Highways Voices: Talking Roads and Transport Technology innovation (Paul Hutton)

The CEO of the European Intelligent Transport Systems organisation ERTICO, Joost Vantomme is our guest on Highways Voices this week, sharing his vast knowledge with you about standardisation, interoperability and living outside silos.

He chats with host Paul Hutton about how ERTICO’s ITS European and World Congresses promote thought leadership and innovation around things like automation, clean mobility, urban mobility, and new technologies like Air Mobility and generative AI.

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Mr Vantomme discusses the challenges around data sharing, trust, and regulatory alignment across regions, and he describes his enthusiasm for the the 2027 World Congress, which comes to the UK at Birmingham’s NEC and gives the country the chance to showcase its innovation around AI and multi-modal transport.

On top of all this, you’ll get Adrian Tatum’s pick of Highways News stories, some updates from our podcast partners and, you’ll find out why Acusensus and Dr Suzy Charman jointly win “Adrian’s Accolade”.

Don’t forget to sign up to our daily email to get all our news into your inbox, and you can also find our stories on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

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“The Transport Technology and Associated Services Framework enables the public sector to procure transport technology, and products covering the suite of cameras, and lighting, parking systems, barriers and signs,” explains guest Randeep Singh of Crown Commercial Service on this week’s Highways Voices podcast, “But you can also procure services to support some of the bigger government agenda, for example, in terms of professional services, and consultants and how you could potentially implement something like that.”

This podcast is a must-listen for local authorities wanting to make their procurement easier and cheaper, and also explains to suppliers how to best get value out of their interaction with CCS. Plus, there’s advice on how to pay for services too, as Mr Singh explains, “Being sat in the Cabinet Office, we can we have the visibility of all the government grants or funds that are available.”

Today’s Highways Voices is the first with new partners ADEPT, the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG and ITS (UK) who will not only provide guests and insights in the weeks and months to come, but also news for each podcast. This week you can hear about LCRIG’s new webinar series bringing you practical steps to Net Zero and an update from the TTF about the 39 local authorities’ plans for spending the money they have received from the Traffic Signals Challenge funding initiative. ITS (UK) remind members the range of benefits they get from membership of the different technology forums, while we hear about the ADEPT Live Labs solar roads installation in Central Bedfordshire.

On top of that, you’ll hear Adrian Tatum’s pick of the stories on the Highways News website, and who wins “Adrian’s Accolade” this week.

Links:

LCRIG short survey - details here.

ITS (UK) member blog post.

TTF Signals Challenge update.

ADEPT Live Labs Blog.

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We’ve had a welcome return to face-to-face events in this country over the autumn but nothing on the scale of Highways UK, so this week’s Highways Voices looks ahead to this major event at the NEC.

In the podcast, Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum chat to Highways UK content director Paul Wheeler who tells them, ”All sorts of big thinking areas are the Main Theatre or what we call a big thinking stage, which is a very high level strategic insights - almost TED Talks for road sector.”

The two Highways News co-owners also talk to President of the Institution of Civil Engineers Rachel Skinner who’s leading a discussion on Getting Serious – Climate Action Towards Net Zero. “There won't be a single rulebook, we won't have all the answers,” she says.  “We just need to get on across each of the sectors, across each of those lifecycle stages and be confident that we're all pulling in same direction to go as fast as we possibly can. Because this genuinely is urgent at the moment.”

“Roads are a big emitter surface transport is the single biggest carbon emitting sector in the country and road transport makes up the vast majority of that,” adds National Highways’ Executive Director, Strategy and Planning Elliot Shaw, “So it's really imperative on those to drive the shift to net zero.”

The official podcast provider of Highways UK also brings you some of the top stories on the Highways News website, and why SRL wins this week’s “Adrian’s Accolade”.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

This week's Highways Voices hears about the major Transportation Research Board meeting in the US, where guest Matthew Juckes of Aimsun explains how "it really started off more as an academic research oriented conference but over the last 10 years... operations and the systems people and just more of the professionals in the industry, not just the academic side, have come to it and use it as a working place for various committees."

The company's President in the US explains how the event is significant for everyone because it looks at all aspects of transport. "TRB is all encompassing - from pavement and road surfacing to traffic signals, controllers, to traffic management operations, to academic research on new algorithms and new approaches," he says. He explains how a lot of the AI machine learning data analytics space has really taken off, bringing together systems engineering, product development, hardware and core engineering, bridge design and road surface design, tied in with what academia is researching.

The interview also talks about the latest in modelling for pedestrians and cyclists and how you can use real-time data and modelling to inform on the best way to alleviate traffic jams before they even happen and, as he spoke with New York in the background, how a major city can benefit from this.

You'll also hear why Professor Phil Blythe of Newcastle University wins Adrian's Accolade, plus a round-up of the week's news.

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“The Manual for Smart Streets is intended to provide guidance to support local authorities in implementing technology that supports traffic management and the operation of streets,” explains New Mobility Technology Integration expert Daniel Hobbs of the Connected Places Catapult on this week’s Highways Voices podcast. “Things like how traffic signals will develop to connect to vehicles in the future, how new sources of data can link into implementing other services in the local authority like information for how people should be around, providing a wider control and management of the network to the to the local authority.”

The initiative is by the Department for Transport and the Connected Places Catapult through the Transport Technology Forum. It is designed to complement the 2007 document the Manual for Streets, by helping local authorities enhance their network with the application of technology.

Daniel Hobbs is joined on the podcast by Darren Capes, ITS Policy Lead at the DfT who explains that it’s all about delivering efficiencies using what local authorities will already have. “It's not about nuclear powered space hoppers, it's not about the future,” he says. “It's about, in large part, how we do the jobs we do now better.”

The podcast discusses the ways equipment can be used better, how connected car technology is becoming a game-changer for authorities and why authorities with differing transport management capabilities will all be able to benefit.

This latest Highways Voices also hears the latest news from the industry and why connected vehicle start-up Eloy win this week’s Adrian’s Accolade.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Read more about the Manual for Smart Streets here.

Two of the UK's leading experts on the behaviour of people while travelling are urging engineers to redefine how they measure a successful transport system.

Rory Sutherland and Pete Dyson have written a book "Transport for Humans - Are We Nearly There Yet" which they discuss on this week's Highways Voices podcast.

In the book they write how engineers plan transport systems, but people use them, and the ways in which an engineer measures success – speed, journey time, efficiency – are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip.

"We are not cargo," they write, "We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety – and many other factors that engineering equations don’t capture at all.

"As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, the greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of roads, railways, planes and pavements – as well as the ways in which we use them – but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans."

"An understanding of human psychology offers far more potential for ingenuity in transport solutions, than simply looking at what you might call real world SI derived metrics of speed and punctuality and capacity," Rory Sutherland, who is Vice Chairman of brand agency Ogilvy, told the podcast. "So the scope for ingenuity is much, much greater. If you're prepared to actually wrestle with some of the counterintuitive, and sometimes eccentric mysteries of human perception.

"We don't perceive the world objectively, we have, you can see this from English language, time flies, when you're having fun, or it was the longest ten minutes of my life, you know, we don't perceive time, like a metronome or a stopwatch".

He explains that we plan for the average, but that nobody is average. "We spend an awful lot of time trying to solve for the average, we take the average traveller, solve for him or her, or rather it because it's an average and then impose that optimal solution on everybody, regardless of their varying preferences and comparative sets."

The authors worked together at Ogilvy until Pete Dyson moved to a role within the Department for Transport, looking at new ways to deliver transport.

"Has transport fully realised the key product that it is selling?", Pete comments in the podcast. "On the one hand, it's the get the person from A to B point. But if you only think of it in those terms, then you get to this reductionist area of we'll get them to be faster than a is the best possible option. But thinking of it differently leads to some more cheeky ideas."

Using the example of the Caledonian Sleeper between London and Scotland which is more expensive and slower than a flight, but still a very attractive travel option he suggests, "What if the sleeper train were a room on AirBnB, and when you're looking for rooms in Aberdeen, you can book the sleeper train, because after all, that could be your first night in Aberdeen, or vice versa if you wanted to stay in London, and now suddenly the cost feels a little bit different because after all you're paying for a nice accommodation."

The conversation discusses a range of topics from multi-modal travel to smart motorways, from road charging and...

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“The main thing interested me was the fact that it's not just in a warehouse picking this stock all day, you can one day be 20 miles down the M6 or round the corner on the M62 doing all sorts of bits,” explains Amey apprentice Josh Dudley about why he loves his job in Highways on this week’s Highways Voices.

Josh is one of three apprentices who are guests on the podcast this week, marking National Apprenticeship Week, where he talks about his experience of being one of the lads, how he’s loving the variety, his ideas for informing the public and even how he helped a driver who was having a suspected heart attack.

Before Josh on the show, Lauren Cooper and Lauren Weaver of Kier tell us about their apprenticeships and why they chose to go down that career path.

“I was going to do a levels and then go on university… but then I heard about the apprenticeship route, which I wasn't too aware of to be honest,” explains Lauren Cooper adding that “I decided to go into highlights because it kind of interests me… working on the infrastructure around us,” while Lauren Weaver said she didn’t want to learn five days a week anymore by doing a degree.  “I knew the apprenticeship route for being able to continue my learning, but also starting to get experience,” she explains. “I wanted to start earning and… actually doing the job that I knew I wanted to be in.”

The trio have some great insights into what it’s like to start a career, and give some food for thought who are recruiters, and why going down the graduate route may not always be the best option.

The podcast also hears who this week’s Adrian’s Accolade goes to, and a summary of some of the stories brought to you over the past few days on the Highways News website.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Read more about the Manual for Smart Streets here.

What is one of the highway industry’s toughest challenges that is very difficult to solve and hardly talked about?

This week on Highways Voices we delve into the issue of road runoff pollution with Keyline.

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Did you know, road runoff is pollution caused when vehicles deposit debris containing over 300 chemicals on the road surface? Then, rainfall pushes the pollutants from roads into rivers and as a result water quality becomes unsustainable, collapsing ecosystems and killing wildlife.

According to Keyline, 18% of water body failures in England are due to road runoff pollution. Also, the water framework directive sets an objective to restore all rivers to good ecological status by December 2027, but only 14% of rivers in England have a good ecological status

It is clear then, that the conversation still needs to go further and more action is needed to eradicate road runoff pollution.

In this podcast with Technical Director at Keyline Civils Specialist, George Woollard, you will learn:

*What is road runoff pollution?

* What impact does it have and why the industry should care.

* How much visibility do we have on road runoff pollution?

* What are the main challenges with tackling road runoff pollution?

* How can we solve the issue?

* Why SuDS has an important role to play

* How can the highways industry support to help solve the challenge?

Keyline Civils Specialist is one of the UK’s leading civils partners to the highways and construction sectors. It supports the implementation of infrastructure projects, working alongside major contractors and leading manufacturers to deliver innovative solutions, with its wide range of civils and drainage products, expert technical team and national support network.

You can download Keyline’s white paper on the subject here.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK.

This week on Highways Voices we talk about driverless car technology, regulation, and industry developments.

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Guest Dr Henriette Cornet has recently joined the University of San Francisco after previously working on the European SHOW and ULTIMO projects, as well as being a member of the CCAM executive board and writing a book on the subject.

She explains how last mile solutions are becoming early examples of the technology: “So you would have autonomous vehicles maybe taking you to the first public transport station, metro station, and having like this collaboration between private partners and public partners working together,” she says. But she adds that robotaxis are effective too, explaining her experience of riding them in San Francisco: “That's kind of amazing, actually, and I think there's still many people in the world that don't believe it. Like, when you are in the bubble of CCAM, everybody knows that, but talking to people outside of it, it's still a bit of science fiction aspect. It's really very fast to get into a car. And I use them regularly.”

You’ll hear her views on regulation, how Europe can avoid being left behind, and why it’s not technology that’s stopping us getting in a driverless cab in London.

Plus, find out why Yunex Traffic win Adrian’s Accolade this week, and hear some headlines from the Highways News website.

Join Highways Voices on a whistle-stop tour of last week's LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival in Coventry, as we hear expertise across the road maintenance, safety, EV and mobility industries.

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In the first of two podcasts from the event, we hear how LCRIG and the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund are working together to support career development for people in our industry, before JCB give an explanation of their latest machine used to dramatically improve the efficiency of pothole repair.

We discuss one of the demonstrations at the Festival, with VESOS, Coventry City Council, Haas Alert and Skyfarer improving responses to road crashes by pairing eCall and Drone technology, then we learn about a clean onsite energy solution with Levett Business Services and Kerbocharge's clever way to deliver EV charging to people who live in homes without a driveway.

Finally we take a ride in an Ohmio driverless pod, learning that the technology is no longer something of the future, but being delivered here and now.

The busy LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival is an indoor-outdoor event bringing local authorities and the supply chain together over two days. There was so much to see and do that we'll be bringing you more from that event next week.

The podcast features:

0m58s - Paula Claytonsmith, CEO, LCRIG

3m46s - Andy Graham, Vice Chair, Rees Jeffreys Road Fund

8m08s - Ben Rawding, General Manager, JCB

11m53s - Andy Graham, co-founder, VESOS and Sunil Budhdeo, Transport Innovation Manager, Coventry City Council

18m 19s - Neil Levett, Managing Director, Levett Business Services

23m12s - Ben Whitaker, CTO, Kerbocharge

26m20s - Ian Pulford, Director, Ohmio UK and Sunil Budhdeo, Transport Innovation Manager, Coventry City Council

"Don't try and talk to the politicians - the truth is actually having good relations with... politicians will have very little impact on the actual decisions government takes," explains former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling on this week's Highways Voices.

He joined an ITS UK meeting last week and was interviewed by Highways Voices host Paul Hutton, who recorded the chat for you to feature on this week's podcast.

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Mr Grayling was asked how to influence policy, and pointed out what ministers don't do: "Ministers have no involvement in procurement, they have little involvement in decisions about technology," he said. "A recommendation come from a civil servant to say we've evaluated these three things - we need this change the regulations in order to make that happen, do you agree? But that will come from the civil service, I will come from expert panels set up to look at individual issues. It may come from local authority pressure, it may come from outside bodies, like the RAC and the AA. Actually, the last people you want to be focusing all your time and effort on is politicians, because government doesn't work like that."

In the conversation, Mr Grayling discusses his past before parliament, his experience in the role and key issues around smart motorways and road safety and public opinion, plus the "elephant in the room" - Road User Charging. He also explained how, when you're Secretary of State, you can expect to be blamed for things that are not your fault.

"I don't think we're going to wake up one morning and have a government white paper saying we're going to introduce a pay per mile on every stretch of road in the UK," he said. "What I do think is we're going to see more... paid for miles for lorries on motorways, for example, it may mean pay per mile in and around urban areas. I think that the Treasury is going to have a deep desire to introduce road user charging in order to offset the loss of revenue from electric vehicles, but I'm not convinced it's going to get its way anytime soon."

You'll also hear the latest from our pages on Highways News, plus reaction to the Transport Technology Forum's conference, the latest from Live Labs 2, ITS UK's briefing for newly-elected politicians, and a new invention to be shown off at this year's LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival.

The travelling public will have a 'much higher' expectation from the transport system in the UK, according to Mark Corbin, chair of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT's)National Traffic Manager's Group.

He was speaking on this week's Highways Voices podcast and ahead of the Traffic Managers conference, taking place on October 13th.

He said: "I think people will have a much higher expectation from the transport system, because they will be paying a lot more careful attention to how they plan their journeys, though. And that's where I think some of the pressure will come on to us as traffic managers now.

"We have to have measures of control to ensure we deliver on the big agenda items such as clean air. We have to be able to balance the fact that we have to manage a climate emergency, air pollution and everything else associated with the environment with balancing what we are doing every day and finding a way of engaging better with users of our transport services in different ways."

Mr Corbin added: "So we have to absolutely stay very connected, very united, keep sharing, keep talking because the challenges are big. And the response from us is going to be huge. And we've got to make sure that we properly engage that and learn as we go."

He said 'we have a user-led transport service like we have never had before'.

During the podcast interview, Mr Corbin also spoke about delivering the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. "This is about doing what we normally do better but it is all about access and providing sustainable ways of travelling alongside the more traditional-we have to be prepared for everything."

In this podcast you'll also hear about the Highways Voices podcasts for the ITS World Congress and why Transport for the West Midlands wins "Adrian's Accolade".

When I go to site, I love it, and I just feel like I'm in a little sweet shop or something," says National Highways Civil Engineer Abigail Filby on this week's Highways Voices - "It is so fun, and you learn so much, and there's so much experience on site."

Abigail and colleague Mitchell Mackenzie, who's a Project Controls Apprentice, join Adrian Tatum on the podcast to discuss attracting people into the industry and how, as Mitchell puts it, "When I was watching Bob the Builder, I never realised how much goes in and how many different roles there are in this industry."

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The pair have been leaders in National Highways' social value delivery, presenting on the subject at the organisation's Engagement Council meeting in Leeds back in March.

"We organised a whole conference, a whole day around that [social value], and we split the day into five main sections, we had breakout rooms, we had a director Q&A panel, we had a CEO Q&A panel, we had like a networking area as well," explains Abigail, "and then we also had an area where we could get other supply chain companies in to talk about how they're involved as well," while Mitchell adds that "The thing about social value, especially within National Highways is it's the key thing that graduate apprentices actually get involved in."

The pair also talk to Adrian about what more needs to be done to produce more recruits to the industry, their passion for it, and how we could engage better with the travelling public.

On the podcast, you'll also hear news from our partners including exciting road safety technology and a new guide to industry terminology, and you'll also year why Stocksigns win our Accolade this week.

Highways Voices returns after its summer break with an interview recorded at the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium in Nottingham.

Andrew Caleya Chetty is our guest, CEO and Founder of Starling Technologies, talking about its innovative approach to pedestrian safety using computer vision and machine learning.

He explains how Starling's system, which can handle saturated pavements and different user types, has received positive feedback from UK and international authorities. The company's technology, which can platoon pedestrians to improve efficiency, also captures detailed behavioural data.

He's joined by Simon Rogers, Starling's sales lead, who discusses the business cases for their product, including financial, carbon, and safety benefits.

You'll also hear how Starling aims to expand globally, with installations in various countries and plans to showcase their solutions at the ITS World Congress in Dubai.

This week on Highways Voices we hear about new features being added to LCRIG's Innovation and Learning Festival, which takes place next month (2 and 3 July).

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The event sees local authorities find out about new innovations from the supply chain that can help to meet their current and future challenges, as products, solutions, new innovations and techniques from across the highways sector are showcased.

Local Council Roads Innovation Group CEO Paula Claytonsmith is our guest, discussing the indoor and outdoor exhibitions plus a range of live demonstration sessions at the new venue of Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire.

"It's nice to move to a new venue, which we know will have better facilities, better food facilities, better networking facilities, and more compact," she says.

"I think there's a bit of a misnomer that the Innovation and Learning festival is more on that civils, highways maintenance side, when actually it's both highways, maintenance, civils, and also technology. So they are actually both present at the event, and what we've worked hard this year to do is bring new sort of innovations."

She discusses the need for stakeholders to work together to address industry challenges, including sustainability and technology integration as well as the need to book as soon as possible.

Away from the main interview, you’ll hear news from our partners including the clock ticking on early bird ticket rates for the ITS UK President's Dinner, and why Adrian has chosen Coventry University as the winners of his accolade this week.

The UK Pavilion at the ITS World Congress in Dubai features a number of innovative British SMEs, and on this special podcast we meet them all.

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Highways Voices host Paul Hutton has a "pitwalk" style chat with participants on the stand, which is delivered by the Transport Technology Forum and LCRIG.

Hear from Starling Technologies, Clearview Intelligence, Westcotec, Nicander, Now Wireless, AGD Systems, ANGOKA, Aurrigo, Immense and Neology as they discuss their products and the international opportunities they have.

A whirlwind half hour and well worth a listen.

This week the Highways Voices podcast heads to the Smart Mobility Living Lab in Woolwich, London, to learn about the important work that takes place there, and the value of collaboration to all the lab’s members as it makes a real difference to the way we travel.

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You'll meet three of the team at the TRL-led facility - Thomas Tompkin, Head of Network and Infrastructure, gives us a tour of the control room, and he's joined by Director Jo Evans and James Long, Head of Technical Consulting.

They talk about how they have benefitted from learning in the real world, along with virtual testing, some of the work that has been done, the value of being a part of the community and integrating a product into the infrastructure.

You'll also hear news from the podcast's partners and who Adrian Tatum has picked to receive "Adrian's Accolade" this week.

In a couple of weeks, Highways Voices will be back out and about bringing you chat from the ITS European Congress in the French city of Toulouse. The podcasts are thanks to the generous support of SWARCO and Nota.

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In this week's programme, host Paul Hutton finds out about the five strands of the Congress and the key themes with ERTICO Director of Communications, Congresses and Events, Lisa Boch-Andersen, before chatting to Richard Neumann of SWARCO about his company's support for the Congress and how it keeps freshening up its stands to keep visitors engaged.

Finally, you'll hear from Toulouse-based driverless vehicle pioneer EasyMile about how you can ride a driverless vehicle and see many more in action.

On top of this, you'll get news from Highways Voices partners ITS (UK), the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG and ADEPT and find out why Adrian's Accolade goes to Estonia this week.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) website

TTF website

Adept website

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"If you're out on your travels, know that there is a site in the locality and can just pop in and take a photograph." That's how, according to Rees Jeffreys Road Fund Chairman David Tarrant, Highways Voices listeners and Highways News readers can take part in a bit of fun - helping the Fund find dozens of scenic rest areas it has invested in over the years.

The fund has given money to a wide range of road-related projects over the years - the latest being its £150,000 "Roads of the Future" competition - and one of them was to provide nice places for people to stop on their travels.

However, trustees have realised that they don't actually know exactly where each of these areas is, and what sort of state of repair they might be in, so are enlisting the help of the industry.

Mr Tarrant explains the fund needs help, "Confirming that there still is a roadside rest of the location, whether it's still possible to park there, can you confirm that the description on the list we've got is actually accurate? Is the correct road noted because it may be that that road has now been bypassed. Have we got the coordinates, you can even use What3Words. [We need a] few words on what the current condition is like - is it tidy, well maintained, totally overgrown? Is there a Rees Jeffrey's plaque there? And then a photograph or two, from a number of different viewpoints showing the roadside rest area itself."

The list they have of the roadside rest areas is here and more details about the project are here.

Mr Tarrant also gives a history of William Rees Jeffreys, other things the fund has contributed to and how you could get a grant for an innovative project yourself.

There's also news from Highways Voices partners about the Transport Technology Forum annual conference, an "unconference" from ITS (UK), that ADEPT and the Future Highways Research Group are publishing guidance on Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions free to the sector and LCRIG's forthcoming event, "Practical steps on the journey to net zero: Understanding the challenge".

Plus you'll hear a round-up of the news on Highways-News.com and why Milton Keynes wins this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

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How are we getting on introducing driverless vehicles into our transport network?

Well, we're further forward thanks to some new research in Sunderland which we find out about today with Newcastle University's Professor Phil Blythe who tells us about a trial service between a transport interchange and the city's hospital.

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In this episode of Highways Voices, Professor Blythe discusses how the real-world trial is not only mapping out the transformation of mobility access for patients and staff but also addressing the urgent shortage of commercial drivers and paving the way for smarter, more connected urban transport systems. For decision-makers grappling with service gaps, labour challenges, and climate goals, this is a look into a near-future solution already in motion.

In this episode you will learn how autonomous public transport is being used to solve real, local accessibility challenges in complex traffic environments, discover how Newcastle University is evaluating user trust, environmental benefits, and cost efficiency to guide future adoption and get insights on scalable models and how public-private partnerships are accelerating deployment of smart transport technologies across the UK.

Hit play now to find out how autonomous vehicles are quietly reshaping the future of urban transport—starting with a hill, a hospital, and a city determined to lead.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK.

We can only scratch the surface of the huge Highways UK event on these podcasts, but we're bringing you a great flavour of what the estimated 8,000 industry professionals have experienced over two days at Birmingham's NEC.

These podcasts are brought to you thanks to the support of Re-flow, Kier Highways, Causeway Technologies, Navtech Radar and SWARCO.

Today we bounce around the exhibition floor to hear about the ever-expanding SWARCO and their solutions, discuss road surfacing, Kier's work on diversity in the workforce (which we hear is good for staff and the bottom line) and tunnel safety and technology, and meet a fascinating start-up.

We've also recorded the keynote panel sessions on Day 2, which we'll use in future Highways Voices podcasts.

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The new Managing Director of SWARCO in the UK is committing to working with local authorities to help them adapt to changing travel patterns post Covid, and delivering a joined up solution from his company’s different business units.

In his first interview since taking over last month, John Pickworth has told Highways News’s new weekly podcast Highways Voices that he wants to make sure customers get the best from SWARCO Traffic’s signs and signals business, the company’s eVolt charging products and its Skidata parking management solutions as one solution.

“If I speak locally, in Sussex, we have a high number of cars, of sports cars, and bikers who come to visit the coast in the weekends, for example, and there’s little doubt that the communities through which they drive really do support average speed cameras and other safety cameras to assist them to reduce both the noise and also the speed of that traffic," says Sussex Police Chief Constable Jo Shiner (pictured) on this week's Highways Voices, "But then there are others who will persistently put pictures of where the safety cameras are, whether it’s on Facebook or other social media, almost to say this is here, and almost make it ineffective.”

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The head of roads policing in the UK joins us on this week's podcast to discuss making our roads safer, and the role of technology in doing so. She also discusses a graduated driving license, eCall, and tougher sentences for drivers breaking the rules.

“If you actually compare some of the sentences that drivers who do kill people, because of their way in which they drive on the roads, versus maybe some other crimes in society, predominantly, you see that those sentences are lower,” she said. “And that’s just one example where I think families are not feeling that they do get the justice that sometimes they deserve.”

She even talks about why, when you’re driving perfectly safely and legally, if you see traffic police, for some reason you feel guilty!

You'll also hear news from our partners ADEPT, LCRIG, the TTF and ITS UK and who wins "Adrian's Accolade" this week,

As the UK's premier exhibition and conference for the highways and transport industry continues in Birmingham, Highways Voices delivers its second podcast frpom the event.

Join Paul Hutton today when he talks with Jenoptik about the value of average speed cameras in delivering road safety, cleaner air and even significant economic benefits.

Highways Voices first ever guest, John Pickworth of SWARCO returns to the programme to give a background on the company's partnership with SRL and you'll also hear from Clearway about their rapid deployment CCTV solution, ARTSM and the Road Industry Forum, and Messagemaker about their sustainable low power solutions.

Finally friend of Highways Voices Andy Graham, the leading consultant and connected vehicle expert gives his views on why connectivity is delivering such benefits to the sector right now.

What if you could dramatically improve travel experiences and reduce traffic issues without spending billions on new infrastructure?

In this episode of Highways Voices, we revisit a chat with behavioural scientist Rory Sutherland, author of the book Transport for Humans - Are We Nearly There Yet, exploring how psychology and better information, and not just engineering, can solve key challenges in highways and travel.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

If you're a decision-maker in transport, this discussion offers a fresh perspective on solving problems efficiently and cost-effectively.

• Discover why improving perceptions of travel time can reduce frustration and improve satisfaction.
• Learn how small, inexpensive changes like better signage or reframing can influence behaviour and optimise existing infrastructure.
• Gain insights into how psychology can maximise the use of current networks to reduce congestion and improve flow.

Don’t miss this opportunity to rethink travel and highways solutions. Hit play now and uncover practical strategies that can transform your approach.

Don’t forget to sign up to our daily email to get all our news into your inbox, and you can also find our stories on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

Highways Voices returns for a new series today, and we start with a special interview with friend of the programme and regular contributor Richard Neumann of SWARCO.

Usually we chat to him in an exhibition hall somewhere in the world, but here we talk at the SWARCO headquarters in Wattens, near Innsbruck in Austria, and take a tour of SWARCO Traffic World, the company’s exhibition of all things transport.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

"If you talk to the people on the street, they orient themselves at our products every day without knowing that it's SWARCO behind them," Richard explains. "Here, the people come to the SWARCO Traffic World... and then they get introduced into everything you need to know about road marking systems and about intelligent transport systems. And here we have the exhibits, we have hardware, we have software. In the meantime, we even add virtual reality and augmented reality to this room to even explain in a more illustrative way, how SWARCO is managing traffic."

You can find all about it without the travel, where you'll hear about road markings, roadside technology and software.

In the podcast, you'll also hear about the ADEPT Live Labs event, ITS UK and Transport Technology Forum conferences and why you need to get in quickly to grab a place at LCRIG's two popular events.

We get the views of six different experts and users of transport technology in today's Highways Voices, as we chat to people at the Transport Technology Forum Annual Conference in Leeds.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

One of the ITS industry's leading experts Andy Graham is the first of our guests discussing connected vehicle solutions and the importance of patience when it comes to seeing user take-up, but also of the industry itself maximising the benefits of technology.

Cyber Dr Liz James, who has contributed to the newly-launched Manual for Smart Streets discusses whether the industry is taking cyber security seriously, while Pete Cattell of Clearview Intelligence urges local authorities to talk to technology suppliers as a matter of course during their transport planning, to get great ideas and save work later.

Also in the podcast, you'll hear from Agne Vaitekenaite from ERTICO and also the views of two local authorities, Matt Shelton of Transport for West Midlands and Staffordshire's Emily Madsen.

There's no partner news or Adrian's Accolade this week - they return next week.

This week on Highways Voices we hear from a self-made millionaire who has invested in, and it becomes clear as he talks, truly believes in a leading SME in our industry, giving you an insight into what someone looks for when choosing to invest their money.

Our guest Sir John Madejski made his money with Auto Trader magazine and owned Reading Football Club, twice taking them to the Premier League. He also continues to own the highways and transport solutions provider Clearview Intelligence.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

In today's podcast we sit down with Sir John to find out what made him choose Clearview among the hundreds of opportunities he was offered, why he believes in the company and has kept it after offloading so many others.

You'll hear a fascinating insight into the mind of the millionaire, and maybe get some ideas on how to attract, and keep, investment as Clearview has done so successfully.

You'll of course also hear your Highways Voices regulars, with Adrian Tatum's top stories, the latest from our podcast partners and who we tip our hat to for doing amazing things in our industry in "Adrian's Accolade".

Don't forget to sign up to our daily email to get all our news into your inbox, and you can also find our stories on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

"I guess the e-scooter trials are a bit of a reset button," commented Jack Holloway, an expert in mobility brands at global brand agency Landor & Fitch on this week's Highways Voices podcast, " to see if they can deliver on the promise of alternative mobility. But for that trial to succeed, the local governments need to work with the rental operators."

Jack Holloway joined the podcast to discuss the ongoing issues of safety around e-scooters which have been involved in at least one death and several injuries in recent months.

He was responding to comments on a previous edition of Highways News's podcast by Peter Hitchens, the Mail on Sunday columnist, who called them "a recipe for injury" and, when it comes to solving a transport challenge, “whatever you do, there is no problem to which electric scooters are the answer.”

Jack Holloway commented that there are several technological safety features built into the rental trials, "[They go at] a maximum of 12 and a half miles per hour, which I think is quite reduced in comparison to many other kinds of cities around the globe, they have to have lights on the front and the rear of the vehicles that are on throughout that rental period," he explained. "They have audible warning systems for people that maybe are visually impaired, they have first ride policies, which means that new users are required to take an e-learning safety course riders can only be over the age of 18." He said they users also need a driving licence, and that the scooters have "GPS tracking monitors on them, so they can see when when riders are riding on the on the pavement or behaving in a kind of inappropriate manner. And then they run a three strike policy, which could lead to suspension."

But on top of the safety issues, how do you brand an e-scooter to make it attractive to people to use, and where will the trials go? Hear some answers in the interview.

You can also hear why the Highways Heroes awards wins this week's "Adrians Accolade" and hear Highways News owners Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum discuss this week's news.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The 2022 ITS World Congress comes to a close, and this Highways Voices brings you chat about some of the key issues to come out of the event.

All our podcasts for the World Congress are thanks to the generous support of our sponsors GEWI, SWARCO, Nota AI, one.network and Navtech Radar, all of whom you can meet in LA.

In today’s programme with Paul Hutton we hear about the must-attend sessions on the final day with Chief Rapporteur Professor Eric Sampson, we find out from Navtech Radar why roadside infrastructure will be vital for driverless cars, and on the same theme, SWARCO explain why we need to be taking road marking standards more seriously.

Nota AI explain how AI-powered technology can turn ordinary CCTV cameras into a powerful traffic management tool, Cohda Wireless talk about a device that can connect using any technology, ERTICO look forward to the next major gathering in Europe – Lisbon 2023 and we get a final list of ideas for things to do in LA.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

One of the world's leading experts in automated vehicles has told the latest Highways Voices podcast that developers must accept drivers may not use their vehicles correctly and put in the relevant safeguards to minimise risk.

Consultant Professor Nick Reed of Reed Mobility was referring to cases such as the driver who put his car into automatic mode on the M1 and then filmed himself in the passenger seat, or the recent example of a car crashing in Houston killing two people where neither was driving.

"One of the issues around current automation systems is that lack of driver monitoring," Prof Reed explains. "I think if we can develop systems that reliably detect, firstly, the presence of a driver to make sure they haven't shifted into the passenger seat or the backseat, but also that they are paying the right level attention, as is befitting for the level of automation that is currently operating, then I think we can tackle some of the ways in which drivers might misuse the system. We need to think almost in an adversarial way, what are all the ways in which drivers could misuse or try to break the systems and make sure we are comfortable that the technology is able to at least bring the vehicle to a safe stop?"

The conversation covers a range of topics including plans to allow automatic lane keeping assistance at slow speeds on motorways and the legal issues around it. "I think it's an important step to make," Prof Reed continues. "I think what we don't know at the moment is the safety benefit that can be achieved from this system. So there are many organisations rightly pointing out the risks of calling this system self driving, and that's that's absolutely correct. There is it's not that the system could do all the driving for you. It's it's a collaboration between the technology and the human driver."

He also has advice for transport planners about where driverless vehicles fit into the overall mobility landscape, "One of the driving forces for the designs that the planning of their transport environment has to be climate emergency, how can we act to mitigate the worst impacts of the carbon emissions, how can we do design our environments to enable more sustainable use of transportation?" He explains. "Now, some of that involves shifting to automated vehicles shifting to Mobility as a Service, but a lot of that also involves shifting to active transport, enabling walking and cycling, enabling public transport to operate more effectively. So I think the role for the planners is to set out the vision of what they want their environments to be like, how do they want the transport system to deliver the environment that the people and the residents and businesses want, and then allow the technology and the innovators to help in delivering that vision. And as I say, some of that will be supported by automation."

You can sign up to automatically download the weekly Highways Voices podcasts to your favourite podcast platform here.

We hear from two CEOs, an inclusive mobility visionary and industry legend on Highways Voices this week.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

In interviews recorded at last week's ITS European Congress in Lisbon, ERTICO-ITS Europe CEO Joost Vantomme discusses UK-European co-operation after he signed a new agreement with the Transport Technology Forum.

We hear from Sandra Witzel, Chief Marketing Officer at Global Mobility as a Service tech provider SkedGo, talking about how much technology can be used to make the transport network more accessible, before learning from SWARCO CEO Michael Schuch about the company's new GoGreen initiative which takes on the challenge of talking to 112 European Green Deal cities about their environmental issues in just eleven months.

Finally we hear from an industry legend. More than 30 years ago, Professor Eric Sampson was one of the architects of the first ITS World Congress, and he's been to every in-person event since. He's now retiring as adviser to ERTICO and this was his last congress as Chief Rapporteur. We hear his memories and highlights in a fascinating and emotional interview, and how commonplace concepts such as satellite navigation and real-time data into vehicles were both showcased for the first time at Congresses.

Plus you'll hear about more about the TTF-ERTICO partnership, who are ADEPT prize winners, details of LCRIG's Innovation Festival and why June is a busy month for ITS UK, along with the reasons National Highways win Adrian's Accolade this week.

Podcast timings:

4m24s - Joost Vantomme, ERTICO

9m26s - Sandra Witzel, SkedGo

16m20s - News from our Podcast Partners

20m34s - Michael Schuch, SWARCO

24m10s - Prof Eric Sampson, Chief Rapporteur

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

One of the most pressing issues faced by local highways authorities is consistent carbon measurement and reporting, and this is tackled this week on Highways Voices.

The main guest is Simon Wilson of Proving Services, who is leading the work with the Future Highways Research Group for Adept, and has already launched a comprehensive guidance document for Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions.

"A key aspect of any strategy for carbon reduction is going to be carbon measurement.," he explains. "Because otherwise, how can you ever monitor your progress?

But he explains there is a problem in the sector, "At the moment, there is a serious degree of fragmentation around how things are measured, how things are consolidated how things are calculated, and therefore what each organisation's carbon position currently is."

Find out how he's solving it, and why it is so important, on this week's Highways Voices.

You'll also hear news of ADEPT's new policy position on speed management, about the Manual for Smart Streets launch next Monday, ITS (UK)'s Inclusive Mobility Forum to mark Disabled Access Day and LCRIG's webinar on "Practical Steps on the journey to Net Zero."

We'll also hear Adrian Tatum announce this week's "Adrian's Accolade" plus a round-up of the week's news.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Partner links:

Darren Capes's blog post.

ADEPT website

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) YouTube channel

With just three weeks to go to Highways UK at Birmingham's NEC, this week's Highways Voices gives you details of what to expect, talks to a couple of exhibitors and has some hints and tips to get the most out of your investment in being at the event.

These podcasts are sponsored by AGD Systems and Traffic Group Signals, Kiely Bros, Re-flow , Stantec and Yunex Traffic.

Senior Conference Producer Claudia Davidson tells us about how the event is 50% bigger than last year with a growing focus on local, as well as strategic, roads, about key sessions and speakers and the gala dinner and awards.

"We've added a couple more theatres, so we've got 12, including our National Highways Theatre, so I hope everyone's ready to get their walking shoes on because it's going to be across 18,000 square metres, so it's 6,000 meters bigger than last year.... I think what's great is we've got such a strong exhibition, but also paired with a really high level conference."

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts,Spotify,Amazon Music,Google PodcastsorPocket Castsand never miss an episode!

We hear from two of our sponsors, Kieran Corbally of AGD Systems explains the new AGD 650 dual-lane stop line detector, while Neil Levett, representing Kiely Bros, talks about the new Multipatcher and the award-winning GlassMark that will be on show at Highways UK.

We also have advice from marketing expert Helen Blood of Boundary PR and Marketing who has some dos and don'ts for you if you're hosting an exhibition stand: "Do you look approachable?" she asks. "So the whole eating on your stand, being on the phone on your stand, arms crossed, sitting in a table on your laptop, is a complete waste of your time and money."

You'll also hear news from

Highways Voices is the official podcast of the 2021 ITS World Congress from Hamburg and in this preview podcast sponsored by GEWI and SWARCO we hear from two exhibitors and the organisers.

Richard Neumann of SWARCO tells us all about the range of exciting new software and hardware solutions on his huge 124 square metre stand including SWARCO MyCity which is "a modular software suite, where you have different modules about the monitoring of traffic, about the traffic management system itself, about air quality measurements, about the parking guidance, and about the sign management for such signs".

Rail is an important part of Congress with Deutsche Bahn making its debut with a range of end-to-end transport solutions and a plan to make rail travel more attractive than the car. Head of Smart Cities Dr Meike Niedbal who thinks the "21st century will be the century of railroad. Why? Because electrified rail transport is a key solution for sustainability and to fight climate change. This is why we digitise our train system in order to increase capacity and to make it more reliable."

Conference Director Lisa Boch-Andersen is also on the programme discussing the delivery of the congress in difficult circumstances, there's a summary of the latest news and you'll hear why a pioneer of road building wins this week's Adrian's Accolade".

Thousands of our industry colleagues have gathered in Hall 1 of Birmingham's NEC for Day 1 of the huge Highways UK event, and we've been gathering a flavour of the event on Highways Voices.

These podcasts are brought to you thanks to the support of Re-flow, Kier Highways, Causeway Technologies, Navtech Radar and SWARCO.

In today's podcast we hear some of National Highways CEO Nick Harris's comments in the keynote session about smart motorways, the future and why investment in the industry is necessary right now.

You'll hear about stopped vehicle detection from Re-flow plus the latest thinking from Causeway Technologies and Re-flow, while connected vehicle expert Andy Graham talks all about the latest innovations as demonstrated by the Transport Technology Forum here.

We also head into the start-up zone and get details of tomorrow morning's keynote theatre session.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

In the second of our tours of this month's LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival in Coventry, we hear from seven more guests about everything from autonomous pothole repair to road marking

You'll hear from a leading local authority, a company that’s booked millions through its participation with LCRIG, about off grid roadside solutions and from one of the leading trade bodies.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The busy LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival is an indoor-outdoor event bringing local authorities and the supply chain together over two days. This is the second of our special podcasts from there, you can hear part one here.

The podcast features:

1m04s – Sean Rooney, Head of Service, Oxfordshire County Council

5m45s – Toby Fitzsimmons, Business Development Manager,  Miles Macadam

9m48s - John Warne, Business Development and Marketing Director, WJ

11m45s - Paulo Paoletti, Co-founder and CTO, Robotiz3d

16m22s - Brandon Weston, Head of Sales and Marketing, Kight Off Grid

20m41s - Kealie Franklin, CEO, ARTSM

23m30s – Paula Claytonsmith, CEO, LCRIG

How can cutting grass on the roadside help power the very vehicles that maintain our highways, while also slashing carbon emissions?

Across the UK, local highways authorities are facing mounting pressure to decarbonise without sacrificing safety, budget, or reliability. The Live Labs 2 project has been working on seven real-world trials shaping the roads of tomorrow — from street lighting alternatives to circular biofuel solutions — helping turn innovation into business as usual.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

Thanks to our guest, Programme Director Giles Perkins, in today's podcast you will, among other things:

• Discover how data-driven street lighting strategies are reducing carbon while improving safety in the East Riding of Yorkshire
• Learn how the UK’s new Centre of Excellence is ranking carbon-saving innovations for scalable impact across regions
• Uncover how behavioural insights and collaborative systems-thinking are breaking down procurement and legislative barriers to accelerate Net Zero.

Hit play now to hear how Live Labs 2 is creating a blueprint for future-ready roads — and how your organisation can join the charge.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK.

It's the most important ingredient of a road, but is often the forgotten part of the transport industry - this week Asphalt takes centre stage on Highways Voices.

The President of the Institute of Asphalt Technology, Brian Downes, is Paul Hutton's guest on the podcast this week who tells Paul how the industry has introduced many interesting innovations.

"The technologies in terms of how we lay them the optimisation of the of the machinery, the health and safety aspects of it, the approach to sustainability things like warm asphalt, low temperature asphalts, which mean they use less fuel to heat them up, which brings the whole carbon footprint down."

Brian explains industry recruitment and details the vast amount of training, "We manage several courses with strategic partners - the foundation degree with the University of Derby, we have a Higher National Apprenticeship, we're in the process of kicking off this this month," he says. "We also run what are called Lunch and Learn webinars."

The podcast also talks about next week's ITS World Congress podcasts from Hamburg sponsored by GEWI and SWARCO, looks at some key stories on Highways News this week and why VolkerHighways wins this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

If you want to attend the IAT Autumn Seminar "Future Challenges and Opportunities in the Asphalt Industry" at Aston University, email Russell.hunter@instituteofasphalt.org.

This week's Highways Voices returns to the keynote session at Highways UK to discuss the important subject of decarbonising our roads.

The discussion featured representatives of National Highways, Mott MacDonald, Arcadis and Costain, who discussed goals, commitment and how to change behaviour.

The panel also discusses the move to electric vehicles and whether we can adequately decarbonise freight.

In this podcast you will hear from:

Stephen Elderkin, Director of Environmental Sustainability, National Highways 

Kim Yates, UK & Europe Climate Change operational lead at Mott MacDonald

Ramin Massoumi, Global Solutions Director, Arcadis

Lara Young, Group Climate Change Director at Costain 

You'll also hear news from our partners and why TMP Solutions are this week's winners of "Adrian's Accolade"

Last month, the Transport Secretary Mark Harper announced £70 million of investment to deliver a raft of measures to make traffic signals more efficient, including the replacement of old equipment, a new “Green Light Fund” and new technology to better manage city centre traffic. This is being described as “the biggest investment in traffic signals in decades”.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

On this week's Highways Voices we get an update on the application process. With letters and guidance being sent to council Chief Officers across England, we hear from ITS Policy Lead at the Department for Transport Darren Capes.

Darren gave an update to the Transport Technology Forum Autumn update meeting yesterday, 14 November.

"There isn't an 87 page questionnaire to fill in," he explains. "For those of you that filled in the funding process for 2020-21 for TSM [Traffic Signals Maintenance grants], you will remember we asked you seven questions to probe your understanding of your network, probe your policy framework, probe your readiness to deliver we'll do the same thing we will ask questions that allow you to provide us with evidence."

As well as Chief Officers, councils’ signals managers will be contacted by the Department for Transport in the coming days, urging them to consider which funds they wish to apply for. The Transport Technology Forum is working with by the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) to manage the challenge process on behalf of the DfT.

Read the guidance here.

You'll also hear news from the sector and our partners, and who wins "Adrian's Accolade" this week.

The world's leaders in Intelligent Transport Systems will be heading to Los Angeles in two weeks' time for the ITS World Congress, and Highways News will, of course, be there to report with daily Highways Voices podcasts.

There is always a danger that people who head to big events end up spending their time in airports and planes, then hotels and convention centres and they see little of the city they're visiting. Therefore, Highways Voices has spoken to British-born ITS expert and 33-year LA resident Alan Clelland of DKS Associates to give us a guide to his adopted city.

These interviews were recorded to be used on the preview podcast and daily programmes from LA, but Alan is so insightful that we've put together his entire guide into one special podcast that is invaluable if you're heading to LA. In this podcast he talks about the city, the cuisine, entertainment venues, arts and museums, getting around and, of course, chilling on the beach.

All our podcasts for the World Congress are thanks to the generous support of our sponsors GEWI, SWARCO, Nota AI and Navtech Radar, all of whom you can meet in LA.

Given it's Road Safety Week, it's the right week to hear from four leading experts about their thoughts on how we can reduce the number of collisions on our roads.

In this discussion, recorded in the keynote session of Highways UK, you'll hear from:

• Neil Greig, Policy & Research Director, Institute of Advanced Motorists
• Mike Wilson, Chief Highways Engineer, National Highways
• Suzy Charman, Executive Director, Road Safety Foundation
• Dave Conway, IMS & Road Safety Manager FM Conway

They talk about, among others, vehicle design and ADAS, driver behaviour, enforcement and roadworker safety.

You'll also hear news from the Highways News website and why Re-flow win this week's Adrian's Accolade.

Whether you're at Highways UK at Birmingham's NEC over the next couple of days, or wanting to get a feel of the event from afar, Highways Voices is your place to come for the best in chat from the UK's biggest Highways and Transport Show.

As the stand builders finish putting together the exhibition, you'll get a sneak guide to some cutting edge innovation, hear us examine the chicken and egg nature of design and which speakers not to miss, only on your official and trusted guide to Highways UK 2024 - Highways Voices

These programmes are brought to you thanks to the support of AGD and Traffic Group Signals, Q Point, SRL, Westcotec and SWARCO.

Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum are your reporters from the NEC as you hear their take on what we can expect from the keynote session on Wednesday morning that Paul is hosting, before you hear from SWARCO and the Traffic Group, and then Highways UK event content director Claudia Davidson gives you her must-attend sessions. Then hear about a brand new product launch from Westcotec and some real thought leadership from smartmicro, Messagemaker Displays and Kiely Bros.

Plus, we'll tell you where to get a free drink.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

This week's Highways Voices analyses how a refresh of the way software is delivering the most efficient transport network based on existing roadside hardware.

Paul Campion of TRL discusses the best way to manage traffic in towns and cities using a refresh of what we've always known as SCOOT and MOVA traffic management in what is now called Unified Traffic Control.

"It's incredibly important for the cities to have the confidence that their massive installed base of equipment can continue to be used," he explains. "No one wants to dig up the roads in order to put in some new software. So we have to respect that legacy, respect the fact that all these cities, and their citizens depend on this software and have been doing for many years, but take it forward in quite a different and we think, very valuable way."

The conversation also talks about how funding such upgrades could be justified if both the environmental and road safety aspects were considered holistically. "That's quite difficult to do in governmental budgeting, but you know what the challenges like decarbonisation challenges like levelling up, I think are going to require us to do some of these things, which is simultaneously creative, innovative, look like they're really difficult and the same time common bloomin' sense," he adds.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

The podcast also hears the latest news from Highways Voices partners the Transport Technology Forum, ITS (UK), ADEPT and LCRIG.

You'll hear how LCRIG has revealed more details about its upcoming Innovation Festival. The event will be a first of its kind for the highways sector – with a number of local authorities already committed to making their road networks available for trials along with funding for qualifying innovators who participate in the event.

The new event, which will take place from 6-7 July at Newark Showground, has been established to ‘make the case for innovation’ and will bring together local authorities, central government, the supply chain, associations and academia.

Exhibitors are able to request to be included as a qualifying innovator to be eligible for innovation funding and/or trials and the Infrastructure Innovation Board and delegates will judge the qualifying innovations.

Councils including NY Highways, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council are making their networks available for innovation trials.

LCRIG is inviting organisations to attend and exhibit at the Innovation Festival with a contribution from all exhibitors being put towards the LCRIG ‘Steve Berry – Think Exceptional’ Innovation Fund – a pot of money that will be used to help facilitate and speed up innovation...

Average highway maintenance budgets were up by 15% on average in England last year although were below the levels reported in 2019, citing a continued pattern of inconsistent levels of funding, making it difficult for councils to plan longer term, according to this year’s ALARM Survey.

Welsh local authority budgets were up by 22% on average while London saw a small increase of 1.2%. As a result, more potholes were filled (13,298 for England) on average per local authority last year, with 3,967 filled on average in Wales and 2,634 in London. Local authorities have also worked hard to increase the amount of sustainable products used. The percentage of councils responding to the survey revealed that 61% had used warm mix asphalt and 82% were using recycled materials and 33% were choosing materials with the lowest initial carbon footprint, alongside 85% selecting surfacing materials with longer life.

The survey said however, the bill to fix the backlog is still in excess of £10 billion, meaning roads are resurfaced once every 68 years on average. It said: “The increased number of potholes filled is a reflection of the reduced investment in programmed work, which has resulted in poorer road conditions. Filling potholes isn’t a victory; it’s a failure.” According to the survey results, the Overall Road Condition Index showed that 60% roads were in green condition, 31% in amber and 9% in red against a target of 67% green, 25% amber and 8% red. Local authorities in England and Wales said that the ideal profile of road condition should be 73% green, 21% amber and 6% red. From a structural point of view, overall, around 54% if the local road network is reported to be in good condition, with 29% in adequate condition and 17% in poor.

Speaking about the survey on this week’s Highways Voices, Rick Green, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance said: “With a lot of competing funding requirements in a year like no other, the fact that on average local authorities in England received 15% for their highway maintenance budgets should be applauded. But this funding was lower than 2019 and it is this constant changing of funding levels is part of the problem, leading to the fact that the local authorities basically have a significant shortfall in the amount of funding that they believe they require.”

“We filled a 1.7 million potholes, which is one every 19 seconds but actually, filling potholes is a symptom of a poorly maintained road in the first place. They get expensive and they are wasteful. So, the fact that we've done more potholes is stopping people driving into them. But actually, it's not a good indicator that the amount of potholes have gone up.”

He also said that a more ‘streamlined’ competitive funding process would save local authorities time, money and resources on bidding. Mr Green also called for a five-year funding settlement that would enable highway authorities to plan more effectively. “A five-year Government funding package, similar to the commitment made to the strategic network in the two Roads Investment Strategy periods, would allow local authority highway asset managers to plan ahead, invest in, and implement a more sustainable, cost effective whole life approach to maintaining our local roads.”

"I can see this event can see this practically being the whole show ground at some point,," comments new LCRIG CEO Paula Claytonsmith on today's Highways Voices podcast, as she reflects on the success of the second Innovation Festival in Newark.

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Todays programme hears all about the major event, as we take a walk through the vast indoor and outdoor exhibition area to see the latest innovations, before taking a ride in a vehicle showing off the very latest in connected vehicle and in-car signage technology.

In a bumper, and very busy programme we hear about eCall, dynamic kerbside management, citizen-sourced roads information, pothole repair, road surfacing and delineation. We also hear about why the Transport Technology Forum is working so closely with LCRIG to liaise with local authorities.

The Innovation Festival, which is twice the size of its inaugural event a year ago, brings together local authorities, central government, the supply chain, associations and academia to see the latest ideas in highways maintenance and transport technology. More than 175 local authority delegates from 70 authorities are here, meaning around than two-thirds of all the English highway authorities outside London are represented, along with nearly 90 exhibitors.

Interview timings:

Alec Peachey, LCRIG, 1m11s

Andy Graham, White Willow and George Brown, KL Systems, 10m35s

Andy Graham regarding eCall, 17m15s

Laura Jacklin, GRID Smarter Cities, 20m31s

Sally Reader, Fix My Street, 23m43s

Neil Levett, Kiely Bros, 29m23s

Alastair King, Clearview Intelligence, 32m47s

Darren Capes, TTF/DfT, 38m02s

Paula Claytonsmith, LCRIG, 42m42s

“We are doing work in the area of skills working with Salford Council and Salford College, helping them put on their first apprenticeship programme for highways operatives, something that we are looking to perhaps potentially roll out into other regions,” says Local Council Roads Innovation Group CEO Paula Claytonsmith, as she tells Highways Voices how the organisation is so much more than an events organiser.  “I'm also behind the scenes looking at how innovation adoption is more likely to happen in some authorities than in other authorities, and also, there's the work that we do connecting councils to councils.”

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In the podcast, the new CEO, who took over running LCRIG in July does talk about the forthcoming Strictly Highways event in Blackpool in October and November’s Transport Technology Forum Autumn Update in Birmingham: “There are so many impactful policies coming out next year, whether it's the national parking platform, whether it's digital TROs, whether it's quantum computing… whether it's all the other areas that we know are happening around connected vehicles and so forth. So definitely a must attend.”

You’ll also hear about other events you can be part of and how to enter the DfT Special Recognition awards, news from the Highways News website and why Adrian Tatum has chosen an idea in Lincolnshire to win this week’s Adrian’s Accolade.

Ten thousand visitors, around 300 speakers and nearly 250 exhibitors are expected at Highways UK in October, and with that many people involved, we need to know more about it.

So this week on Highways Voices, we catch up with Highways UK’s Senior Conference Producer Claudia Davidson who tells us all about the ever-growing event and how the team behind it keep innovating year after year to keep it relevant and fresh.

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In the chat she talks about how the conference focusses not only on the strategic road network but local roads too, and how more focus is being placed on technology and innovation and asset management.

There are also details of the keynote sessions taking place, which this year involves Highways News co-owner Paul Hutton leading the discussions on the first day with National Highways CEO Nick Harris and other key industry leaders.

Highways UK takes place on 18 and 19 October at Birmingham's NEC.

In the podcast you'll also hear a look ahead to next week's LCRIG Innovation Festival at the Newark Showground with details of all the live demonstrations you can take part in including an industry-first from the Transport Technology Forum, plus a reminder of the key elements of the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium taking place from 13-15 September in Nottingham.

There's also news of work by ADEPT and a new campaign from ITS UK, and why Oxfordshire's Highways Department and Milestone Group win this week's "Adrian's Accolade"

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

"Inspire them and lead them to higher performance, quicker outcomes, better customer service, improved health and safety, performance, better engagement of their teams."

The words of Peter Anderson, Amey's Managing Director - Transport Infrastructure speaking about leadership on the latest Highways Voices podcast.

In the latest conversation with one of our industry's leaders, Peter tells Adrian Tatum about his views on what makes a good leader, "I think the leader needs to be honest, I think the leader needs to be authentic... because that's how that leaders are better able to, to create followership. What a leader needs above all other things is a team that that follows the vision, follows the direction of travel, and feels valued and gets feedback by the leader."

He describes the leadership process as giving staff the tools to do the work and make decisions themselves using a triangle with management, commercial and finance at each corner and asking themselves if what they are doing is "the right thing to do", and then backing their decision.

"When you've got in your triangle, and you've come up with a collective decision, then I'll back you 100%, you make that decision, it's your call, you make it for the right reasons," he says. But then there's a warning if you don't follow the process. "If you are a lone wolf, and you make a decision entirely on your own, without consultation. If you're right, then that's fine, but you're looking, if you're wrong, and you have not consulted with your colleagues in the triangle, then we'll have a very difficult and very different conversation."

Hear Peter's views on work in the communities, focussing on outcomes, and what our industry should do to lead.

You can also hear a round-up of the latest news and who wins the penultimate "Adrian's Accolade" of 2021.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

On Monday we broke the news that the final legal paperwork for the National Persistent Evader Database has been completed and a trial of the solution can now begin in and around London.

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But what is NPED? This week on Highways Voices we hear from founder Alan Wood, who explains how it’s “Santa’s naughty list, but for cars,” identifying vehicles sought for non-payment of parking tickets and linking them to other offences such as no MOT, insurance or vehicle excise duty.

“I guess it's nearly 15 years of what my partner described as mild curiosity that led to an unhealthy hobby,” Mr Wood explains. “It started with me as an enforcement agent travelling residential streets with automatic number plate recognition, looking for vehicles with unpaid warrants for parking offences, and it's only when doing that over a period of time finding vehicles with 20, 40, 50 or 100 warrants, it dawned on me that this was probably a behavioural flag for other things.”

It turned out to be, with him estimating that more than ten million vehicles are not complying with some sort of motoring law. Furthermore, legislation is not keeping up, so while the Police are able to prosecute offenders, they can be seen as not having the time or inclination, while local authorities do not have the powers.

“We've really started the push towards government for this situation to be corrected with new legislation,” he says, “Government needs to be ready for that, because I'm coming for them – I’m amassing my army of supporters.”

Although some of what Mr Wood says may annoy you because he reveals how many people are getting away with not paying their way, he may inspire you with a solution. Find out what you think on this week’s Highways Voices!

“The one saving grace,” says Glynn Barton while talking about the Coronavirus crisis, “is that it wasn’t the other way – we didn’t all of a sudden see a boom in traffic and movement on our very busy network”. Having overseen a huge change to traffic flows in London, been affected by the sudden drop in tube and bus passenger numbers and therefore revenue, and having managed his huge team’s switch to home working (not to mention becoming a father again), it’s been a challenging year for Transport for London’s Director of Network Management.

But Barton has taken it all in his stride, as he explains to Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum in this week’s Highways Voices podcast. And he pays tribute to the teamwork that made things happen so quickly. “We installed a cycle lane on Park Lane, for instance, from design to installation in four days, which we've never done anything like that before,” he explains. “Working with a supply chain, we're able to do things really quickly because it was in the public interest.” 

Barton discusses a range of transport challenges and solutions in the capital, from Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and active travel to funding and future projects. He highlights the need to deliver low-carbon transport and the solutions TfL are using to deliver that, as well as how he considers the latest ideas and solutions, and how he then can implement them in London, and how does he take a world-leading transport network and make it even better?

You’ll also hear Paul and Adrian round up the week’s top stories and also hear who gets recognised for excellence in the industry in “Adrian’s Accolade”.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

It’s a world first this week on Highways Voices.

We delve deeper into the story behind the world’s first roadside deployment of wind turbines on Telford & Wrekin’s network, with the company who developed the technology Alpha 311.

Its Chief Executive Officer, Barry Thompson, told us the business model has been created so local authorities can generate revenue from the electricity generated from the turbines. He said: “We are starting to see a huge possibility with regards to utilising the road infrastructure as a revenue generator. For example, we are talking to another council in the north that want to look at generating the energy from the turbines for electric vehicle charging. Councils need to look at every possible opportunity with regards to how they can help fund the road network or use the energy generated in local communities and there is obviously a strong carbon reduction element which everyone is searching for.”

The turbine turns in low wind speeds, and can not only power the street lights, but will also produce surplus energy that Telford & Wrekin Council can use for local amenities or sell to utility partners to generate a secondary revenue stream.

Installation begins later in the year, and the scheme could include up to 181 turbines delivered to the council. Telford & Wrekin Council has 20,000 lighting columns, and these 181 turbines will render them all carbon neutral, which goes some way to helping the council meet its climate goals.

Find out all about this on this week’s Highways Voices, where you’ll also hear news from podcast partners ADEPT, LCRIG, Transport Technology Forum and ITS (UK) plus why Yunex Traffic wins this week’s “Adrian’s Accolade”.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) Website

Details of TTF Conference

Adept website

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"Two or three years ago people thought we were a little bit nuts and a bit sort of fringy - now, actually, people are properly on board and are wanting to come and have a conversation with us - we've almost become the cool kids."

That's the experience of this week's main guest on Highways Voices, Chris Pateman-Jones who is CEO of the EV chargepoint provider Connected Kerb.

He discusses how the EV charging network will come about in the next eight years, and what challenges there are, but that he is confident it can be delivered. "When you think of the fibre deployment that's taken place across the UK," he says, "This isn't impossible, there is huge opportunity here."

In the chat with Highways Voices presenter Paul Hutton, he discusses how to deliver a socially equitable charging network, the different sorts of chargers and locations and why chargepoint operators should have the opportunity for long contracts with local authorities.

They also talk about educating the public to understand EVs, "I think there is real need for centralised campaigns to really help people to understand what the transition is like, from a non commercial perspective," he says, "Almost like during the 1980s with the Buckle Up campaign. That's the sort of thing that needs to be done here to really help people to understand what's going on."

In the podcast you also hear news from podcasts partners LCRIG, ADEPT, ITS (UK) and the Transport Technology Forum and find out why Clearview Intelligence wins Adrian Tatum's "Adrian's Accolade" this week.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) Website

Details of TTF Conference

Adept website

"The world runs on maps," explains HERE Technologies executive Jason Jameson on this week's Highways Voices, "And if you look at from the early days of creating a map, to find directions, or to map out how to move from place to place, it's always been with us as a society. But if you look at what's happened, there's been this shift to digitisation... and having it more accurate... this is really enabled a lot of the things that we take for granted in society - you couldn't do ride sharing, if you didn't have a digital map, you really would struggle to do e-commerce, and logistics would would start to really become very inefficient without digital maps."

In the conversation, the company's Chief Customer Officer explains how maps are put together, kept fresh and keep adding more and more information that can be used by the world's mobility planners and modellers, and Intelligent Transport Systems solutions providers.

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He explains how these added layers are leading to new solutions to change how we travel, such as the detail needed for Electric Vehicles.

"That includes things like charge point point of interest search, multi stop routing, you get a range on map, when you look on the screen and say how far can I drive... and has estimated charging times at each charging station," he says. "It's just designed to very simply allow folks now to take their EVs and plan longer journeys and know that they're not going to get stuck without a charging station and know that they have enough energy to get where they need to go."

And the data goes further than this - "It isn't just about its distance travelled, it's to do with elevation so the topography - you need to know how steep how big the hills are, you need to know the curvature of the road, you need to know even things like road roughness to determine friction."

Jason also discusses autonomous vehicles, the company's latest partnerships with Uber and What3Words and last mile delivery.

You also hear news from our partners, including a former Transport Secretary joining the next ITS UK Enforcement Forum, and why a project in the West Midlands wins Adrian's Accolade this week

The ADEPT Live Labs projects have brought local authorities closer to innovation than they have ever been before, providing them with new, more efficient and better ways of working.

These are the comments of Programme Director Giles Perkins, who spoke to Highways Voices ahead of the upcoming ADEPT Smart Places Live Labs Expo, taking place on December 1st in Derby.

Mr Perkins, who is also Head of Future Mobility at WSP told Highways Voices: "The Key to the success of Live Labs has been the collaboration between local authorities and the private sector, and out there to maintenance providers, but also new entrants into the market that they may not have had relationships with before SMEs, academia, all sorts of people, the sharing of that innovation, the roles and responsibilities.

"The opportunities that have come from that really is built on collaboration. Everybody has been pitching in together playing to the strengths, but learning along the way. But one could argue that given what we've got to address with climate change, etc, we are all going to have to innovate and innovation is something that we will all need to do as business as usual, we will all need to be agile, we will all need to understand how we can make change, but also response and move on from failure if failures occur. The best way to do that is to do that collaboratively."

Mr Perkins said that a portal, where all the information and learning from the eight Live Lab projects so far, is being developed to help extend the learning to every local authority in the UK, as well as to consider any potential future projects.

You can register for the ADEPT Smart Places Live Labs Expo here: . https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-labs-expo-2021-tickets-180037024587

You can find the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium highlights video here: https://highways-news.com/jct-launches-highlights-video-from-popular-traffic-signals-symposium/

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Forming a team with the best people around them that have different talent is one of the most important attributes of being a good leader, according to LCRIG Chief Executive and NY Highways Chair, Martin Duffy.

He has been speaking as part of this week's Highways Voices podcast. Mr Duffy said that good leaders are the ones that can produce a robust vision for a organisation and develop a platform to deliver that vision on.

Mr Duffy said: "A good leader should be fully of energy with different attributes that including providing a vision, developing a strategy to drive it through and stick with it during the tough times."

But leadership isn't just about what you do internally, it is what you externally that is important as well. "At LCRIG the most important thing is listening to our members and acting on it which we have done successfully with Project Amber and then the work at NY Highways is all about delivering a excellent, cost effective service where we aren't slave to targets but focused on outcomes."

You'll also hear a round-up of the week's news including two in-person events and who wins this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

"The company has a renewed lease of life, we can look forward to more activity, more impact, growth and a thriving and secure business for the employees in the business."

TRL's CEO Paul Campion's explanation of a major investment in the UK’s transport research and innovation pioneer by Blandford Capital which he says for clients "and, with the risk of sounding a bit a little bit up ourselves here, for the country, we think that the things that TRL does are vitally important, and this enables us to do more of them better."

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Now, with fresh investment from Blandford Capital, it's entering a new era. But what does this mean for the future of highways, safety, and transport efficiency? If you’re involved in highways technology, infrastructure planning, or decision-making, this episode unpacks crucial insights about what’s next.In this exclusive interview, recorded at the Interchange Conference in Manchester, Mr Campion explains how this investment ensures long-term stability and innovation, what changes, or indeed continuities, businesses and stakeholders should expect and the opportunities this new backing creates for infrastructure, safety, and decarbonisation efforts.

Highways Voices is brought to you with our partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK.

As Highways Voices reaches its summer break, we finish this series of podcasts with a look ahead to two of the key events for our industry in the autumn.

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Organiser of the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium John Nightingale joins us first to discuss the popular event, and how it's grown with ever more exhibitors and attendees, and how the programme of learned papers was completed earlier than ever, while the social events are a vital part, too.

He'll also hint at a fascinating-sounding session about security which will only be available to those in the room at Nottingham Trent University during the event on the 11 and 12 September.

After John, Claudia Davidson - Head of Content and Strategic Partnerships at Highways UK owner Terrapin - talks about the growing popularity of this event at the NEC on 16 and 17 October.

She discusses the ministerial visits and tours, and how many leading elected officials from across the country are attending. She also looks at some of the key subjects being discussed, new theatres and how to navigate the event and get the most out of it.

On top of that, you'll hear news from the Highways News website, and from our podcast partners LCRIG, the TTF, ADEPT and ITS UK, as well as why Transport for Greater Manchester wins "Adrian's Accolade".

We have a record 13 guests on today's Highways Voices as we hear from the delegation from who exhibited on the UK Pavilion, and also the views of the British Ambassador who visited the exhibition.

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The whistle-stop tour hears from the 12 exhibitors: Navtech Radar, Clearview Intelligence, Nicander, Now Wireless, ANGOKA, Ito World, Neology, Arup, Grid Smarter Cities, See.Sense, VESOS and Zenzic.

Because this is a longer-than-normal episode, to help you, you can find specific interviews by going to the timings below:

Nora Ali                      Clearview                   1m09s

Sam Brierley               Nicander                    4m07s

Laura Jacklin               Grid Smarter Cities    6m51s

Danny Woolard          VESOS                        9m15s

Chris Sainty                Ambassador               12m48s

Paul Hudson              Now Wireless             16m30s

Deborah Kobewka     Ito World                    19m09s

Steve Berry                ANGOKA                     23m53s

Rebecca James           Navtech Radar           27m23s

Irene McAleese          See.Sense                   31m18s

Luke Normington       Neology                      35m04s

Francis McKinney       Zenzic                         39m32s

Tristan...

Why would a highways and transport technology-focussed podcast have discussed dehumidifiers, fast fashion and taking a shop's takings to Barclays? Because all, in their own way, can be used as examples of things that affect our industry, and you'll find out why if you listen to this quick round-up of some of our content from 40 podcasts across 2023.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

We've picked out some of our main guests from the 75 or so people we have spoken to in the year and today you'll hear from, among others, National Highways CEO Nick Harris, Grand Tour host Richard Hammond and National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman and LCRIG CEO Paula Claytonsmith.

You'll also hear inspirational stories about getting the disenfranchised back into the workplace, from a Roads Minister and his shadow, a British Ambassador and some great thoughts on what to consider beyond speed and time metrics when delivering a transport network people actually want.

See you in 2024 - happy Christmas to you from the Highways Voices team!

"The site went down all day - completely bust - couldn't fix it had to dig everything up, and after that," explains Sean Bulmer of the City of York Council on this week's Highways Voices as he discusses equipment obsolescence. "We now have the TSAR project, which is the asset renewal project in York, so every year we do X amount of sites, and then next year, x amount of sites, and this, we're being told, will go on forever."

Mr Bulmer was one of a panel of four people you'll hear from today on Highways Voices discussing the challenges facing local authorities in delivering efficient, sustainable and safe transport networks, who were appearing at the SWARCO User Group meeting in Coventry.

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In the discussion hosted by Highways Voices producer and presenter Paul Hutton, fellow panellist Emily Madsen explains that attracting people into the industry is tough with remuneration as it is "We need to raise the pay," she says, "so that it does get people interested and stay and get that retention of people," while David Hilton-Barber from Derbyshire also agreed retention was an issue, "Obviously, you're gonna go somewhere where you get a better job," he says, "but as a council we spend all this time training someone, spending the effort and the money, and [they leave and] get paid twice as much going anywhere else."

Industry challenges discussed in the session were highlighted by all participants at the meeting, made up of representatives from 30 local authorities. The panel discussed not only equipment obsolescence and recruitment and retention, but also active travel, environmental issues, public and private sector collaboration, plus budgetting, funding and procurement, which SWARCO's UK Managing Director John Pickworth explained was more than just being able to do the job: "So the question 'can you deliver the project' - you might deliver perfectly, do all the right things, but if it's not got the right attachments to it in terms of the board members seeing or DfT seeing that actually this delivers this result, and we're talking about and shouting about it, and telling the world about it, then the next bit of funding doesn't follow."

Enjoy the full, enlightening discussion, on this week's Highways Voices!

Understanding the needs of rural communities is a vital part in planning an effective rural mobility strategy.

These are the thoughts of Peter Ramsey, Associate Director for future mobility at WSP, our guest on this week’s Highways Voices. 

In it, we explore:  why rural mobility is essential to meet Net Zero targets and grow local economies – by reducing car dependency and providing people greater access to local jobs, essential services, and economic centres of activity. Also, we discover how greater rural connectivity can be achieved, through cross-sector collaboration, local council engagement, and planning reform

WSP has recently been appointed to design the first ever rural mobility strategy at the sub-national level for the South-West of England, with Peninsula Transport and Western Gateway sub-national transport bodies.

“Our starting point hasn't just been around the issues that we find there is understanding the different people who live there. We had to take a deeper dive into the understanding of all those issues.”

Last year, WSP published its ’30-minute Rural Community’ research report which reflects on the key issues rural areas can face, such as social isolation and lacking employment opportunities, and solutions to this making our rural communities more prosperous and sustainable.

“We have studied all those different communities to better understand that network of settlements and communities and how they might work better together so a range of publicly available mobility, whether that be public transport, shared cycles can be the choice, not just focusing on private car use but improving mobility for a wider range of people, particularly those who don't have access to a car,” added Mr Ramsey.

Last month, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Rural Powerhouse said that inadequate rural infrastructure costs the UK economy £43bn per year.

In today's podcast you'll also hear our partner news with details of a new survey to help create Digital Roads for Local Roads, the categories for the ITS (UK) Awards, more about LCRIG's Innovation Festival and the thoughts of the new ADEPT President Mark Kemp.

“Every single member I've met has been really positive and optimistic about the industry, really excited about ITS (UK) as an organisation and their role in it,” says new ITS (UK) CEO Max Sugarman on the Highways Voices podcast - his first major interview since taking over from long-serving Secretary General Jennie Martin last month. “What's been clear,” he adds, “is that we're at the cutting edge of transport, and we are a really dynamic and fascinating industry.”

Max Sugarman joined ITS (UK) after a career working in communications with bodies including the Rail Industry Association and Catapult network.

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In this interview, he explains his background, talks about some of the technology he thinks is key to the future of transport and how he plans to use ITS (UK) to influence government policy to the benefit of Intelligent Transport Systems.

“It is about keeping a single message on behalf of the sector and, and sticking with it,” he explains. “Government wants to hear from representative bodies and membership bodies, it needs to know what they're thinking what their challenges are, and what it can do to help. I think the Government will welcome Intelligent Transport Systems UK having a bigger voice and a bigger role.”

In today’s podcast you’ll also hear a round-up of our partner news from ADEPT, LCRIG and the Transport Technology Forum, and why a project in Milton Keynes wins “Adrian’s Accolade” this week.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

"20 years ago, the ITS sector itself wasn't even 20 years old, so what we've achieved in less than 40 years, it's really quite amazing," explains ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin on this week's Highways Voices podcast. "20 years ago, an awful lot of signalised junctions weren't anywhere near as clever there as they are now with now. We got the ability to react to incoming data and change phases in real time, now we use in predictive analysis."

That, she says is just one of many ways the travelling public get better journeys, and how that it is incredible what transport operators can do now, not only in traffic management but also traveller information and services.

Mrs Martin, who has been at the helm of ITS (UK) for more than two-thirds of its existence also talks about the Society itself and how its members deliver so much for each other. "As long as they get an income from somewhere to pay their bills. British people tend to be very relaxed about doing all sorts of unpaid work if it's something that they believe in or something they're interested in."

Hear her thoughts on this, the future of transport technology and where ITS (UK) fits in, along with the latest news and why the people of Guildford win this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Read more about the Manual for Smart Streets here.

We look ahead to Monday at the ITS World Congress on today’s Highways Voices from Los Angeles.

In the podcast we hear Professor Eric Sampson’s comments on the main topics being discussed in the sessions, including an international forum on sustainability and resiliency, with mobility network management, moving transit to zero emissions. And a number of special interest sessions that have caught his eye.

All our podcasts for the World Congress are thanks to the generous support of our sponsors GEWI, SWARCO, Nota AI, one.network and Navtech Radar, all of whom you can meet in LA.

Danny Woolard from GEWI discusses a new software solution that seamlessly co-ordinates workzones, from permit through conflict awareness to traveller information, and we chat European issues with ERTICO CEO Joost Vantomme.

We meet three exhibitors on the UK Pavilion and UK visitor Alastair King of Clearview Intelligence gives a first impression of the event. We also look at things to do here in LA that aren’t ITS with our local expert, British ex pat Alan Clelland of ITS consultancy DKS Associates with great places to eat here in the city.

This podcast is published a day early as the beginning of the event coincides with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II… Many UK, Canadian and Australian visitors will be gathering in the early hours of Monday morning in LA to watch the funeral, and the UK pavilion won’t be opening until the afternoon.

Even though the Chancellor’s budget, delivered just two weeks ago, indicated that budgets to maintain the local road network appear to have escaped further cuts, although as we sit in the middle of a three-year funding cycle-no further increase are expected for at least another two years.

On this week’s Highways Voices podcast, we explore the subject of proactive highway maintenance and the need for local authorities and those contractors that work on behalf of councils to strike a balance between reactive and proactive maintenance as part of a proactive asset management plan.

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One person that knows all about that is Dr Howard Robinson, MD of ASI Solutions and former Chief Executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association.

In this episode he talks about how RHINOPHALT asphalt preservation is helping protect and preserve both the local and national network, keeping it in a better condition for longer. He also tells us why the funding mechanism for highways maintenance needs to change to help incentivise local authorities to be more proactive in their use of surface treatments and why that will lead to less reactive spending in the future.

Now more than ever, increasing numbers of roads asset managers are seeing the economic and sustainable benefits of whole carbon and cost lifecycle management and harnessing proactive surface treatments to maintain their networks, stretching their budgets and significantly reducing their carbon.

You'll also hear why TRL Software and KL Systems win this week's Adrian's Accolade, news from our partners and some top stories from Highways-News.com.

"We constantly monitor and we survey our members in terms of what they think they need in terms of training, and we look at the sector, find out where the sector is, is identifying training needs are required," explains Institute of Highway Engineers CEO Steve Spender on this week's Highways Voices as he discusses training and recruiting the next generation of industry professionals. "One of the things that we are doing is running an initiative called a professional development partnership, in which we're signing a memorandum of understanding with partners that want to work with the institution."

Training is key to the IHE, which provides professional development opportunities, support and leadership for individuals to achieve and maintain professional recognition.

Steve talks about how the IHE is "linked through the work that we do with the Royal Academy of Engineering in developing new engineers, and we get involved in the forums that carried out by the Royal Academy of Engineering and others in new engineers," and how he speaks to students at universities, telling them why our industry is such a great career. He also talks about how things have changed since he was President ten years ago.

You can also hear why Nota AI wins Adrian's Accolade, lots of details of events in the Partner News and a pick of stories on the Highways News website.

Sometimes at Highways News, a company pitches for an article or podcast interview that is so intriguing, we just say yes to find out more.

Tactile Mobility is one such company, delivering enhanced road data using existing technologies found throughout our cars, utilising AI and sensors to map out road conditions, forecast changes in roadway friction and accurately predict maintenance issues.

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Podcast guest Boaz Mizrachi, Founder and CTO of Tactile Mobility explains how the solution is based on onboard processing, for offboard understanding: "On one hand, we need a lot of information, okay, large bandwidth of information that exists today in the vehicle, which cannot be uploaded to the cloud due to limits of communication bandwidth, even today, even in the next few years," he says. "So there is a need to have edge computing software that aggregates the same information inside the vehicle gets to the conclusion in the vehicle inside the ECU and only the outcomes, those insights with very low bandwidth transmission can be uploaded to the cloud."

He explains how manufacturers have had to collaborate with software providers for four-to-five years before production to integrate software, and that the value of virtual sensor technology lies in providing new features to vehicle manufacturers, who can then sell these features as premium upgrades.

The data could also be used for post-accident investigation, if rules around data privacy allows it. "Changing of the friction due to situations like rain... or banking, or curving... this is part of the road signature that we provide with these vehicles," he adds, calling it "surface DNA". "So surface DNA will provide this information that you can analyse".

The podcast also features information from our partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK, and you'll also hear why the CAV Forth project wins Adrian's Accolade this week.

This week's Highways Voices comes from the south of France and the lovely city of Toulouse for the ITS European Congress 2022. 

This podcast is brought to you thanks to the support of our 2022 Congress sponsors SWARCO, Nota.ai and GEWI, who’ll also be supporting us heading to Los Angeles for the World Congress in September…

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

In this week's podcast we hear about data, and competitors getting together to talk sustainability. We'll also have a ride in Europe’s first Level 4 driverless vehicle in mixed traffic and hear a round-up of the major talking points with Professor Eric Sampson.

There'll also be our partner news from our partners the Transport Technology Forum, ADEPT, ITS (UK) and LCRIG.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) website

TTF website

Adept website

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The acting director for roads development in National Highways has explained how a new initiative to add storage capacity to enable more rapid EV charging at service stations is all about supporting range anxiety and making sure that the network's users have got regular intervals at which they can actually charge their vehicles.

Dr Joanna White was discussing the government-owned organisation plans to invest in Energy Storage Systems – essentially giant battery packs – for service stations where the grid supply is not enough for rapid charging infrastructure.

"It's a really interesting project that we're leading, working with the Office for zero emission vehicles to look at how we can support motorway service areas with the their capacity to enable delivery of at least six rapid charging electric vehicle charging points by 2023," she explains. "So we're working with those have to focus on those service areas, which have got lower grid capacity grid connection... or have got lower footfall, and where we can install a battery type solution to charge up overnight or in low periods of demand and enhance the capacity connection that that motorway service area has."

The wide-ranging discussion covers initiatives to decarbonise freight, standards in low carbon transport, liaising with local authorities and then National Highways' own decarbonisation efforts.

"We are looking at our own corporate carbon, we're looking at where we get our energy from that that runs our offices, runs the lighting in our offices," she says. "We're looking at converting the lighting on the network to LED lighting and obviously reducing emissions to that we've invested in plug in hybrid electric vehicles for our traffic officer service."

The last of this week’s Highways Voices podcasts from Intertraffic Amsterdam 2024 explores more of the cutting-edge technology and leading opinion, thanks to the sponsorship of  SWARCO and AGD Systems.

In today’s programme we hear about the Australian invention Multipatcher, a safe one-person operated way to fix our roads, which has been making a difference Down Under for decades and is now on streets in the UK. 

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We meet two leading executives from enforcement company Jenoptik about how technology is making our roads safer, while the importance of safety and adherence to speed limits is underlined by the European Cyclists’ Federation.

We also catch up on driverless technology from Germany, with the latest from pioneers MOIA, while we talk start-ups with Kevin Borras as he looks forward to Friday at Intertraffic.

Whether you’re at Intertraffic or not, we give you a valuable flavour of the event – timed for you to listen to while you’re getting strolling through the Amsterdam showers to the RAI, or getting ready for a Friday working from home.

Protecting his team of roadworkers and continuosly innovating to keep them safe has been one of the biggest priorities for SRL Traffic Systems Chief Executive, Richard Tredwin.

He has been speaking on this week’s Highways Voices podcast, as part of the second in a series on leadership in the highways sector.

“I have a team of 180 staff now, of which 170 are deployed out on the road on a daily basis, with huge volumes of traffic. So we make sure we are very aware of what our staff are doing day in and day out and anything that we can do that makes their jobs easier, their lives safer, that’s one of the most important things. We are in an industry that operates within a risky environment by its very nature, and what we try and do is just reflect on the services and support we can give to our team and offer as many things that can make their job easier, better and safer,” Mr Tredwin said. In the last few year’s, SRL has introduced safety cameras in all of its vehicles, CCTV units are onsite and is currently working on a barrier system that will better protect workers next to live traffic. There is also expected to be more use of SRL’s Smart Portable Messenger VMS to help keep the public better informed of the progress of works and more importantly, why work is being carried out.

He also spoke taking the business from £17 million turnover to £32 million. “we developed a strategy that said that we wanted to continue the innovation with our products and build on an already impressive offering that was also scaleable.” During the podcast he also spoke about how the company looks after its staff, and the communities it works in by proving grants to help road safety education.

In the podcast, you'll also hear who wins Adrian's Accolade this week for something positive and important in our industry.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

This week's Highways Voices comes from the huge Intertraffic event in Amsterdam.

In this podcast, where we scratch the surface of the event you can hear Paul Hutton talk to two CEOs, Michael Schuch of SWARCO and TRL's Paul Campion, plus Ian Hind of AGD Systems and the winners of the Intertraffic Awards.

You'll also hear from organiser Carola Jansen-Young plus, of course, our partner news from LCRIG, TTF, ADEPT and ITS (UK) and the latest news from Highways News HQ with Adrian Tatum.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

ADEPT website

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) Website

Details of TTF Conference

As traffic monitoring and data analytics company Valerann announces it has deployed its Lanternn by Valerann product on the Costa Arauco motorway in Chile, this week’s Highways Voices podcast finds out how they did it.

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Co-founder Michael Vardi says this “revolutionises” the mobility sector and reduces deployment costs for advanced traffic management systems.

“This is a super exciting moment for us because, to the best of our knowledge, we have done the first completely remote deployment of a full ATMS [Advanced Traffic Management System] system,” he says.  “We have deployed cloud-based ATMS that integrates all their systems to one place, and done it completely remotely within only a few weeks from contract sign to full deployment.

“Now, that is in contrast to the previous kind of processes whereby an ATMS would take months, if not over a year, to deploy with many engineers on the ground, [and] on premise to make things happen. Now, the reason this is so important is because what such remote semi-automated deployments allow us to do is to make active traffic management available to many more roads make the advantages of it is available to many more roads. Because now you can deploy everywhere. Deployment and servicing becomes cheaper.  System deployments becomes more effective and more efficient.”

He also explains the company’s eventual plan is that the whole implementation of ATMS can be automated when, “an operator can go online, say these are my camera APIs, these are the data sources I want, these are my roads, click and immediately get a full ATMS system available to them.”

Find out all about it, plus some of the latest news on the Highways News website, plus the latest from Highways Voices partners LCRIG, TTF, ADEPT and ITS (UK).

This week on Highways Voices, we talk about real world here-and-now driverless solutions.

We're joined by the former President and CEO of ITS America, Scott Belcher who is now Executive Director of ACES Mobility, a group looking to boost last mile Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared journeys with a new American initiative.

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"Our coalition is laser focused - we're focused on one use case, and that one use case is first and last mile shared use mobility," he explains. "The challenge that we have in the United States is that regulators want to look at autonomous transportation holistically as if it's all the same. And when you look at first and last mile shared use mobility, you're talking about a very unique use case and a very defined solution."

Scott explains some of the examples of where public ACES solutions are now in regular operation rather than simply trials or demonstrators.

"We're now seeing that the deployments are being placed in places where people actually use them," he explains. "There's a lot that goes into the public outreach. There's a lot that goes into the outreach to first responders. There's a lot that goes into safety information. And there's a lot that goes into making sure that the routes are actually needed and can be used."

You'll also hear how people elsewhere in the world can get involved and learn from what the project is doing.

On top of this, we have our partner news, some headlines from the Highways News website and who wins the last Adrian's Accolade of 2023.

This week, Highways Voices hears ideas on how to overcome challenges in staying close to customers, adapting to their needs, and future-proofing a company portfolio.

Our guest is the CEO of SWARCO, Michael Schuch who discusses the the problems facing the industry because of differing regulation around the world, especially when it comes to adherence to patents and to carbon limits.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

Mr Schuch talks about how we must make sure that countries that produce outside Europe and want to deliver into Europe, are not having an advantage. "A mechanism was put in place called CBM - Cross Border Adjustment Mechanism," he explains. "But this mechanism only applies for certain industries, like steel like aluminium, like fertilisers and other materials, but glass is not part of it. So if you produce in Europe, you pay this tax. But if you produce outside Europe and want to import into Europe, you don't pay."

He also gives his thoughts on the issues around securing public sector funding for transportation innovation, discussing how money is often not available for major deployments after the concept has been proved: "When it is about small scale deployment, it's one thing," he says. "So putting a demo somewhere in place or a pilot in place, that's one thing - money is spent there. But when it comes to wide scale deployment, this is missing."

You'll also hear his thoughts on the importance of a customer-centric approach to innovation, as well as allowing a culture where people can get things wrong in order to get things right.

Away from the main interview, you'll hear news from our partners including LCRIG's great offer for start-ups and micro companies, and why Adrian has chosen Transport for London as the winners of his accolade this week.

This year's ITS World Congress host city Hamburg is seen as a model city for the future of mobility, and on the special GEWI- and SWARCO-sponsored Highways Voices, we find out why.

Martin Huber, is Director General of Hamburg's Ministry of Transport and Mobility Transition joins podcast host Paul Hutton to talk about some of the initiatives in the city, including plans which will mean nobody is more than five minutes from a transport node where a ride is available within five minutes.

Martin urges Paul to check out the solution MOIA while he is in the city saying, "Nobody has more than 200 meters to walk to find a virtual station... I would say you should try it out. As long as you're here, Paul, because... It's really great."

Professor Eric Sampson gives his guide to the event which on Tuesday centres on transport ministers, including Britain's Trudy Harrison, attending. "We can say to ministers, did you realise that I can do this for you - we have got technology that does something that I think you don't know about," he says. "But looking at it the other way, ministers can come to us and say, Look, I've got a big problem. Is there any way you think you can solve it?"

We hear more about Trudy Harrison's visit and a drinks reception on the UK stand from ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin, plus about traffic news for cyclists from Danny Woolard of GEWI who explains how just on his walk to the Congress, "@e found that there were two closures on that cycle rate, a one diversion, and an alternative route, which wasn't even shown on Google Maps. We saw that it was totally impossible to cycle so we had to turn around and go back", while Neil Herron of Grid Smarter Cities explains why kerbside management leads to 20% cuts in emissions.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

This week's Highways Voices again features conversations from the south of France and the ITS European Congress 2022 in Toulouse.

This podcast is brought to you thanks to the support of our 2022 Congress sponsors SWARCO, Nota.ai and GEWI, who’ll also be supporting us heading to Los Angeles for the World Congress in September.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

In this week's podcast we hear about European Commission transport priorities, along with a warning about money, before talking traffic management through AI and how to properly deliver active travel information to better manage the network.

There's also a chat with the Connected Places Catapult about sharing best practice through the Manual for Smart Streets before we talk to an executive from Google Cloud about the transport industry's need for more expertise in machine learning to get the most out of the data collected.

There's also our partner news from our partners the Transport Technology Forum, ADEPT, ITS (UK) and LCRIG, and of course Adrian Tatum brings you top stories from the Highways News website and his Accolade this week.

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

Links:

LCRIG website

ITS (UK) website

TTF website

Adept website

This week's Highways Voices responds to the comments on the podcast from March when local authorities were urged to make more use the data they gather by using transport modelling.

Gav Jackman, Managing Director of the UK division of global modelling company Aimsun, explains what the data is used for and how it can improve transport planning and real-time traffic management, making the network more efficient and the air cleaner.

"It's a digital twin of the network of the road network, It is the road geometry, it is the road signals, the roundabouts, it is everything that affects how you drive across the network is represented in a digital world," he explains. "Then obviously, we have effectively the demand or the flow of vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians across that network, that that is effectively is a model. It's calibrated and validated, so represents real world conditions."

The podcast acknowledges how modelling is sometimes misunderstood or seen as a "dark art", and seeks to explain how it can be used.

One key advancement is the live prediction which means models can be used to predict traffic jams, and therefore mitigate against them before they happen.

"We have three views of that real life situation, the monitoring, the prediction, and then the comparison," Jackman explains. "So the what ifs questions, what if we invoke traffic management strategy "a", versus a do nothing - does that improve that traffic based on our prediction of what's going to happen in the next hour, especially around an incident, or maybe it's not just one traffic management strategy, maybe it's three, four. So comparing those different traffic management strategies against to do nothing, and then recommending to the traffic officers, which ones are the best to invoke that's, that's really where it becomes vitally important."

An exciting development he also explains is around integrating emissions monitoring in order to manage traffic on any particular day depending on the weather conditions, something Jackman explains sees a significant improvement in the air quality.

This week on Highways Voices we talk about how better managing the kerbside for deliveries saves fuel and time, raises revenue and cuts emissions.

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The founder of Grid Smarter Cities, Neil Herron, is the guest on the programme explaining that the current system just doesn't work, "We currently operate a first come first served approach, at the kerb space... which leads to... a lot of wasted time, a lot of wasted effort. All we've done is apply a degree of common sense. You wouldn't open an airport and just tell the planes to turn anytime you wished, or land wherever they want, we're treating the kerbside in the same sort of fashion."

In the interview, we talk about the role of the Smart Mobility Living Lab in helping test out the ideas, how the concept is now reality on the banks for the River Thames and how a small company with a big idea can scale up to deliver on globally.

He also explains how his solutions can have knock-on benefits for other areas of a council's obligations such as social care. "There's a lot of time wasted in vehicles having to go and park legally somewhere, the carer then having to walk from the car park to deliver care, and you might be losing five or ten minutes at the front end five to ten minutes at the back end," he says. "So 30 minutes worth of care ends up being 15 or 20 minutes, because of the parking provision that's required," with the kerbside solution allowing carers to book slots to legally and safely park nearby.

You'll also hear why those tackling roadworker abuse win Adrian's Accolade this week, about partnerships for LCRIG and ITS UK, connected vehicles at the Innovation Festival and ADEPT's views on the Strategic Road Network.

This week's Highways Voices is a must-listen if you work in the traffic signals industry, as we hear all about three new pots of money totalling £70 million to be spent on improving traffic signals across England.

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In the Transport Secretary's plan for drivers money was earmarked to upgrade traffic signal systems, tune up traffic signals to better reflect current traffic conditions and get traffic flowing, and to deploy advanced technology for traffic signals, making use of emerging technologies to optimise traffic flow and balance traffic across city centres.

The money's distribution will be administered through the Transport Technology Forum, with the help of LCRIG, and TTF Manager Darren Capes, who is ITS Policy Lead at the Department for Transport, gave an indication on distribution of the funds when he spoke at LCRIG's Strictly Highways last week.

In this special Highways Voices, you hear what he had to say.

“I fear if you were to drive along any road - be it a rural road or a motorway - this afternoon or this evening, and you looked carefully around you, you would probably notice a lot of people who are distracted who are not doing the right thing, and frankly, are a hazard both to themselves and everybody around them.”

So says enforcement and road safety expert Geoff Collins, who is this week’s guest on Highways Voices podcast discussing distracted driving, driver behaviour and the role of technology in improving the road safety situation.

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Mr Collins has taken on the role of UK Manager for Australian company Acusensus, which uses artificial intelligence and camera footage to spot people using hand-held phones. The technology is being used in a series of National Highways and Police trials across the UK. People using their phones or not wearing a seatbelt are spotted automatically as they drive past specially-equipped camera vans which have technology to see through the windscreen and into the vehicle.

The magnitude of the problem was highlighted in recent trials in Sussex where 200 offences were spotted in checks of 10,000 vehicles at three locations. Furthermore professional drivers accounted for 32% of illegal mobile phone use and 82% of seatbelt offences.

Geoff Collins told Highways Voices he is confident that this technology will be welcomed by the majority of motorists who are fed up with distracted drivers: “I get plenty of anecdotal examples when people tell me that it really annoys them,” he explains. “You can see the head going down, then the car is veering left and right a little bit, and then they look up again and they go straight. It's because they're looking at their phone, and they're checking a text message.  The level of acceptance of that type of behaviour is I think, really low, which is good because we want the roads to be safer for everybody.”

The podcast not only features details of how the technology works, and what it can be used for, but also how it can impact driver behaviour without becoming draconian. “You can actually use that as an opportunity for an educational intervention,” Mr Collins says. “So it might be that someone needs to be told the error of their ways, and the way of doing that is through an education intervention, which means they should be less likely to do it again in future, and I think that's a very good approach. So, you catch someone who say you shouldn't be doing that [and] here's why you shouldn't be doing that. There will be a fine, you do need to attend a training course, but at the moment, we won't put points on your license. But if we catch you again, we absolutely will.”

Also in today's programme you can hear the latest news from LCRIG, ADEPT, the Transport Technology Forum and ITS (UK) plus why Strada Imaging wins "Adrian's Accolade"

On today's Highways Voices from the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles we talk spotting accidents at intersections, live roadworks updates and cutting edge traffic controller technology, plus bring you some breaking news about next year’s international ITS events.

As next year's official ITS World Congress in China goes hybrid, we have news about how the world's ITS community can meet in Melbourne in August as ITS Australia expand their annual Summit into a global event.

You'll hear about how AI is improving pedestrian safety at intersections, about how Florida is using a British idea to improve its management of roadworks and the latest in next-generation traffic signal controllers.

On top of this, Professor Eric Sampson gives his advice on sessions to go to on Day Three in LA (including one involving our podcast host Paul Hutton) and Alan Clelland gives his guide to entertainment options in LA.

oh and don’t forget Alan’s guide to LA where we talk movies and sports, and Eric Sampson’s ideas for the must attend things on Wednesday at Congress…

It’s all thanks to our sponsors SWARCO, GEWI, Navtech Radar, Nota AI and one.network

"A lot of our time is firefighting, fixing day to day problems, maybe some signal timings, but it's hard to look into the future when we don't have time," admits City of York Council's Sean Bulmer in a panel discussion at the SWARCO User Group meeting in Coventry, featured on this week's Highways Voices.

Mr Bulmer was joined by Emily Madsen from Staffordshire County Council who admits she struggles for time in her day job so "coming to events like this helps me think about the future".

Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

The local authority representatives were joined by CEO of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG), Paula Claytonsmith and SWARCO's MD in UK and Ireland, John Pickworth. They discussed Innovation and planning for the future, strategies for more efficient transport around technology and localised approaches.

The need for incremental progress and the role of private sector involvement were also discussed to help, for example, the ability for an authority to make the most out of the data it has. "It's how you use that data, how you present that data," Mr Pickworth explains. "Is it presented in a way that enables decisions to be made?"

Ms Claytonsmith added that support for authorities is vital. "I spoke to [one] who says they've literally got 20 or 30 different systems, each holding different sets of data, not communicating. And I think now that we're in a much more complex environment, the fact that we don't have as many people in our teams... So actually having an integrated system that allows you to make complex decisions drawing in different data becomes ever more important."

You'll hear more on this fascinating discussion, recorded in a rather echoey hotel conference room, which also covers infrastructure obsolescence and funding priorities as well as risk taking, innovation, challenges and priorities.

On the second of our Highways Voices podcasts from Intertraffic Amsterdam, we’ll hear from the winners of the Intertraffic Awards, with Valerann, Intelligent Instruments and Sealed Air telling us about their winning solutions.

AGD Systems explain the relative values of video analytics and radar to monitor transport, while we chat to the CEO of their fellow sponsors SWARCO about how people are key to everything the company does and achieves.

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We hear from one of the world’s leading experts in driverless technology explaining data-driven solutions for driverless vehicles, while Highways News’s new reporter, the vastly experienced Kevin Borras, looks at some of the key issues being discussed in the summit programme. 

Whether you’re at Intertraffic or not, we give you a valuable flavour of the event – have a listen while on the tram or Metro to the RAI, or while walking the dog at home!

Against all the odds, the ITS World Congress in Hamburg has taken place with around 15,000 people attending, and Highways News brings you one final podcast from the event in Hamburg today, sponsored by SWARCO and GEWI.

Paul Hutton speaks to modelling company Aimsun about how they can fix traffic jams before they happen with Senior Product Specialist Martin Hartmann explaining, “the traffic management centre can improve their decision making by having a reliable prediction,” while Sebastian Baucutt of detection company Navtech Radar explains how stopped vehicle detection really does work, saying, “We make sensors and we're very proud that actually our radar sensors are both very reliable and very accurate.”

As Dynniq Mobility completes its first major event as part of the SWARCO family, CEO Jan Vos explains the sort of conversations he’s been having with clients, “explaining to them what will be the combined strength of the group where are we complimentary where do we have overlaps discussed those kinds of things” while road data specialists Gaist describe their new connected car road analysis tool as Asset Safety Manager John Swift says, “we show them their condition of the road from my laptop, to an extent of their don’t know exists.”

There’s also Eric Sampson’s guide to Friday and a podcast farewell with Jacob Bangsgaard, ERTICO – ITS Europe CEO.

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Subscribe to Highways Voices free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Pocket Casts and never miss an episode!

"You will not find me in legacy industries where everything stays the same - otherwise, I would be boring," explains the new CEO of ERTICO - ITS Europe on this week's Highways Voices.

Joost Vantomme explains his passion for taking on the challenge of running the European ITS Association, taking over from Jacob Bangsgaard who'd run the organisation for five years.

Mr Vantomme explains his background, which seems perfect for running such an organisation, given he's worked in telecoms, the postal/freight industry and most recently in European automotive.

"In the UK, we have quite a number of projects running," he explains about the UK's position in the sector. "Also Transport for London, there are some interesting projects. That's why every time we have European project, we think about how to assemble a consortium where we have national interests."

You'll also hear the latest news and why JCB and Stoke on Trent City Council win this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

Follow Highways News on Twitter, LinkedIn and subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Read more about the Manual for Smart Streets here.

This week on Highways Voices we hear how technology is ending the delivery driver free for all as we see a new kerbside management scheme in Westminster.

We’re at the site of one of two loading bays in Westminster which Electric Vehicle delivery drivers can book using a new online booking system from Grid Smarter Cities, reducing battery consumption and removing the stress having to drive around finding a place to unload, or having to park illegally.

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“There’s huge competition for kerbside space,” explains Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, who is Westminster Council’s Cabinet Member for City Management and Air Quality.  “We recognise more than 40 different users of the kerb, and it’s impossible to keep up unless we are on top of it 24 hours, seven days a week. So what we’re trying to do is try new ways of managing the kerb, so that we can keep on top of it, we can keep the city moving, we can reduce congestion.”

The Kerb platform allows a driver to pre-book loading and unloading space for up to 90 minutes, 24 hours a day.  This means drivers get surety of a space in advance for delivery drivers, reducing idling and search time and also allowing them to park long enough to make onward deliveries by greener modes, such as by foot or cargo bike.

“There’s no driving around looking for a space in a busy central London location, like Covent Garden or Victoria, where we’ve got the first two trials,” Cllr Dimoldenberg continues.  “This gives the distribution companies the ability to pre plan where are they going to park, so they’ve got a defined time to deliver the goods. And they can do it quickly, efficiently and without any fuss or delays.”

In the podcast we also hear from the man whose idea this booking system was, Grid Smarter Cities CEO Neil Herron.  He explains that local authorities can use the system now, because it was designed with present laws in mind: “We can use the local authority traffic order procedures to create the experimental or permanent orders, whatever is needed,” he says.  “It doesn't need any new primary legislation or secondary legislation, it can be done with what we have now.”

Hear the views, too, of two delivery drivers who were the first to use the new bay, and how Westminster Council plans to assess the scheme’s success to build a business case for rolling out kerbside booking across the whole of the city.

You’ll also hear the latest headlines from the Highways News website, news from our partners and who wins Adrian’s Accolade this week.

Recognising National Careers Week and International Women’s Day at the same time, this week Highways Voices hears from Donna Howard, Head of Social Sustainability at Kier Highways, as the company launches its Kier Pathways Scheme.

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The strategy aims to engage vulnerable groups, schools and colleges and career returners.

In the chat with Adrian Tatum, Ms Howard says the Pathway scheme will help address the skills gap and our ageing workforce, increase diversity and inclusion, meet the company’s clients social and economic priorities and increase the profile of the highways and infrastructure careers​.

Meanwhile, discussing supporting women at Kier, she says: “What we wanted to do is come up with a programme that was able to help people gain better routes into the highways industry and enjoy careers within the industry.

“We want to make Highways an employer of choice for people when they want to come into the industry. The aim is to obviously reach those what some people would class as vulnerable groups, and help them on their journey into a career opportunity.”

You'll also hear a round-up of the latest news on the Highways News website, what's happening among our podcast partner organisations ADEPT, TTF, LCRIG and ITS (UK), and why Oxfordshire County Council win Adrian's Accolade this week.

The UK’s biggest highways and transport show of the year takes place next week at the NEC in Birmingham, and Highways Voices is your must-listen place to find out more about it.

These programmes are brought to you thanks to the support of AGD and Traffic Group Signals, Q Point, SRL, Westcotec and SWARCO.

In this programme you’ll hear from organiser Claudia Davidson about, among other things, the big name industry leaders speaking at the event and the range of theatres and exhibitors involved. Talking of exhibitors, marketing expert Helen Blood gives you advice on how to maximise footfall to your stand and tells you how to get some free marketing advice.

We also hear from Q Point, Yunex Traffic, SRL and Clearview Intelligence about what they’re showing off on their stands. You’ll also hear how you can enjoy networking, food and drink at SRL’s Walkabout Party, and join Clearview’s 50th birthday celebrations.

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We will be bringing you podcasts featuring one-to-one interviews with key speakers such as Nick Harris, CEO of National Highways, with exhibitors and thought leaders on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of Highways UK week. Join us from the NEC with podcasts every day at 4pm. If you’re at Highways UK, it’s a trusted guide to your event experience, and if you can’t make it, you’ll get a flavour of what’s going on. Don’t miss it!

"I have been talking about making the case for local roads for a number of years, so the fact that LCRIG sees that as at the heart of what it does is close to my heart," says Paula Claytonsmith, the LCRIG's new Director, Government and Strategy on this week's Highways Voices.

She talks about the LCRIG - the Local Council Roads Innovation Group - mission to make the case for local roads, explaining that "The reality is that local roads are always going to be at the heart of how our communities operate, and become more successful and economically viable, and how they become more connected on a more societal level.

"So making the case for local roads is as much about the communities that received their day to day services, how to get to the office, how to get young people to colleges, schools, and everything that a network entails. If you think about it, people talk about universal service. But in some respects, a road is a universal service, and that road is evolving all the time."

Ms Claytonsmith talks about active travel, procurement, technology at the roadside, political viewpoints and funding in a wide-ranging fascinating interview.

You'll also hear why GRAHAM win this week's "Adrian's Accolade" and plenty of interesting content in our partner news.

Join Adrian Tatum and Paul Hutton for this week's half hour of transport chat.

This week’s Highways Voices looks ahead to the biggest single event we cover at Highways News - Intertraffic Amsterdam.

Ahead of four special podcasts direct from the RAI in Amsterdam thanks to the support of SWARCO and AGD Systems, we find out what we can expect, as we hear from the organiser Carola Jansen-Young and long-term friend of Highways Voices, Richard Neumann of SWARCO.

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"I think we're close to 900 registered exhibitors, and on top of that, there's a lot of interest from the ITS Nationals that are actually bringing more companies that are members of their organisation over to Intertraffic," explains Carola Jansen-Young. "It's bigger, and not only from the floor surface or the number of organisations participating, but it's definitely also bigger from summit programme perspective, from a demonstration perspective, and as well, all signs indicate that it will also be bigger from an attendee perspective."

Having the biggest stand at the huge event is great kudos for SWARCO but a lot of work for the man who organises it, Richard Neumann, who admits to looking forward to midday on Tuesday when the event is up and running and he can relax, and meet the company's clients and friends: "We will look after them as they deserve because they are part of the success of SWARCO," he says. "So there is a big bistro area again on our stand where you can sit down have the meetings with our salespeople, but there is also some culinary delights and drinks from Austria."

In the podcast you'll hear about SWARCO's drinks reception on Wednesday from 5-7.30pm including those culinary delights from Austria, and you'll hear what to expect from our daily podcasts and who might turn up on it.

There's also our partner news from the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ADEPT and ITS UK, and Adrian Tatum's pick of stories from the Highways News website, along with Adrian's Accolade going this week to the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund for its latest promise of bursaries, and a reminder you can hear from previous Bursary winners on a previous podcast recorded from the Royal Automobile Club last year - click here to listen.

See you next week in Amsterdam!

This week, the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has launched Pothole Prevention Week as part of its on-going commitment to highlight the benefits of surface treatments that prevent potholes from forming in the first place.

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Joining us on Highways Voices for this conversation (see below), is Mike Hansford, the new Chief Executive of the RSTA and Craig Marshall, Head of Commercial at ASI Solutions, a RSTA member and provider of the RHINOPHALT asphalt preservation product.

Preventative or surface treatments protect and preserve roads so that they last longer and are protected from defects and potholes.

Once these treatments are applied, roads can last for up to 10-20 years longer or more, depending on the treatment. That’s roads without potholes for that long or even longer if re-application is possible.

In taking a more proactive approach, the life-expectancy of a road in the UK could be increased, and potholes significantly reduced, if local authorities and their private sector contractors adopt a more proactive approach to highway maintenance alongside other treatments such as resurfacing.

This would mean central government would eventually be spending far less on reactive repairs such as filling in potholes by adopting a ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach to highway maintenance funding, rather than ‘papering over the cracks’ with pothole repairs, for them only to appear again later in the medium term.

Join Highways Voices on the UK Pavilion at the 30th Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Dubai today for a quick tour around some of the big talking points at the global event.

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As 24,000 people are expected at the World Trade Centre in the first Congress to take place in the Middle East, host Paul Hutton talks to LCRIG's Paula Claytonsmith and the Department for Transport's Darren Capes, manager of the Transport Technology Forum, to talk about the importance of having a high-profile British presence.

We hear from Catherine Whitfield of WSP about inclusive mobility, starting with some shocking facts about the inequality between the sexes when it comes to road crash victims, and then from two of the exhibitors on the UK Pavilion, Pete Cattell of Clearview Intelligence and Kieran Corbally from AGD.

Danny Woolard talks about his client GEWI's new traffic products and about a session he spoke on eCall and road crash reactions in his role as co-founder of VESOS.

We then have a Highways Voices first - a song, made using AI, about every World Congress that, it's fair to say, has divided opinion.

The UK Pavilion is organised by the Transport Technology Forum and LCRIG, showcasing UK ITS and the work of stand participants AECOM, AGD Systems, ANGOKA, Aurrigo, Clearview ntelligence, Immense, Neology, Nicander, Now Wireless, Starling Technologies, Westcotec and Zenzic.

In this episode of Highways Voices we hear from Sean Rooney, Head of Service in Highways Maintenance at Oxfordshire County Council and President of the Local Government Technical Advisers Group.

You will discover what he is doing during his year in the post, and why a year might not be long enough, plus hear about opportunities from the Innovation Fund, his ideas on strengthening collaboration with other organisations and creating a directory of research projects.

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Highways News reporter Kevin Borras chats to Sean, and they discuuss duplication and the importance of intelligent technology use with practical applications over blind adoption.

Don’t forget to sign up to our daily email to get all our news into your inbox, and you can also find our stories on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

"The business case for 5G is not transport, let's not kid ourselves," says connected vehicle expert Andy Graham from White Willow Consulting on this week's Highways Voices podcast. But, he explains, the technology does give many opportunities to transform transport, "We should be definitely pushing with 5G... we should be really taking the advantage of high bandwidth and low latency. But we do need to make sure that we don't leave behind other use cases and other customers."

Graham is the second Highways Voice on this week's podcast reacting to a fascinating interview with Chris Holmes, Programme Director of West Midlands 5G, the test bed looking at how the technology can be used.

"We're... supporting projects, and the trialling associated with those, to try and get the projects to a more mature state, and close to market," he explains, "by engaging with the commercial 5G," which he says "will give them the opportunity of seeing the performance of not only the products and services, but also how the mobile communications technology is working."

In the interview, Holmes runs through a number of the potential use cases for transport, from helping partially sighted people get around to counting the number of people on public transport, and from pothole monitoring to parking.

But should we be relying on 5G for our future transport-related communications, or should we be considering bespoke solutions? The experts discuss it in this week's Highways Voices, where you'll also hear some highlights from news stories on Highways News and find out why Tarmac has won this week's "Adrian's Accolade".

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When Balfour Beatty joined forces with Flannery Plant Hire two years ago to create a ‘best-in-class’ operators skills hub they never would have imagined the success it would have in just a short time.

The Operator Skills Hub- a purpose-built facility in Birmingham offers innovative training programmes to inspire young people and upskill current plant operators in the UK.

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With the construction and infrastructure industry rapidly scaling up to deliver some of the most ambitious schemes in history, the Operator Skills Hub delivered its first Trailblazer Plant Operative Apprentices in 2021, meeting its aim to support 30 young people in its first year.

Key in addressing the construction and infrastructure sectors significant skills shortage, the facility uses state-of-the-art training simulators as well as the latest semi-autonomous vehicles to prepare plant operators and apprentices for the modern-day, digitally-enabled construction site. 

“It is an exiting place. You turn up and feel like you’re in the midst of a really modern environment with digitalisation at the forefront. You then put people on the equipment and they think these cabs and this machine is very sophisticated these days. Then they start to see what salaries they can earn in the industry and you can see them starting to think this is a really attractive place to be,” Andy Ormerod, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s Plant and Fleet Services business, tells this week’s Highways Voices.

You'll also hear latest news from our podcast partners and why Kier is praised in this week's Adrian's Accolade.

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Only by going beyond the traditional testing can you create something that breaks the mould in terms of product development, according to Bob Allan, Technical Director, Aggregate Industries, who was speaking with Richard Taylor, Global Technical Development Manager, Shell, on this week's Highways Voices.

Last week Aggregate Industries and Shell launched the UK's first ever commercially available biogenic asphalt. SuperLow-Carbon asphalt has been developed in partnership with Shell Bitumen as a pioneering product for more sustainable pavement projects. In an industry first, SuperLow-Carbon uses Shell’s Low Carbon Bitumen in a unique formula that utilises improved production processes and alternative energy sources to lower its embodied carbon footprint. It also includes a biogenic material that effectively locks CO2 within the asphalt rather than releasing it back into the atmosphere, which creates a ‘carbon sink’ – something that absorbs and stores more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.

"From a research and development perspective, when you're assessing materials that are not traditional refinery residues, you have to go beyond the simple kind of index and empirical tests that we have today. And so when we were making the research for this particular biogenic material, we did quite a lot of fundamental tests around the chemistry of the product, how the product evolved with ageing, obviously, how it behaved, in simple terms in mixtures. And so it's not really a case of just making a simple substitution and then checking the index tests for material, you have to actually delve a lot deeper to actually understand whether this material is going to behave as a suitable road binder for the longer term," said Mr Allen.

Mr Taylor added: "We are moving the industry towards a net zero asphalt pavement world, we're going to see the development of a net zero asphalt roadmap by National Highways soon, for example. And so it's important for us to develop the right kind of products that the industry is going to need going forward. I think there's a growing interest in how materials last, the thinking started to align very strongly with the circular economy in terms of longer lasting materials closing the loop recycling, but alongside a warm mix for minimising the inputs. There's also a need to minimise the embodied carbon within the bitumen."

In the podcast you can also hear news from our partners including how ADEPT's Smart Places Live Labs programme sees half its projects led by women, who've released a video about it, that ITS (UK) has held a special meeting of its Women in ITS Forum to mark International Women's Day, more details of LCRIG's Planned Innovation Festival and the TTF reports about the latest on the Manual for Smart Streets.

You'll also hear why Amey and Kent County Council win Adrian's Accolade.

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Following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to halt the building of new smart motorways, this week's Highways Voices discusses the implications.

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Highways News co-owners Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum look into what went wrong with the concept, focussing on communication failures and the varied roll-out of technology.

They discuss statistics around the real safety situation on all-lane running and dynamic hard shoulder smart motorways compared to traditional highways, and discuss why this isn't more widely known. They also look into the public perception, and why when a smart motorway is flowing well because of the extra capacity, drivers do not notice.

Paul and Adrian also look at the implications for the industry, and what will happen to the money that was to come into the sector.

You'll also hear the latest news from partners ADEPT, LCRIG, The Transport Technology Forum and ITS UK, and why PTV Group wins "Adrian's Accolade" this week.