Transportation

Tech and transportation officials are working to bring together GIS, artificial intelligence and other tools to develop a traffic management system that’s smarter and improves safety for all.

Transportation technology leaders gathered in Los Angeles this week for the annual CoMotion LA conference, where they examined recent innovative endeavors and the issues shaping mobility today.

The app, from a company founded by a former Norfolk, Va., City Council member, lets drivers know about delays in the Hampton Roads region. Forty solar-powered sensors enable updates in real time.

Even as Republicans on the national stage have turned against EVs, it’s a different story at the state and local level, with economic development agencies in red states shelling out hundreds of millions for new projects.

After a pilot project decreased wait times at a busy intersection by 25 percent to 30 percent, a city in the Bay Area is expanding use of AI-driven systems to detect traffic and instruct signals to speed up or slow down.

The autonomous vehicle provider has begun giving rides to a select California customer group along area freeways. Its self-driving vehicles will ferry passengers to San Jose Mineta International Airport.

Naperville is joining other Chicago suburbs in cracking down on e-bikes and e-scooters, with the city council considering setting an age limit at 16 and a maximum speed limit of 15 mph on multiuse paths.

City officials sought to clarify where the devices and others can and cannot be used. A city official said in September there had been a “rise in complaints from residents” about electric bikes on sidewalks.

The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy is paying for overnight chargers at 31 multifamily properties in Detroit suburbs. Grants come from the Clean Fuel and Charging Infrastructure Program.

The Connecticut ACLU is demanding officials turn off automatic license plate reader cameras across the state until laws are passed to prevent misuse of personal data collected by the surveillance.

A project from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research builds electrically conductive sensor wire into pavement, which allows for regular monitoring of road conditions without disrupting traffic.

Self-driving vehicles from the California-based company have been on the move for months in the capital city. The state, however, does not yet have a government agency to provide independent regulatory oversight.

City Council members have approved spending $821,000 from grants to install 10 electric vehicle chargers. The city, its interim city manager said, lags behind peers in offering such infrastructure.

The company is doing the groundwork for fully autonomous ride-hailing services next year in the city. San Diego, an official said, ranks among the nation’s top 15 municipalities in ride-hailing demand.

A month of amnesty on parking ticket penalties in Syracuse, N.Y., will begin with in-person or mail payments. Online payments will follow — once more than 140,000 tickets dating to 1997 are set up in the system.

Chippewa County International Airport, in the eastern Upper Peninsula, appears destined to become a drone hub for future flights near the Canadian border. A project there received $400,000 in state funding.

The city’s transit provider is working with AI-powered tools on an initiative known as “traffic service priority,” using onboard technology to assist in improving speeds and decreasing travel times.

Drivers in the Grand Canyon State should soon have access to dozens more high-speed electric vehicle charging ports, with most of the funding coming from the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.