Highway & Network Management

Slovakia's Parliament has approved the new law on e-toll, replacing the use of traditional motorway stickers with electronic ones. The new regulation will come into force on 1 January 2015. The price of the motorway stickers, which motorists will be able to purchase online or through petrol stations, will not increase. The Transport Ministry intends to call the tender for the provider of the virtual vignettes within the next few weeks. In 2013, the national motorway company NDS printed more than 3.3 million

A Mexican consortium comprised of Pinfra, Grupo Bursátil Mexicano and Aldesa Mexico has secured a concession to build, operate and maintain the Siglo XXI highway concession in Morelos state, according to the transport and communications ministry, SCT. Around US$211 million (2.76 billion pesos) will be invested in the 62km highway over the next two years. Five companies, including OHL Mexico, are reported to have bid for the concession, with the Pinfra consortium presenting one of the lowest bids. This is

German municipalities may soon be allowed to issue special rules giving drivers of electric cars and other low-emission vehicles priority parking status. A draft proposal has been issued by the Bundesrat, the second chamber of the German parliament, to the first chamber, the Bundestag. Currently, only disabled people and local residents enjoy any kind of vehicle parking privileges. According to the proposal, local authorities could, for instance, free electric cars from parking fees and forbid parking of

Japan’s Ministry of Transport is to scrap weekday daytime toll discounts on some of the country’s expressways from late March 2014 after a poll discovered that they were failing to relieve traffic jams. A 30% discount is currently available to drivers on non-Osaka, Tokyo and its neighbouring area toll expressways operated by Central Nippon Expressway, West Nippon Expressway and East Nippon Expressway from 9am to 5pm. State subsidies are also allowing operators to offer further expressway toll discount

A total of 9,159 people were caught driving without a licence in Belgium during 2012. This is well over double the 3,991 people found to be driving without a license in 2000. The figures include people who have never obtained a licence and those who are driving with a provisional license but failing to abide by the rule of the provisional licence. The fines imposed in Belgium for not having a licence vary from €1,200 to €12,000.

The Pennsylvania state Senate has approved a transport funding bill worth US$2.3 billion to restore ageing bridges and highways, and to improve mass transit throughout the U.S. state. The funding will be allocated for all transport modes, covering roads that cross rivers and streams, superhighways, gravel roads, seaports, airports, bike paths and rail lines. Of the total funding, $1.65 billion is set aside for repairing roads and bridges, while around $475 million is allocated for mass transit systems.

UK drivers using mobile phones will face a police crackdown, after it emerged that 575,000 were prosecuted for using a handset whilst driving or being distracted in some other way at the wheel. In 2012, 548 casualties occurred as a result of drivers talking on the phone, with 17 fatalities. Nearly a quarter of fatalities were due to drivers being distracted. The Association of Chief Police Officers' head of roads policing Suzette Davenport said that some motorists are placing themselves and others in dang

Wiener Linien, a public transport operator in Vienna, Austria, is to carry out a research project in cooperation with SLR Engineering and the Austrian Institute of Technology aimed at stopping parked cars hindering public transport services. Around 4,000 wrongly parked cars are said to have caused delays of between five minutes and 40 minutes on bus and tram services in Vienna in 2012. The research project, which is to be funded by the transport ministry's IV2Splus intelligent traffic systems and service

The International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for the transport sector with 54 member countries, is calling for applications for a new award. The Promising Transport Innovation Award will recognise an innovation with the potential to significantly improve the transport industry. The innovation can be based on technological change, operational change, organisational change or a combination of these.