7 . Researchers have proposed a novel method for counting and tracking vehicles on public roads, a development that could improve current traffic systems and help travelers get to their destinations faster.

Using the cameras already installed on campus buses at the Ohio State University, researchers proved that they could automatically and accurately measure counts of vehicles on urban roadways, detect objects in the road and distinguish parked vehicles from those that are moving.

In previous studies, Ohio State researchers found that using these mobile cameras provides much better spatial and temporal (时间的) coverage than relying on often temporarily placed sensors that don’t provide a view of many streets and roads in a city.

“If we collect and process more high-resolution (高清) spatial information about what’s happening on the roads, then planners could better understand changes in demand, effectively improving efficiency in the broader transportation system,” said Keith Redmill, lead author of the study.

“If we can measure traffic in a way that is as good or better than what is conventionally done with fixed sensors, then we will have created something incredibly useful extremely cheaply,” he said. “Our goal is to start building a system that could do this without much manual intervention because if you want to collect this information over lots of potential vehicles and lots of time, it’s worth fully automating that process.”

While still a long way from total implementation (实施), the study suggests the system’s results bear promise for the future of intelligent traffic surveillance. Transportation planners, engineers and operators make vital decisions about the future of our roadways, so when designing transportation systems to work over the next 30 to 50 years, it’s necessary that we give them data that allows them to improve the efficiency of the system and the level of service provided to travelers.

10 . During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, foreign journalists not only enjoyed the Chinese athletes’ excellent performance, but experienced “the speed of China” in the development of high-speed rail.

On Feb. 14, 57 journalists from 36 Chinese and foreign media groups were invited by the 2022 Beijing Media Center to visit the city’s rail transit command center to explore the “secret” of Beijing’s high-quality development in the field.

Beijing has formed a safe, convenient, efficient and green rail transit system. It now consists of 27 metro lines, increased from two in 2001 when Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Last year, the city’s metro lines together handled nearly 10 million passenger trips per working day, accounting for 57 percent of the total number carried by urban public vehicles.

Compared with car travel, each subway passenger can reduce 77 percent of their carbon emissions, which means the total reduced carbon emissions can reach 7. 38 million metric tons a year. This is equal to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 410 million trees, experts said. In addition to efficiency and ecological protection, the city’s urban rail transit is becoming more intelligent. For example, the west part of Metro Line 11 is known as a line serving the 2022 Winter Olympics, which features a fully automated driving mode under staff supervision at the beginning of the train’s operation.

Although China was behind developed countries in high-speed railway development, it has accumulated abundant experience in constructing all types of railways, including high-speed and railways at high altitudes and carrying heavy loads. The country also has the longest high-speed rail mileage, which accounts for more than 66 percent of the world’s total.

“China’s high-speed trains run across rivers and mountains to reach all directions, from forests and snowy fields in the north to wetlands south of the Yangtze River, and from the desert in the west to the East China Sea,” said Zou Wu, a senior engineer at the China State Railway Group. “The country’s high-speed railway network covers 92 percent of the cities each with a population of more than 500, 000 people.”