A record number of delegates and exhibitors have shared two days of high-level knowledge sharing at the 2023 JCT Traffic Signals Symposium, with the Keynote Address delivered by behavioural scientists Rory Sutherland and Pete Dyson winning the Most Thought Provoking Paper Award
310 delegates attended Nottingham Trent University for the 28th running of the event, as they discussed road safety, junction design, signal phase and timing and active travel.
Rory and Pete’s winning presentation was an extended session based on the book Transport for Humans that looked at the psychology of travelling, and how it is vital that transport planners do not deliver for the “average” travellers, who in reality do not exist.
The Best Paper award went to Mark Roxburgh (National Highways) who described an epic and innovative design and implementation of a complex signalled junction “Chowns Mill”on the A45.
The Best Presentation award was for Michael Bloomfield’s comprehensive explanation about how TfL manage and improve bus services using their RARR (Route Analysis Recommendation Report) process.
“One eye on Preston – Lancashire’s first CYCLOPS junction” picked up the Most Innovative Paper prize and this was delivered by Michael Breathwick and Amardeep Sandhu from Atkins.
And the judges’ Special Merit Award went to Emily Madsen from Staffordshire County Council for sharing the findings of her Masters Degree Apprenticeship which looked at planning and management of ITS assets.
“The Symposium keeps on growing and the quality of presentations and exhibitors gets better and better,” commented event organiser John Nightingale, a Director of JCT. “Our event specialises in the latest in traffic signals technology and best practice, and adding Rory and Pete to bring a different perspective brought something new to proceedings, and proved extremely popular with attendees, who were buzzing after their session.”
All the presentations were videoed, thanks to the support of AGD Systems INRIX, Messagemaker Displays, PTV Group, Simplifai Systems, smartmicro UK and TRL Software. These will be made available in the next few weeks, along interviews on exhibitors’ stands. This week’s Highways Voices podcast features an address from TTF Manager Darren Capes, the Department for Transport’s ITS Policy Lead, who issued a series of challenges to the industry, plus highlights of Rory Sutherland’s speech.
Next year’s Symposium is back in Nottingham from Tuesday 10 to Thursday 12 September.
(Picture – JCT)
