OPTICITIES – A technical view on the harmonisation of urban ITS mobility data – Technical Report 1/2017 published

28 February 2017

Mobility stakes are increasingly important in today’s fast-growing urban centres all over the world, but particularly in the European Union, where 75% of inhabitants live in urban areas. The 21st century is indeed the century of cities, where we can also find the bulk of economic development and of innovation potential.

After forty years of massive investments, infrastructure networks inter-connections have become a priority to secure urban population growth and economic development. This was introduced in transport public policies through the concepts of inter-modality, multimodality and co-modality. Moreover, in the 1990s, information and communication technologies applied to transport modes led to the deployment of network management systems and user information services.

'In case of emergency, break with tradition' an article by Wolf P. Zeplin explaining SMEV: Smart Emergency Vehicles system

24 February 2017

It is undeniable that the on-going deployment of the so-called Cyber- Physical Systems in all levels of our society requires new stabilising structures based on Internet 4.0/augmented or mixed reality.

Nowadays, traffic represents a key element in a well-functioning society. Therefore, an efficient interfacing of traffic telematics has become an absolute priority. New traffic categories will play a leading role in the society of the future.

In this article, entitled ‘In case of emergency, break with tradition’, Mr. Wolf P. Zeplin, Chair of STA’s TC 2 (Smart Safety & Security), explains the advantages of SMEV, an innovative ITS cooperative system for the Digital Optimisation of Smart Emergency Vehicles in smart cities.

HIPEBA presents the first results on the selection of high performance steels for Road Restraint Systems

30 January 2017

The HIPEBA technical deliverable labelled as D2.2 has focused on i) complementing the information of D2.1 and ii) selecting the appropriate high performance steels for Road Restraint Systems (RRS).

The deliverable D2.2 complements the deliverable D2.1 by providing the results of a series of tests (not available during D2.1 due to some shipping delays) on materials behaviour under tensile, strain and formability stress.

The second part of deliverable D2.2 establishes a ranking of the performance of the steel chosen based on the results from the tests, and taking into account the weighting criteria for material selection. The individual ranking is built according to each selected criteria: tensile tests, Charpy test, Nakazima test, welding analysis and price.

'Explaining the shift from car ownership to car sharing', a column by STA Chairman José F. Papí

24 February 2017

Sharing –or collaborative- mobility is arguably the most rapidly growing and evolving sector of the sharing economy. In this context, the rapid development of car-sharing is changing the ‘usual’ mobility choices. Nowadays we are observing a growing shift from the paradigm of owning a means of transport to the paradigm of integrated mobility services which allow end users to access individual or public transport services based on their needs and on the destination to be reached.

In this column, featured in Thinking Highways – Issue 4, 2016 (Europe and Rest Of The World), STA Chairman José F. Papí discusses the growth of car-sharing and the conditions that will induce drivers to forgo private ownership.

The frontierCities2 Acceleration Open Calls launched

1 March 2017

The frontierCities2 Acceleration Open Calls have been launched.

This 24-month EC-funded Acceleration Programme supports FIWARE-supported solutions in the Smart Cities area. fC2 provides grant funding across two Open Calls:

• Market Acceleration Grants (fC2 MAG) for already-developed FIWARE-supported applications

• FI-Tech Development and Acceleration Grant (fC2 FI-TECH) for new FIWARE-supported applications

STA is responsible for grant management and administration, and will chair the Grant Management Committee, ensuring stewardship and good management of the EC Sub-grant funds and approving Grantee contractual payments.

For more information about the frontierCities2 Acceleration Programme, please visit the website here.

NEWS OF INTEREST

UK studies possibility of track-side solar panels to power electric trains

Electrical grids are inefficient and outdated. A partnership between Imperial College London and 10:10, a climate change organization, is exploring the possibility of installing solar panels along side railway lines and using them to power electric trains directly. Rather than feeding electricity from the panels back into the grid to be redistributed to the railway system, the idea of connecting trains directly to the solar panels would be far more efficient.

According to the university, the research team will be the first in the world to test the “completely unique” idea, which it said would have a “wide impact with commercial applications on electrified rail networks all over the world. It would also open up thousands of new sites to small and medium scale renewable developments by removing the need to connect to the grid.”

SENSKIN project develops first prototype of infrastructure monitoring sensor

SENSKIN, a 42-month European Horizon 2020 project to develop a sensor for monitoring-based maintenance of the transport infrastructure implemented by 13 partners from seven countries has reported on its first 18 months of work. During this time, the partners derived user requirements and, based on these, designed the prototype of the skin-like sensors and the data acquisition unit. They also provided proof of concept of the communication system and are finishing the prototypes of the communication, structural and rehabilitation modules.

A main objective of the project is the development of a skin-like sensor that offers spatial sensing and can monitor large strains. Emerging delay tolerant network technology is applied, so that the measurements of the sensors can be transmitted to the control centre even under difficult conditions, such as an earthquake, where some communication networks are inoperable

The autobahn meets the e-highway

The German state of Schleswig-Holstein says it will pioneer a 6 km stretch of electronic highway by the end of 2018. As part of its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of goods being transported by road, it says it will dedicate part of the A1 motorway between Reinfeld and Lübeck to be used by lorries powered by electricity via overhead cables

LiDAR sets its sights on future problems

Advances in LiDAR are helping transport authorities improve services and identify potential problem areas, as geospatial technology expert Dr. Neil Slatcher explains.

The effects of climate change on the transport infrastructure have long been a cause of concern within the transportation sector - and not only on the structures themselves but also on the surrounding areas. This year, those concerns have become reality with landslides, structural collapses and surfacing issues impacting services across the world.