Transportation

The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles is using a new real-time customer management system known as Next in Line in 59 field offices, helping to improve wait times for more than 3 million.

The California Public Utilities Commission has upheld its March decision to approve Waymo's expansion from San Francisco to San Mateo County and Los Angeles over protests from local officials.

A business group backed by robot-taxi companies is celebrating the demise of a proposed California law that would have let cities regulate the autonomous vehicles and fine them for breaking traffic laws.

Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration overhauled its computer-based learner’s permit tests, and passing scores increased within months. Data obtained by Government Technology details the secret to their success.

As ridership continues to lag amid a stubbornly slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, cities experiment with free rides and micromobility to prove public transit’s worth in worsening financial conditions.

New technologies in contactless fare payment systems enable riders to not carry cash and can save them money through features like fare-capping. And for transit systems, they can be an informational gold mine.

A hydrogen fuel-powered passenger train set a Guinness World Record for distance traveled on a test track in March. The trains, from Swiss manufacturer Stadler, are slated to go into use in San Bernardino County, Calif.

The Autonomous Robotic Pickup Platform, a project launching next week in Detroit’s Transportation Innovation Zone, will start by testing small sidewalk delivery bots to collect food waste for compost.

After previously resuming operations in Dallas, the company’s autonomous cars will resume operations in Houston this week. Plans are to shift to autonomous driving with a driver present sometime in coming weeks.

Last year, a series of near collisions at U.S. airports, which the Federal Aviation Administration calls “runway incursions,” raised serious public alarm.

Last week’s park rules changes by the Metropolitan King County Council allowed electric bikes and scooters on its trail network. The new rules are something of a standardization with the state, Seattle, and other counties.

The two cities submitted the winning applications for the 2024 Mobility Insights Competition, organized by Lime and the League of American Bicyclists. The municipalities can now use Lime’s data to address mobility issues.

The California Department of Transportation is working with vendors on GenAI tools that can investigate near misses, reduce crashes and eliminate bottlenecks. Officials hope to more quickly analyze millions of data points.

A federal court jury in Seattle on Thursday ruled against Boeing in a lawsuit brought by failed electric airplane startup Zunum, awarding $81 million in damages — which the judge has the option to triple.

The Utah Department of Transportation will continue its partnership with Panasonic on deploying connected vehicle technology. It intends to add more vehicles to the project and make collected data actionable.

The Credential Authentication Technology, in use by Transportation Security Administration agents at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, scans photo IDs, but also works to crack down on fraudulent identification.

Legislation recently signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz enables the operation of hybrid car-airplane vehicles on state roads and airstrips. The state is the second in recent years to enact such a law.

As agencies get more comfortable with new ways of analyzing data, UrbanLogiq is betting officials will prefer AI-powered tools over typical traffic-counting methods. Already one city has started using such a product.