STA Annual Conference New Date: 03 February 2016

25 November 2015

In light of the Belgian government's declaration of the highest possible security alert, the 2015 STA Annual Conference and Innovation Awards was postponed.

A new date was chosen at an exceptional meeting of Committee Members. The conference is rescheduled for 03 February 2016 in Brussels (Belgium) at the B19 Country Club.

Please mark your calendars with the updated date. In the coming weeks an updated programme will be made available to all conference guests.

If you have already registered please reconfirm with us, and for those yet to register please get in touch with the STA Secretariat (info@smart-transportation.org) to book your free-of-charge seat today.

STA welcomes two new members: Movea SAS and Global Design Technology (GDTech)

MOVEA is a French leading company located in Metz (North-East of France) with a commitment to improve road safety with smart and sustainable solutions.

MOVEA’s main activity is technical and normative consultancy on the matter of road systems for public services or private companies in Europe and French speaking countries of Africa, Maghreb, Western and Central Africa. MOVEA aims to be THE link between African commissioners and European suppliers of road safety equipment.

MOVEA continually seeks out new markets for European suppliers, providing a full range of solutions in the field of road safety equipment, including vehicle and pedestrian restraint systems (NF Norme Française or CE certified according EN 1317), EN 12767 safe poles or EN 1317-3 crash cushions.

Safer, smarter and more sustainable roads is their goal, all over the world.

The STA General Meeting has approved membership for the engineering and innovation firm, Global Design Technology (GDTech). 

GDTech aspires to deliver an integrated service covering the entire product development process. 

One of its premier skills has been the development of their Crash, Dynamic and Traffic Department in 2003. GDTech has developed real expertise in fast dynamics for any customer wishing to optimize safety devices. GDTech provides innovative methods to simulate traffic conditions and the effect of disturbances due to road works, accidents, etc. 

Through an analytical-based design process GDTech strives to innovate safer and more sustainable solutions for transport infrastructure.

The HIPEBA project was invited to the TRA2016 poster session

24 November 2015

The European Commission has officially invited HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) to be present during the 6th Transport Research Arena (TRA2016) poster session.

The Smart Transportation Alliance (STA), leader of the project's communication and dissemination efforts, will be present at the TRA2016, the most important transport research event in Europe, which will take place in Warsaw (Poland), from 18 to 21 April 2016.

HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) is a 36-month R&D project funded by the Research Coal and Steel Services (RFCS) that aims to develop safer and more competitive road restraint systems.

NEWS OF INTEREST

Despite progress, road traffic deaths remain too high.

The World Health Organisation released the global status report on road safety 2015. The Global status report on road safety 2015, reflecting information from 180 countries, indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries.

On 18-19 November 2015, for only the second time in history, ministers of transport, health and interior and their representatives gathered in Brasilia, Brazil to address the global road safety crisis. They discussed urgent actions needed in order to achieve the ambitious target for road safety, the decisions made at this event will guide the UN in its road safety goals to 2020 and beyond.

Time to scale up sustainable transport in Asia and the Pacific.

Transport is a key ingredient of inclusive economic development, poverty reduction, and to improving quality of life. Countries in the Asia Pacific region have enormous transport investment needs – $2.5 trillion in the decade up to 2020. Many people in low-income countries still lack access to basic transport services, while middle-income countries face transport capacity bottlenecks that limit inclusive economic growth, and rapidly growing cities require transportation networks to serve their populations.

Asia needs innovative solutions for sustainable transport, and ADB wants to be a part of that by strengthening the way we incorporate the latest knowledge and best practices in our transport operations, and expanding the sustainable transport lending pipeline. 2015 marks the beginning of a coordinated effort to bring all of this about.

Smartphones may have role in rise of U.S. traffic deaths.

The number of deaths from traffic accidents in the United States jumped 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015, suggesting smartphones and other driving distractions could be making America's roadways more dangerous, officials said on Tuesday. The jump in 2015 fatalities follows a decline in annual traffic deaths to 32,675 last year, for a record low of 1.07 deaths per hundred million vehicle miles traveled, according to NHTSA statistics.

The auto safety agency expects to unveil a program next year to target $500 million in federal safety grants at human factors that are responsible for 94 percent of motor vehicle crashes.

Singapore Planning Two-Tier Terminal.

The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore is currently planning to construct a two-tier terminal at its new 65 million TEU Tuas Terminal.

Seatrade Maritime reported Andrew Tan, CEO of the MPA, stating that Singapore faces “challenges that other ports may not have, such as land and sea space constraints, higher costs relative to the region and manpower constraints.”

They are looking at ways to not restrict themselves to traditional port layouts. One of these new land-use concepts is to develop a platform above part of the container port on which port-related and industrial developments, such as container freight stations, logistic hubs and other facilities, can be developed to intensify land-use.