Regulatory Trend. Procurement Opportunity. Tech to Detect Wrong Way Drivers.

Arizona Department of Transportation is rolling out 1st of its kind wrong way detection technology.

How does the new fandangled technology work?

  • Thermal cameras detect a wrong-way vehicle along an off-ramp
  • When triggered, an illuminated wrong-way sign with flashing lights alerts drivers

The winning contract: a $1.89 million bid from Contractors West Inc. of Mesa

Equipment World | Arizona moves forward on “first of its kind” wrong-way detection system

Legal. High Speed Rail. Rail Claims Fed Rules Only. Golden State Supreme Court Requires State Environmental Law Application.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that publicly owned rail must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.

How does impact high speed rail in California? Whether environmental impact studies must be conducted has been a contetious issue among stakeholders building high speed rail.

How did California get here? A rail line contended that it only needed to comply with federal rail rules.

Governing | High-Speed Rail Hits a Roadblock in California

Texas A.G. Opinion. Manufacturers and Dealerships. 3 Points of Clarity from the A.G.

Texas Attorney General Opinion KP- 0156 lays down the law on what constitutes when a manufacturer owns a dealership in Texas. The nuts and bolts of the opinion:

  • A company that owns a manufacturer, but exercises no control over the manufacturer, & the company and manufacturer do not have common control, it does not trigger the manufacturer dealer prohibition in Texas
  • Even, if the corporate relationship squeak by on not exercising control over the manufacturer, it can still trigger the prohibition by being an affiliate. 
    • If a company has full ownership over a manufacturer then it runs afoul with the Texas prohibition from manfucaturer dealers
  • To determine if the prohibition is triggered by the “affiliate” standard, we look to the common defintion of affilaite because the Legialature has many definitions of affiliate. Affiliate common defintion requires ownership AND control

Anatomy of a MultiState Connected Car Coalition. 3 Policy Areas of Focus.

Michigan, Ohio & Pennsylvania Departments of Transportation have joined forces with universities to focus on automated and connected vehicle initiative.

3 Target Research Areas to Guide Policy Decisions:

  • Connected and automated applications in work zones
  • Commercial freight opportunities in testing, including platooning (connecting more than one vehicle) and potential coordination on interstates. (
    • Bonjour, TAMU’s freight project at the Houston Port.
  • Incident management to improve information for emergency responders

Equipment World | Kettering University joins Smart Belt Coalition for automated vehicle tech

Legal Trend. Cabbies lose in Court. Louisiana edition.

Cab drivers in the City of Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana sued to level the playing field in Kenner and at its airport.

The cab drivers ultimately want ride share drivers to maintain the same occupational license as cab drivers. Teh city of Kenner said it didn’t have the resources or revenue for enforcement. The cab drivers suggested the city put up checkpoints to check licenses.

The Kenner court saw it differently. 

WWLTV Louisiana | Judge rules against Kenner cabbies

+1 Palmetto State Raises the Gas Tax.

South Carolina’s gas tax increase, the first in 30 years, went into effect on July 1, 2017. 

Revenues will be dedicated and prioritized including these qualifications for projects:

  • Roughly 1/2 of funds will go to prioritized SC DOT projects
  • The remainder will go to Country Transportation Committees projects

Equipment World | South Carolina DOT awards first projects from new roads bill

State Reg. Trend. Smart Roads. The Numbers behind the trend.

Delaware DOT is partnering with agencies, automobile manufacturers and technology companies, and network segmentation to fine tune smart roads. The test road- a restretch of I-95.

Why the rush to start testing smart roads?

  • 220 million connected cars will be on the road by 2020
  • 3/4 of the 92 million cars shipped globally with have connectivity
  • 62% of consumers say hackers will breach connected cars

State Tech | The Connected Vehicle Revolution Makes Cybersecurity Top of Mind

Researchers Say Policymakers Must Consider Bikes in Self Driving Car Laws. 3 reasons why:

  • bikes are the fastest growing mode of transportation in the US
  • bikes and cars share the road, and most self driving cars will pass a bike only when 3 feet clearance exists
  • Bikes more more erratically than cars, and self driving cars need to be programmed to predict the more nimble movements of bikes

NPR | Bikes May Have To Talk To Self-Driving Cars For Safety’s Sake