Highway & Network Management

Funding: a global issue

June 23, 2015

User-pays is crystallising as the preferred option by governments and taxpayers around the world, said Jack Opiola, managing partner of international road usage charging consultancy, D’Artagnan Consulting. Opiola, who chaired a session at the inaugural IRF - Roads Australia Regional Conference for Asia and Australasia in Sydney earlier this month, has been working with several US states which are wrestling with the ‘who pays’ issue. “Some states are propping up their transportation funding with portio

Germany: Foreign users to pay toll

June 23, 2015

Foreign road users could be paying up to €130 (US$147) a year for using Germany's autobahn motorways starting in 2016. The plan was given the go-ahead by the German government last October but implementation could be delayed if it faces a legal challenge by European member states. Bavarian state transport minister Alexander Dobrindt said he was convinced that the draft law does not discriminate against foreign motorists, an issue if the law were to be challenged in any European court. He called the infras

Transurban to test Melbourne drivers in road trials, including tolls

June 23, 2015

Melbourne’s road users are the focus of a year-long study into what options are possible for funding road infrastructure projects including various user-pays models. The study headed by Australian toll roads operator Transurban will conducted across Melbourne’s entire road network to see how drivers react to tolling and other road-use models such as charging motorists for each kilometre travelled, a charge to access roads, annual fixed costs per kilometre on expected usage and price per trip. It will al

VIDEOTEC’s ULISSE camera now comes with a 30x optical zoom lens

June 9, 2015

VIDEOTEC’s latest compact outdoor camera, the ULISSE Compact HD PTZ, now comes with a 30x optical zoom lens. It has higher sensitivity, higher gain level, improved WDR, defog function and improved autofocus speed. As such, it offers what the company claims is unrivalled performance even in extreme low light conditions. The unit’s optional IR LED illuminator, ULISSE COMPACT HD provides sharp images of the monitored area at night and is able to detect a figure in the dark up to 200m away. The built-in wipe

Jakarta’s jams top traffic congestion toll

May 22, 2015

A survey by oil firm Castrol reveals that Indonesia’s capital Jakarta suffers the worst traffic delays of any city in the world. Turkey’s commercial centre Istanbul comes second in the congestion study, with Mexico City in third place. Castrol’s Magnatec Stop-Start Index says that Jakarta’s drivers suffer some 33,240 stop-starts/year, equivalent to 27.22% of their total travel time being stationary.

New lane delineators to boost cycle safety

May 19, 2015

According to Rediweld its new Orca Cycle Lane Separators and Passively Safe Wands will help boost safety. For applications where the road width is limited, Rediweld has developed Orca Kerb, which is only 150mm wide, 100mm high. The product has a splayed (SP) face on the cycle side and a half battered (HB) face on the vehicle side. With middle and end units which are 1m long, it can provide light or continuous segregation. This is a development of the original Orca, with its novel cycle profile, is design

Redflex sped enforcement tools approved in Holland

May 19, 2015

Redflex has won approval for its fixed speed enforcement technology in Holland. The REDFLEXspeed-radar system has undergone testing by the Dutch metrology institute, NMi, and verified to meet the country’s requirements. Under extensive testing the camera was found to perform accurately at speeds from 20km/h to 320km/h. The firm claims that this is the first fixed speed enforcement system to utilise dual radar detection, maximising detection rates and eliminating anomalies such as phantom signals, reflec

LED lighting delivering technical benefits

April 30, 2015

A new report from the Lighting Research Center* at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focuses on the benefits from switching to LED lighting technologies There is a rapidly changing landscape for roadway lighting worldwide, largely due to the widespread acceptance of light-emitting diode (LED) technology. In developed markets such as the US, this has opened up a universe of new possibilities regarding LED replacement lamps. There are 144 million high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps in the US, representing

Brake and Direct Line survey: UK drivers flout traffic laws

April 28, 2015

Half of UK drivers in a recent survey admitted to breaking traffic laws and half of these drivers said they did it with intention. Of the drivers who willingly broke the law, half acknowledged they did it because they believed there was little chance of getting caught, or they simply did not agree the law and saw no reason to obey. Road safety charity Brake and vehicle insurance company Direct Line said the survey reveals a worrying attitude by many road users toward safety on highways. Brake said that U

IAM suggests confusion over UK’s SMART motorways

April 13, 2015

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has expressed concern that widespread confusion exists amongst UK drivers on how best to use SMART motorways. These were officially introduced around this time in 2014 to replace Managed Motorways as the solution to the UK’s congested major routes. However concerns have been raised over the safety of the SMART motorways. England’s first all-lane running motorway, without a hard shoulder, was the 2.5km stretch of the M25 between junctions 23 and 25. Complete schemes