The country’s Intelligent Transport industry association ITS (UK) has given its highest honour, the Rees Hills Award for Personal Contribution and Achievement to Ian Patey, WSP’s ITS Head of Profession, Intelligent Transport.
Mr Patey has more than 37 years’ experience in transport design and consultancy, and has played a leading role in many of the studies and projects that have shaped ITS in the UK, leading his company’s transformational strategic projects. He is responsible for developing technical excellence across its UK and Global ITS network.
His work has included the ground-breaking M42 Active Traffic Management Pilot, creating the NIS Joint Venture that delivered the National Traffic Information Service, and the first two connected corridors in the UK. He was also Chair of ITS (UK) for three years.
“This award is a mark of the respect Ian has throughout the ITS sector for his expert knowledge and focus of the beneficial outcomes of ITS,” commented ITS (UK) President Steve Norris, who hosted the awards at a special ceremony at Cubic Transportation Systems’ UK HQ in Surrey. “Ian has been instrumental in supporting and furthering the careers of many and is a passionate and active advocate for diversity and inclusion in the sector.”
“To me this is not an individual award, but one recognising all the great people I have had the privilege to work with over my career,” said Mr Patey. “I’d like to give a personal thank you to the person who’s supported me throughout and been my biggest supporter for the 37 years I’ve been working in ITS, my wife Kathryn. I’m sad that my Mum isn’t here to see this moment.”
The awards, held at Cubic as part of ITS (UK)’s Members’ Day and also supported by White Willow Consulting and WSP, also saw Amey’s Abdulrehmarn Ali win the Eric Sampson award for Early Careers Professional of 2021. He was honoured for his work on the West Midlands Future Mobility Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Test Bed project, where he has developed the MFM Data Hub, a central repository for static and dynamic data on the route, allocating attributes to scenes to define an Operational Design Domain for test vehicles. The talent pool was so high the judges awarded two highly commended mentions this year, Rachael Mounsey of GRID Smarter Cities and Lawrence Penn of WSP.
The ITS Project of the Year was won by COSTAIN for its Connected Digital Roads demonstration of the ability to directly influence vehicle speeds on a live motorway using connected vehicle technologies, proving the viability of this end-to-end Cooperative Intelligent Transport Service. The judges highly commended the CAV Test Bed.
Aimsun’s environmental initiative to use transport modelling to mitigate against congestion build-up and therefore and improve air quality won the Innovative Use of Technology Award. The Network Emissions and Vehicle Flow Management Adjustment project, NEVFMA was delivered by Aimsun, supported by EarthSense, Yunex Traffic and Oxfordshire County Council for National Highways. COSTAIN’s VASP project was highly commended.
Yunex Traffic’s support for local communities pipped Clearview Intelligence’s solar road studs to the Inclusive Mobility Award. Yunex supported people who weren’t getting their usual assistance during the pandemic helping those with special educational needs and even helping an assistance dog learn to cross the road by donating equipment for use in a garden.
“We’ve had some terrific entries this year – I was particularly impressed by the calibre of people put forward for the Eric Sampson Early Careers award,” commented Steve Norris. “Any of those nominated may well have won in other years and this fills me with so much hope for the future when I see just how talented our new industry entrants are – ITS is in good hands.”
“It was wonderful to see so many people back together at our members’ day,” added ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin. “The smiling faces of the worthy winners at our awards was a brilliant way to round off a very good day, and I send my sincerest congratulations to all, and thank the judges for their good work picking the winners from so many great nominations for all five awards. I’d like to thank Cubic for hosting this event, and for White Willow’s and WSP’s generous sponsorship which make it happen.”
The full awards ceremony has been recorded and is available on the ITS (UK) YouTube Channel here.
(Picture shows L-R, Steve Norris, Ian Patey and Jennie Martin)
The full list of award winners are:
The Rees Hills Award for Personal Contribution and Achievement
Winner
Ian Patey, WSP
The Eric Sampson Award for Early Careers Professional of the Year
Winner
Abdulrehmarn Ali, Amey
Highly Commended
Rachael Mounsey, GRID Smarter Cities
Lawrence Penn, WSP
ITS project of the year
Winner
Connected Digital Roads, COSTAIN
Highly Commended
CAV Test Bed, Amey Consulting and Transport for West Midlands, Midlands Future Mobility
Innovative use of technology
Winner
NEVFMA – The Network Emissions and Vehicle Flow Management Adjustment project, Aimsun, supported by EarthSense, Yunex Traffic and Oxfordshire County Council for National Highways
Highly Commended
Video Analytics Service Platform (VASP), COSTAIN
Inclusive Mobility Award
Winner
Supporting our Local Communities, Yunex Traffic
Highly Commended
Solar road studs to make driving easier for more people – Clearview Intelligence
