United Kingdom
SP Energy Networks launches an online tool to increase the number of installations of charging stations for electric vehicles in the UK
Traffic Technology Today 24.09.2021
SP Energy Networks has announced the launch of a free interactive online map designed to help the UK meet the demand for charging electric vehicles. The ConnectMore Interactive Map (CIM) is part of a larger set of ConnectMore tools being developed as part of the Charge project, which will help businesses and local authorities identify suitable locations for new charging stations and estimate the cost of connecting them to the network.
The Charge Project is an initiative of SP Energy Networks and its partners EA Technology, PTV Group and Smarter Grid Solutions to accelerate the deployment of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Cheshire, Merseyside, North Shropshire, as well as in North and Mid Wales. It is also an important part of SP Energy Networks' commitment to help the UK achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.
CIM is a free online tool that allows users - for example, local councils, site owners, developers and operators - to quickly and easily determine where the demand for public electric vehicle charging can be high, as well as where it can be met by the electric grid with minimal need for new cables or equipment."CIM could potentially change the rules of the game for installing public charging stations," says Jeff Murphy, Charge Project manager at SP Energy Networks. "In the past, both local authorities and businesses refused to invest in charging electric vehicles, because establishing the expected demand and the feasibility of installation was often too time-consuming and complex an issue. CIM can change this forever by quickly providing the hard evidence needed to implement projects. "
CIM works by assessing both the potential regional demand for public charging of electric vehicles and the ease of connection to the existing electric grid in the area. By allowing these two data sets to be viewed together on an interactive map, CIM can determine the optimal locations for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations and help in the development of an implementation strategy.
The expected data on the demand for electric vehicles in CIM are shown according to four future scenarios, which are based on various assumptions about the consumption of electric vehicles and are displayed in five-year increments between 2025 and 2050. Users can easily switch between the four scenarios to see how the use of a particular area or site may differ for different electric vehicle and infrastructure projects.
"While everyone agrees that charging should be available to everyone, the introduction of publicly available charging points remains slow," says Dave A. Roberts, commercial director of EA Technology. "CIM will help the decision-making process for new stations by answering questions about expected consumption, the number of chargers needed and the type that will work best. The data provided is more of a forecast than a guaranteed result, but they will still significantly improve the economic justification for installing charging stations. "
Vision of sustainable transport centers
Traffic Technology Today 24.09.2021
The British public transport operator Go-Ahead Group, in partnership with the engineering and consulting firm Arup, has published a project of sustainable mobility centers, which aims to improve the sustainability and connectivity between transport services throughout the UK.The Future Mobility Hubs project provides for better integration of public transport with walking, cycling, micro mobility and digital services, providing a fast and easy connection between sustainable modes of transport.
The plan uses a flexible structure for a network of transport interchanges that can be adapted to various cities, suburbs and rural areas across the UK.Mark Anderson, Go-Ahead's commercial director, said: "Today we are setting out a vision of what bus stops and interchanges may look like in the future. For the UK to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, we need millions of people to switch from cars to public transport. We will be able to achieve this as a country only if we think big, work closely with local authorities and come up with ideas to make sustainable transport as attractive as possible."
Go-Ahead Group and local authorities are working on a bus service improvement plan (BSIP), which will be submitted for participation in a tender for a share of funding in the amount of 3 billion pounds (4.1 billion US dollars) under the "Bus Back Better" program - the state strategy for the development of bus services.
European Union
A coalition of transport stakeholders has issued a joint statement calling for public transport and active mobility to be at the heart of the EU's future Urban Mobility Framework
Intelligent transport 27.09.2021
In a joint statement on the European Union (EU) Urban Mobility Framework, a broad coalition of transport stakeholders stressed that public transport and active mobility should be the foundation on which to build the necessary changes in our urban mobility systems.
The statement says that public transport and active mobility are the most sustainable, affordable, democratic, reliable and sustainable modes of transport, and therefore should be the basis of the new EU urban mobility concept.
The statement stresses the importance of accelerating the development of sustainable urban mobility plans, the formation of appropriate financing opportunities and the creation of a good basis for cooperation between public and private players.
Key recommendations contained in the statement include:
- ensuring that sustainable urban mobility plans accelerate the implementation of sustainable and collective mobility;
- support for sustainable mobility with appropriate financing opportunities;
- creation of multimodal mobility in the field.
The European Commission (EC) should ensure that Member States fulfill their obligations and support their local authorities in ensuring sustainable urban mobility.
"The message we are sending to the European Commission today is unequivocal: promoting public transport and active mobility is the only way to achieve the EU climate goals and improve the quality of life in cities. By providing affordable mobility for everyone, these sustainable methods also help to solve environmental problems, improve the health and well-being of EU citizens. In order to facilitate a much-needed change in the mode of transport, we call on the Commission to make public transport and active mobility the basis of the future concept of urban mobility," said Thomas Avanzata, spokesman for the Committee of the European Union.
Lithuania
A new partnership has been created to improve safety at railway crossings with heavy traffic
Traffic Technology Today 23.09.2021
Cepton, a Silicon Valley provider of intelligent LIDAR technology solutions, has teamed up with Lithuanian system integrator Belam to improve the safety of road users and train passengers by using LIDAR devices to detect obstacles at level crossings.
Thanks to the partnership with Cepton, Belam was able to provide accurate detection of obstacles at a busy railway crossing using an automated system that minimized unnecessary stops. As a result, the traffic flow at the intersection has become more efficient.Since LIDAR devices at any time of the day and weather conditions, Vista-P90 devices deployed as part of the Helius system have surpassed other tested technologies in creating three-dimensional images of cars, people and other objects with high resolution. The Helius Perception program processed LIDAR data to accurately classify objects and track their speed and location in real time.
Integrated together with other sensors, including video surveillance cameras used to record license plates during traffic violations, and meteorological sensors used to determine weather conditions, LIDAR Cepton devices have made it possible to create an intelligent railway crossing, providing key information necessary for analyzing traffic and initiating appropriate safety responses..
As a result, the Belam system has achieved an obstacle detection accuracy of more than 99.9%. This level of accuracy allowed the move to achieve a higher safety rating and doubled the throughput twice as fast.
USA
Geotab ITS launches a new transport analytics platform in the USA and Canada
Traffic Technology Today 21.09.2021
Geotab, a provider of network transport solutions, has announced the launch of a new transport analytics platform as part of its Intelligent transport Systems (ITS) business.
A new platform called Altitude can provide governments with real information that can be used to improve transportation networks.
The Altitude platform is a single integrated solution for transportation data collection, data analysis and modeling, eliminating the need to conclude separate contracts for each part of the transportation analytics chain.According to the company, Altitude is a tool that can be used by public authorities at the level of a municipality, state or country to identify areas where traffic needs to be improved, modeling and forecasting specific impact measures and monitoring their effectiveness.
Geotab ITS collects data on tens of millions of connected vehicles and provides an analysis of their movement for the heads of transportation organizations in the USA and Canada."With Altitude, transportation executives gain additional capabilities in terms of traffic data to quickly identify and address mobility issues such as freight bottlenecks," said Mike Branch, vice president of data and analytics at Geotab. Altitude is the basis for Geotab ITS products, including the "Origin" and "Destination" platforms, which provide a comprehensive view of the patterns of movement of people and goods, the "Intersections" platform, which analyzes the efficiency of traffic lights and corridor synchronization, and the "Roads" platform, which identifies bottlenecks and other traffic anomalies.