International

The New Swedish Public Transport Act has created much flutter in the transport world. While experts feel the need for private and public sector to co-exist is strong, skeptics fear it might be a move to off-load risk.

Dubai Metro, which promises to become the world’s largest Metro soon, will also be known for a unique initiative in the Middle East – the combi-card. This card will be a combination of a credit card and an electronic smart card that will enable commuters to pay for various transport modes in Dubai as well as use it as a credit card.

IRD South Asia (IRDSA) Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Canada-based International Road Dynamics, Inc (IRD), recently achieved the milestone of providing 1000 lanes of toll roads. It has also completed operation and maintenance of 316km of roads and 330km of HTMS (Highway Transportation Management System). IRDSA’s HTMS features high accuracy axle and vehicle classification, and is integrated with video, WIM, ...

A survey of 1,000 drivers by Santander, a car insurance firm in the UK, has found that men are twice prone to be distracted while driving when compared with women. 11% of the men surveyed were found to have got into accidents because of not concentrating on the road while driving. The corresponding figure for women drivers was 5%. About ...

TagMaster, a well known Swedish RFID solutions provider, has announced that it will be a part of Siemens Mobility’s solutions for better traffic management and Selective Vehicle Detection (SDV). TagMaster’s long-range RFID readers and ID-tags will play a critical part in Siemens Mobility’s solutions. The company’s mobility solution was presented at the recent Traffex trade show which was held in ...

Peter Ramsauer, German Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Development on a three day visit to India, highlighted the importance of electric mobility by building more electric cars. The Minister emphasised the importance of building an energy efficient transport sector and the commitment of the German government in promoting electric mobility. Germany hopes to have about a million electric vehicles on ...

An Australian company has introduced an environment-friendly tyre recycling technology that eliminates toxic emissions and produces high quality rubber products. The latter are useful in the construction of roads and railway sleepers.

A research team in Berlin has come up with cars that can be controlled by mind. This new breakthrough in technology can now empower physically challenged people to drive their own cars.

Public Transport : The smart green solution The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) unveiled its vision for urban transport in 2025 at the UITP Dubai 2011 World Congress in April. It compared the economic, environmental and social impact of urban transport in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and in a ‘PTx2’ scenario. Based on well-documented urban economic and technological development ...

Aclides Leão and his team of scientists in Brazil have developed a renewable plastic that could revolutionise the manufacture of automobiles. The team described its work recently at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The nano-cellulose fibres developed by the scientists are about 30-40% lighter but about three to four times stronger than the conventional plastic used in ...