Technology Briefs - May 11 - May 17
The Latest Headlines:
- Illinois Votes to Join E-ZPass
- Tennessee Says Fog Signs Will Be Completed in June
- AirIQ Posts Loss in 1Q
- Conference to Focus on Truck Idling
- Tennessee Says Fog Signs Will Be Completed in June
Illinois Votes to Join E-ZPass
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority approved a plan that would allow motorists to use toll transponders in nearly a dozen states through a major toll coalition, the Associated Press reported.The authority voted to join the E-ZPass Interagency Group, a consortium that includes 22 agencies in the East, but it could take a year to implement, spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said.
About 30,000 truckers with E-ZPass tags use Illinois toll roads daily, AP said.
Tennessee Says Fog Signs Will Be Completed in June
Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Osborne said an upgrade to automated fog-warning signs on a stretch of Interstate 75 where a 1990 pileup claimed 11 lives should be finished in June, the Associated Press reported.Interstate 75 runs north-south from the U.S.-Canada border in northern Michigan to south Florida.
The upgrade of the four signs between Cleveland and Athens includes larger space for messages about visibility problems and larger flashing lights that activate when sensors detect dense fog.
In December 1990, a fog-related pileup of 99 vehicles on I-75 killed 11 people and injured 50, AP said. Transport Topics
AirIQ Posts Loss in 1Q
AirIQ Inc., a Canadian wireless communications and security company, said its net loss for the first quarter was C$2.3 million or 3 cents Canadian per share, compared with a loss of C$2.1 million or 4 cents Canadian a year earlier.The company said in a statement the higher loss was due to increased operating expenses and the negative effect of foreign exchange fluctuations. Total revenues increased by 15.5% to C$2.3 million, the company said.
AirIQ said that at the end of the first quarter, it had about 45,000 customers in the rental vehicle, commercial transport and heavy equipment markets. Transport Topics
Conference to Focus on Truck Idling
Government and transportation industry officials prepared to discuss ways to curb engine idling in the freight, transportation and transit industries at the National Idling Reduction Planning conference May 17-19 in Albany, N.Y.Conference organizer Terry Levinson, a contractor for Argonne National Laboratories who acts as liaison between that organization and the Department of Energy and is handling technical content for the meeting, said it was intended to be the first step in shaping a national idling reduction policy.
“The idea of this meeting is to bring together stakeholders from all modes of transportation so we can take what they know and take what they want for the future and put that into a national plan of action,” Levinson said.
She said officials hoped to put together a plan within six months on ways to significantly reduce idling by heavy trucks, nationwide.
“Over the summer we will have volunteers — hopefully people from this meeting — who will want to help draft that plan,” Levinson said.
Sponsors of the conference included the federal Departments of Energy and Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Research and Development Authority.
Levinson said the meeting was expected to bring together trucking and transit companies, railroad officials and equipment manufacturers, as well as national research laboratories and local, state and federal government agencies. Kevin Kinnaird
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