rain. It’s possible to see roles for drones that are less controversial and can be postponed in the event of wind and rain – for instance, in remote-infrastructure surveying or agriculture. However their use in congested cities with residential areas, crowds and significant cultural landmarks or in sensitive ecologies is not settled.

Even while the regulatory frameworks are proving complex – and integrating the need people (and the environment) have for peace is not yet a given – there is still a big question mark over the real benefits of mass adoption. ITS

There could be more public appetite for drones addressing a medical need

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Developing the regulatory framework to manage BVLOS drone flights dynamically has proved complex

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Residents may not be thrilled about the skies above them becoming a drone highway

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FUTURE-READY TECHNOLOGY

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WATCH THE VIDEO

June 9-12, 2026 Huntington Place, Detroit, Michigan

EMPOWERING INNOVATION ITS America Conference & Expo, taking place June 9-12, 2026 at the Huntington Place, Detroit, Michigan, will explore Empowering Innovation and bring together the entire intelligent transportation community for thought-provoking education, networking, and demonstrations exploring the technologies and solutions that will enable a better future.

REGISTER TODAY: ITSAMERICAEVENTS2026.COM/ROPL

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PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS

Q-FREE UNVEILS NEXT-GEN OBU1010 Q-Free says its new OBU1010 in-vehicle transponder marks a significant step forward in the evolution of DSRC transponder technology. Dedicated shortrange communications (DSRC) is a technology for direct wireless exchange of Vehicle to Everything (V2X) and other intelligent transportation systems' data between vehicles, other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists and roadside infrastructure, including traffic signals and electronic message signs. The firm says its OBU1010 reflects a new benchmark for DSRC performance by combining ultra-low power consumption, enhanced RF resilience

and a compact, highly integrated design with a significantly reduced product carbon footprint. Purpose-built RF filtering ensures reliable operations in increasingly dense radio environments, enabling stable, highperformance communication alongside evolving wireless technologies.Its compact, discreet form factor blends seamlessly into the vehicle interior while enabling efficient, costeffective distribution. An integrated transport mode prevents unintended communication prior to installation, minimising battery drain during storage and ensuring devices are ready for deployment.The OBU1010 supports a wide range of applications including electronic tolling, congestion charging, access control and parking. Q-Free said it is currently working with partners on product certification, with initial deployments expected later this year. www.q-free.com

Flow Labs opens up signal data to agencies Flow Labs has launched Flow API, a suite of application programming interfaces available to transportation agencies. It offers programmatic access to the Flow platform's signal-performance measures and mobility data, which the firm says reflects its commitment to openness. “Transportation agencies invest significantly in their data infrastructure and deserve to get full value from it," says Jatish Patel, CEO at Flow Labs. "Too much of this industry has been built around closed systems and vendor lock-in, keeping agencies dependent on proprietary workflows rather than empowering them to use their data on their own terms. Flow API is our answer to that — open, accessible, and built to integrate with the systems agencies already run.”

The solution includes signals APIs for real-time and historical signal-performance measures which can be fed directly into any system an agency is running, whenever it is required, Flow Labs says. It also contains segment APIs for real-time and historical mobility data, which can all be integrated into advanced traffic management systems platforms and traffic management centre tools. Flow Labs says that transportation agencies pull data from dozens of sources — such as controllers, detectors, connected vehicles, GIS and third-party platforms — and need their analytics infrastructure "to work alongside those systems, not in isolation from them". www.flowlabs.ai

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STREETVISION NOW ANALYSES INTERSECTION-LEVEL RISKS

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Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT)'s AI road safety platform StreetVision can now analyse risk at the highway intersection level.

The company - which has just had a $350m boost from investors - says StreetVision Intersections is the first system to fully integrate in a single platform US federal and state crash records with telematics-based driving-behaviour data such as speeding, hard braking, phone distraction and aggressive cornering. According to the US Federal Highway Administration, intersections account for roughly 25% of all US traffic deaths and 50% of all traffic injuries, despite representing a small share of roadway mileage. These crashes are driven by a mix @ITS International Magazine

of risky behaviour that traditional crash data alone cannot fully explain. StreetVision is entirely software-based; no cameras, sensors or roadside hardware is required. It's built on CMT's opt-in mobility safety network, where drivers collectively cover the entire US roadway system of 4.2 million miles (nearly 6.8 million km) every 38 minutes.

The platform uses AI to analyse millions of high-frequency driving-risk signals and predict where risk is concentrating at the street level. The raw data is translated into anonymised, location-based insights stored in a geospatial database covering every roadway classification. www.cmtelematics.com © ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

47

PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS

MONOTCH ADDS PLUG-AND-PLAY TO TLEX Monotch's update to its TLEX data-sharing platform will simplify deployment, enabling plug-and-play ecosystems, the company says. TLEX - which won the User Experience Award at the Intertraffic Awards

2026 - connects road infrastructure, road users, applications, AI models, and data-exchange networks. The latest release "helps organisations move from integration effort to measurable impact", Monotch insists. The new plugand-play aspect is designed to simplify onboarding for infrastructure, service providers and partners.

Monotch also points to streamlined application and AI integration which "enable organisations to move faster from integration to operation — activating and scaling high-impact mobility services within a controlled environment".

Authorities can expand gradually without rebuilding the digital foundation of their operations, with support packages reducing complexity and shortening the time to operational impact, which the firm says will make it easier to roll out new services and achieve measurable results.

“With this major update, we are making scalable impact the default,” says Menno Malta, CEO of Monotch. “TLEX now enables organisations to integrate faster, take control, and grow their digital mobility ecosystem with confidence.” www.monotch.com

SYNAPSE LAUNCHES SYO TO EXERT SIGNAL CONTROL Geoff Wilcox, CEO of Synapse ITS. “This is about driving meaningful innovation that gives our customers clearer insight into their operations, faster response to issues, and greater confidence in how they manage critical infrastructure every day.”

EDI signal-monitor users will get faster visibility as issues arise, with text and email alerts helping teams understand when and where a problem occurs. They will also be able to remotely access detailed device logs and status to diagnose and troubleshoot issues before dispatching technicians into the field. Synapse is the umbrella brand for intelligent transportation firms Polara, Carmanah, EDI, Diablo Controls and Availed. www.synapse-its.com

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Synapse ITS has launched SYO, a traffic-signal monitoring solution designed to bring device data, diagnostics, and operational insight into a single, secure environment on its platform.

It connects compatible Eberle Design (EDI) signal monitors into what Synapse calls "a scalable ecosystem" supporting "dozens or even thousands of intersections, depending on an agency’s needs". Users get a view of what's happening on the road with SYO (pronounced sigh-oh), and can access critical information via a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer.

“With SYO, we are taking the next step in Synapse’s evolution by moving beyond individual products and delivering a true, connected ecosystem,” said

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ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

BABA compliance for Sensys products Sensys Networks says its wireless and radar traffic detection products are now fully compliant with "current and upcoming" Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act needs. It says its USmanufactured components meet both Phase 1 (domestic final assembly of manufactured products) and upcoming Phase 2 (at least 55% US-sourced component content by cost) requirements.

BABA is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and created 'Made in USA' standards for federally-funded infrastructure projects. US agencies seeking federal money for ITS initiatives and deployments need to be working with vendors whose products are BABA-compliant. "With [federal] waiver expirations and stricter compliance now in force, agencies need suppliers they can trust," says Brian Fuller, president of Sensys Networks. "Our partners can move forward confidently - without having to seek waivers or compromise on timelines. We've invested in domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience for over a decade." Sensys' wireless sensor systems and radar systems are manufactured, assembled, and tested in the US, with core operations based in Oakland, California and Mankato, Minnesota. www.sensysnetworks.com

ITS International: supporting the ITS industry since 1995

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PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS

STREETLIGHT’S CLOSURE TOOL AIMS TO MAKE IMPACTS StreetLight Data has launched Closure Impacts, a forecasting tool for operations teams. The firm says the tool enables faster lane-closure-scenario planning. This will help teams anticipate the impact of closures on traffic flow and design effective and safety-focused diversions. StreetLight says

Closure Impacts was shaped through months of collaboration and beta testing with US departments of transportation as well as architecture, engineering and construction firms. It incorporates real-world feedback from teams already using it to manage workzone traffic and incidents. The new tool

is part of StreetLight’s Traffic Monitor product, a platform which aims to show operations teams a bird’s-eye view of real-time traffic activity paired with historical trends - without requiring additional field infrastructure such as new sensors. With the new tool, Traffic Monitor allows engineers developing maintenance of traffic and other traffic control plans for construction, repair works and resiliency planning to evaluate closure scenarios in minutes by comparing multiple lane-closure scenarios, reducing time, cost, and complex modelling effort. They can also forecast traffic spillover by visualising where traffic is likely to divert across arterials and neighbourhood streets, identifying potential pressure points before congestion develops.

Low-impact work windows can be selected by identifying times when highway closures will have the least impact on local roads. Traffic Monitor also includes advanced analytics, a real-time incident feed, live speed, travel-time visibility and the ability to replay past event days in order to plan future events. Features also include queuing and route monitoring to support real-time traffic operations and decision-making. StreetLight, acquired

by Jacobs as a wholly owned subsidiary in February 2024, said its proprietary Route Science engine - powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence - transforms data into contextualised, multimodal travel patterns. www.streetlightdata.com

PARKING SYSTEMS

ADVANCED PARKING TECHNOLOGIES Follow us on LinkedIn

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Comprehensive parking solutions. Parking on streets and in car parks has never been easier.

www.cross-traffic.com

© ITS INTERNATIONAL MARCH/APRIL 2026

49

PRODUCTS & INNOVATIONS

SERNIS PRODUCES INDUCTIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR HIGH-STRESS URBAN CORRIDORS

Urban hyper-congestion and the expansion of dynamic traffic corridors have drastically compressed the available windows for infrastructure maintenance.

In environments handling upwards of 120,000 vehicles daily - like the BUS-VAO Madrid lanes - road operators face extreme pressure to perform vital upkeep without causing severe disruptions. While traditional wired road studs remain a highly reliable foundation for permanent installations, the extreme operational demands and restricted night-time maintenance schedules of modern dynamic lanes dictate a highly responsive approach to component replacement. Engineered to deliver the fastest road stud replacement ever, the SERNIS SR-45C-IPW and SR-48C-IPW introduced an advanced inductive power architecture to active road signalling.

The system utilises a modular Plug & Light design secured by a precise O-ring seal. Power and data transfer occur inductively between the base and the light

module, eliminating physical wiring at the component interface. Built for extreme mechanical stress, these snow-ploughready units have IP68 and IK10 protection while withstanding load resistances of up to 120 tonnes. The internal hardware connects with intelligent traffic controllers, enabling real-time status monitoring and dynamic signalling adjustments based on active-lane configurations. Drawing on Sernis’ extensive engineering lineage in road stud development, this inductive architecture ensures the structural integrity of the pavement remains completely intact during module upgrades. By allowing technicians to swap the electronic components rapidly without new drilling or

trenching, the system reduces maintenance downtime to absolute minimums. This precise engineering significantly lowers long-term operational costs and guarantees continuous traffic management in critical infrastructure projects. www.sernis.com • Content produced in association with Sernis. This article is part of the SERNIS internationalization project (identified as COMPETE2030-FEDER-01440000 Incentive System to the Internationalization of SMEs according to Portugal 2030) and is co-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) from European Union, framed in the Norte 2030

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Intelligence that Moves the World

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