Highway & Network Management

In its latest three-year strategic plan, the European Traffic Police Network has reaffirmed its commitment to the European Union’s road death reduction target of 50% by 2020. World Highways reported last month that road deaths fell by just 1% in the EU in 2014, according to data released by the European Commission. There were 25,700 road deaths across all 28 Member States of the EU. The European Commissioner of Transport, Violeta Bulc said at the time that the statistics give some cause for concern. S

Traffic on an eight-lane road through one of Seoul’s wealthiest districts was disrupted for half an hour by two men sitting in chairs in the middle of the road. It wasn’t a political protest but reportedly a dare agreed by the men, in their 20s, to see who could last the longest sitting in the road, the fashionable Gangnam Avenue. The two men were sitting in the road for half an hour before police arrived to arrest them, Korean media reported. A witness apparently said they didn’t appear afraid of getting h

South Korea’s capital Seoul plans to create dedicated fire truck lanes to ensure traffic congestion and other obstacles don’t interfere with the emergency service. The city council hopes to start work in May to improve access in more than 700 areas of Seoul and the greater city area, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported. Inspections will be carried out to pinpoint the best routes to delineate, from back alleyways – where illegal parking is rife – to main roads where one lane could be set aside for emergenc

When you have only a limited time to visit a large exhibition, such as Bauma in Munich, Germany, you have to move fast to touch base with all people you need to see. There is a video that shows how one man -- obviously he was in training for a while – made the most of his less than 3 minutes at Bauma. The video reminds World Highways’ editorial director Geoff Hadwick that he has been there and done that… in his younger days, at least.

How many times have you seen a road sign and either laughed or cried? Laughed because it was incredibly unusual, funny or downright mischievous? Cried because you had previously followed its advice and it led you nowhere near where you wanted to go? Take pity on the poor sign developers. They often have to come up with a single image to visually show you what dangers or surprises might lay ahead, be they a bad-tempered moose that bashes up stopped cars or the dangers of sheep falling off cliffs onto roads.

International Road Dynamics (IRD) will design, supply and install 19 mainline weigh-in-motion systems throughout the US State of Georgia. IRD, based in the city of Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, said the contract is worth US$7.93 million. The deal includes mainline WIM scales on the interstate, at the roadside and in scale houses as well as license plate reading, USDOT number reading, side view cameras and over-height detection systems at 19 weigh station locations. IRD’s systems will c

Traffic accidents in the UK capital London have declined 40% since the introduction of a congestion charge in 2003, according to a new study. The number of accidents per million miles driven in the congestion zone fell to 2.6 accidents per million miles from an average of 12.4 before the introduction of the charge. Researchers at Lancaster University also found a similar fall in the number of people seriously injured or killed. As well, accident rates fell in adjacent areas as a result of fewer motorists dr

Overloading of vehicles in the United Kingdom continues to be a serious issue, according to data from the government’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). The report, Annual Effectiveness 2013/2014, documents data on driving offences for heavy and light goods vehicles, public service vehicles and trailers. The number of convictions for overloading heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) was 147, down from 231 in 2012/13 and 166 a year earlier. But overloading rema