Why standards matter: Highways Voices revisits the TOPAS debate
The announcement that Traffic Open Products and Specifications Ltd (TOPAS) is to close because its current funding arrangements are no longer sustainable puts a new perspective on a Highways Voices discussion first broadcast in February. TOPAS was established as an independent, not-for-profit organisation following the removal of DfT Type Approval, maintaining specifications and registering products […]
Acusensus-based tech trialled to improve roadworker safety in Scotland
New Artificial Intelligence technology is to be trialled in Scotland to help improve the safety of roadworkers. The Forsite Connected Safety System, developed by Australian road safety technology company Acusensus, will be deployed across the trunk road network to detect dangerous driving as vehicles approach roadworks and provide staff with early warning alerts through wearable […]
TOPAS to close due to “unsustainable funding arrangements”
Traffic Open Products and Specifications Ltd (TOPAS), the independent body responsible for maintaining specifications and registering traffic control equipment in the UK, is to close after its Management Board concluded that its existing funding arrangements are no longer sustainable. A special resolution to close the not-for-profit organisation was tabled at its AGM on 20 August, […]
New vehicle technology showcased at British Motor Show in Farnborough
The latest developments in driver assistance, connected vehicles and technology designed to change urban mobility have among the innovations being showcased at the British Motor Show in Farnborough this weekend. The event, which ran on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (21-23 August), included manufacturers such as BYD, Hyundai, Ford, Chery, Peugeot, Citroën and LINKTOUR, with several […]
ERTICO announces topics for ITS World Congress 2027
The organisers of the 2027 ITS World Congress at Birmingham’s NEC have announced the four main topics for the the event, which takes place from 25-29 October 2027. ERTICO – ITS Europe says the topics reflect priorities, opportunities and challenges currently shaping intelligent transport systems and the wider mobility sector. The four topics are Trustworthy […]
The road safety crisis and how to fix it – Jo Shiner on this week’s Highways Voices
Why aren’t we more outraged that 1,700 people still die on UK roads each year? Today on Highways Voices we talk road safety because, despite having some of the safest roads globally, road deaths in the UK have plateaued, and efforts to reduce them, through enforcement, awareness, and education, aren’t achieving meaningful impact. Subscribe to […]
Peter Hitchens questions transport orthodoxy in this week’s Highways Voices as countdown begins to September debate with Rory Sutherland
Highways Voices continues its summer series of archive editions this week with a conversation that remains as thought-provoking today as when it was first recorded five years ago. Journalist, author and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens joins the podcast to challenge conventional thinking on transport policy, from electric scooters and electric vehicles to the […]
JCT Symposium to explore the balancing act behind one of Britain’s most complex tram junctions
How do you give priority to trams without causing unnecessary delays to buses, pedestrians and cyclists? That’s the challenge delegates at this year’s JCT Traffic Signals Symposium will hear has been tackled at one of the most operationally complex junctions on the West Midlands Metro network. Shane Collins, Smart Cities Sector Lead at 4way Consulting, […]
Could psychology solve transport problems that engineering can’t? Rory Sutherland asks the provocative questions on Highways Voices
As Highways Voices continues its summer series of archive editions, this week’s podcast revisits one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking presentations ever delivered at the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium. Advertising executive, behavioural scientist and author Rory Sutherland challenges transport professionals to stop thinking purely like engineers and economists and instead consider how psychology shapes […]
How digital kerbside management could reduce stress for freight drivers
New academic research is highlighting how uncertainty over finding legal loading space can contribute to stress among urban freight drivers, and has concluded that digital kerbside management has the potential to improve working conditions, traffic safety and the efficient use of limited road space. The peer-reviewed Swedish study, presented at the City Logistics 2025 conference […]