Transportation

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.

Like swimming pools, or full kitchens, electric vehicle charging is just one more perk that travelers are looking for when they book their vacation rentals.

Although the chargers are part of several different projects, the result is slated to be the development of hundreds of new electric vehicle charging ports in and around Oakland, Calif.

People on foot are twice as likely to be struck by an electric or hybrid vehicle than one powered by gasoline or diesel, a study by London researchers found. Their relatively quiet operation may be a key factor.

The city’s Department of Transportation has opened its application portal for companies to submit bids on providing electric scooters, electric bikes or other dockless vehicles for public use.