The Transport Technology Forum Conference, sponsored by Clearview Intelligence, brings together national government, local authorities, suppliers and academia to discuss government policy and showcase best practice and innovation in the use of technology in transport.
The event is being recorded and will be available online in due course.
This is Paul Hutton, here with a live blog from the event, updated frequently.
9.37
TTF Manager Darren Capes welcomes delegates and points out that it is another sell-out event at capacity. He thanks main sponsors Clearview Intelligence, networking sponsor Yunex Traffic and Roundtable discussion sponsors AECOM.
9.42
Sam Rose from the Department for Transport talks about Driving Change: Unlocking the Power of
Transport Data and promises to “convince you why transport data matters.”
The data collected helps better understand the travelling public and freight, and the better you understand it, the better services can be provided.
Data helps to understand behaviour, improve services reduce emissions and improve accessability.
There is a belief in DfT that data use is not as good as it can be, so is setting up the Transport Data Action Plan. She says data drives insights enhance service delivery and operational efficiencies. Data is the key enabler for integrated transport and drives innovation.
The DfT is looking at a user-centred transport system. This needs sharing across modes using data standards with cyber-safe use of data.
“Data is the foundation upon which technology can be deployed,” she says and talks about digital twins and AI. “You can’t have the wizzy stuff if you don’t fix the data first.”
They are currently surveying more than four thousand people who are using an app on their phones to see how people move about, using a group of people matched to the UK demographic as a whole. “We now have this incredibly granular origin-destination data set produced in near real-time”. If there is a train strike, or flooding, you can see how that affects their travel behaviour and look at the effect of the £3 bus fare, for example.
She says the main takeaways are that transport data can underpin real change, and that the transport data action plan is the tool to get the industry there.
9.52
Alex Mindell from the Department for Transport gives an update DfT Policy Update around AI.
He says AI is vital to improve productivity that has fallen behind the long-term trend since the financial crash of the late 2000s.
He talks about a long-term vision for digital public services, andAI leads to economic growth, job creation and productivity increases. the AI Playbook for UK Government gives guidance on how to implement AI in government including best practice and case studies.
He talks about three types of Artificial Intelligence – generative AI (like ChatGPT), predictive AI (such as recommendations in Google Maps and Spotify) and perceptive AI (which sees, hears or reads the world in a similar way to how humans sense and see the world).
If we look at the last few years, we have seen huge increases in AI, including data, algorithms and computing power. This means a large increase in capability of AI. The general trend is upwards and in certain areas machines are better than humans – but only in narrow areas, not generally.
The issues around adopting AI in the transport sector has found barriers to adoption in transport around data discovery, skills and around public trust and social acceptance – and if you don’t have the acceptance, you won’t get the adoption.
Alex then talks about the opportunities to transform transport includes establishing clerar governance and regulation, balancing innovation and data protection, enhancing technical skills, building public confidence and investing in infrastructure to support innovation and impact.
He then says that the DfT has achieved governance, technical research and training and that he finds public attitudes change with media coverage (compared it with electric vehicles).
He highlights project oversight, publications and foundation courses including work with LCRIG on training.
10.09
Next up, we hear about Digital Connectivity on the Transport Network with Michaela Nelson from the Department for Transport.
She says connectivity is already an integral part of the transport network, delivered modally. This is highly fragmented across government, arms-length bodies and the private sector making a “patchwork of different technologies and services.” This makes it difficult to do what we want to do going forward.
“We don’t think about digital connectivity unless it doesn’t work – we just expect it to be there.” She summarises the different ways of moving data around, from 2G to satellite, fixed copper and fibre infrastructure, and how there is a reliance on the mobile networks for solutions like eCall.
“We know there is much more we can do with better connectivity.”
She talks about new technologies and opportunities using satellite internet, 5G standalone, and spectrum and infrastructure sharing. She adds that societal expectations are ever increasing with passengers, integration and emerging innovations all expecting connectivity.
She then points to use cases around drones, people to everything communications and unification in service.
Michaela Nelson then outlines the transport technology plan looking at public policy goals, network deployment models, spectrum requirements, infrastructure sharing and co-ordinating with industrial strategy.
10.22
Next Danial Naqvi of the Department for Transport talks about Defining Government’s Role in Connected Vehicle Data (as Darren Capes says “we don’t just throw these agenda together!”)
Danial says he is here to understand what the DfT can do with connected vehicles and thanks to work from the TTF and others, this is now a priority in government and says virtually every vehicle is connected – it’s not just the latest ones.
“Connected vehicles present transformational opportunities yet the institutional organisation of UK roads is “complex”. He says devolution means the Department’s influence is limited, and it’s local authorities that must be involved.
He also talks about the implications for privacy and security. “Connected Vehicle data offers the potential to contribute to realising these outcomes but there are challenges.”
Vehicles can produce 10GB per data per hour and that is a vast amount of data if it’s all vehicles – thousands upon thousands of times greater than even CERN – and this has issues for transmission and storage.
He then asks the audience, vial Slido, to give the top three priorities – eg road safety, asset maintenance, congestion management. The votes come in:
10.33
Next up is Deputy Scientific Adviser to the DfT, Dr Annette Pass talking about Transport – From Physical to Digital.
She points out most of the stories that came out of the recent power outage in Spain and Portugal were about transport – showing how transport is the lifeblood of the economy.
She explains she supports Ministers in making good decisions and talks about five key technologies she thinks will shape the next 25 years in transport around connected and automated vehicles, EVs, new ways of powering HGVs, sustainable aircraft fuel and connected journeys.
Dr Pass talks about what people in 2000 expected transport to be in 2025 and among the highlights were “Knight Rider” vehicles, no consideration of GPS and the fact we thought “connected vehicles” would be physically connected to the road network on some sort of rails. She talks about how Transport for London issued its data back in 2007 and that this open data is now delivering annual benefits worth £130 million.
The future technology for connectivity is 6G – expectations that it’ll be commercially available around 2030 with high speed, low latency connectivity making many more devices connectable and enable AI integration so we can far more reliably run automated vehicles and drones, and be much more responsive to manage our networks actively.
The next technology she talks about is Quantum technologies which means computers can consider multiple possibilities at the same time, so we can make calculations we cannot do now. This includes navigating without GPS, securing transport networks and optimising the future, while quantum computers can see the subsurvface.
She then touches on AI in transport in 25 years, but says she won’t talk too much because it’s already been discussed.
The next example is digital twins – and how they can be used for transport applications looking at interactions between different parts of the system to intelligently programme maintenance activity, for example, and behaviour of traffic and people in, say, crisis response.
The last technology she looks at is automation, with high levels of autonomy and the effect on road safety and construction and maintenance. And she says passenger drones will really take off, “if you pardon the pun” over the next decade.
Dr Pass finishes with a call to action – think big but smart small, it’s all about the data (“data, data, data”) and about people, skills and learning.
10.55
Just a note from Paul – I’m hosting the next session here so can’t blog live, but don’t worry because I’ll uploading some stories from the session’s working groups at 1pm. It’s worth it, including a great video from the recent connected vehicle demonstration day at UTAC in Millbrook, Bedfordshire. See you later.
11.14
Ralph Bates from Clearview Intelligence will speak about Integrating Transport Data to Save. Remember all the sessions are being recorded to you can watch it later.
And we have our Working Group updates sponsored by AECOM coming up – watch their summaries now here:
Here are some news stories around what was discussed in the session:
14.26
And we’re back after that session (it was marvellous, despite the host) and now we’re talking Lancashire County Council’s Future Mobility Platform with Andrew Hewitson of LCC and Matt Pick from Alchera Technologies. Andrew Hewitson talks about transport masterplans from the 2010s and were well suited to infrastructure but had no technology angle. However in the Transforming Cities programme in 2018 looked at using connectivity to improve city centres.
He says technology emerged as a key driver as the sustainable aspect of the project and the development of the future mobility platform. Andy Graham gets a namecheck for helping develop the platform.
Andrew says the radical thing about this project is that it brought together transport planners to speak to signals staff, by providing the context for conversations.
Matt Pick takes over now to talk about the project and explains the value of evidence-based bus network performance analytics using Bus Open Data Service. They ascertain in granular detail what is happening on the network and rank and prioritise the network in terms of pinchpoints and economics.
As part of the county’s improvement plan, the network evaluation found an area of Preston that could be improved. “It’s fair to say, Lancashire wasn’t happy to proceed with an intervention without the monitoring and evaluation taking place to see the changes over time.”
Lancashire used the Alchera Bus tool to monitor the impact of the scheme and it found that after the intervention, the average wait time at that intersection went from around 60 seconds to 30 seconds, delivering proof of a return on investment.
They then discuss where they think things will go in the future, referring to “innovation to impact” and using AI to improve productivity in the bus sector.
14.43
Next up, Nicola Bell from Glasgow City Council talks about “The Road to Refurbishment – are we there yet?”
There is a long journey to traffic signal refurbishment, she says, and she wonders if we’ll ever get there.
She says that, while Glasgow has the lowest car ownership in Scotland, it has the highest traffic flow. Its signals network has bus priority solutions and greenwave for the fire service at key locations. They’re pushing active travel and public transport improvements.
She now talks about a large-scale cycling project worth £920,000 at St George’s Road.
Nicola is keeping calm despite, for reasons nobody knows, the presentation seems to have a mind of its own moving on slides before she is ready – so we’re getting a sneak peak at future slides, but she’s retaining her humour!
She now summarises the policies around active travel, road safety, liveable cities, net zero, the city centre and sustainable, inclusive transport.
She talks about the problems with refurbishment, with corroded poles and in the wrong places, so there needs to engineering.
At current budgets of £2.6 million per year, it would take eleven years to refurbish all sites.
The council is working with SWARCO to deliver Scoot View for junctions and using AGD above ground detection at some junctions to make the junction more efficient and reduce pedestrian waiting times:
The next steps are to explore funding options, keep things moving in challenging times, investigate further options (Yunex Plus+ and retrofit), work with partners on projects and investigate and trail new technology.
14.58
The next session with an example from a local authority is called “Don’t Look, I’m Changing! Traffic Signals Refurbishment & Asset Management in Bath”, with Jackie Davies from Bath and North East Somerset Council.
Jackie starts with a summary of the area, that 47 sites are more than 15 years old, so technically life-expired, but 70 are under. But that will change in the next decade and they will “fall off a cliff” in terms of maintenance. However if bus scheme and cycle scheme funding bids come to fruition, they will maintain the status quo. So are “trying really hard to keep everything working” and that the older the signals are, the more they cost to keep working.
“You can’t do refurbs because you’re chasing your tail with maintenance.”
She says there approach is to go for funding “like a dog after a sausage” and will support projects that fund site renewals and win internal funding within the council. They utilise their asset management data to prioritise the renewals programme, not just based on age but also on, say, number of call-outs. “Where we can save money, safely, we do it.”
“We looked at our rusting poles, so engaged a company to do non-destructive testing and they found we only needed to replace one, saving a fortune.” She also talked about buying second-hand units and repurposed them, getting kit needed at a really good price. She then said they did a lot of work themselves, rather than having to contract.
She also gives advice on detection – do you need them? If not, then don’t use them and save a fortune. She says there’s a JCT (Traffic Signals Symposium) paper on this.
She concludes by saying that more funding is needed, but that there are cost saving opportunities. If you have the time to be creative, you can come up with solutions and keeping things working. Jackie asks if other councils have cost-saving measures that she doesn’t know about, so she can copy them. This echoes a comment earlier from Shamala Gadgil of the EV Working Group who says local authorities need to copy each others’ homework.
“We have a regional transport body that oversees really exciting, great stuff, new sets of signals all over the place… but I am literally digging this stuff out of a skip – there’s a disconnect there. I think that needs to be addressed. It’s such a big disconnect that something has to give somewhere.”
Powerful stuff.
15.12
Now we move from local authorities to National Highways helping local authorities, with Kamran Ashraf giving an Insight into Data Services for Local Authorities.
“We realise our heritage was building roads, but when we put technology assets onto the road, we became an operator for safety, traffic flow and future operation.
“We’re now a customer service provider, and what is the role data plays in this.”
Kamran explains the National Highways digital lab – an open platform for innovation for data led insights to better connect the country.
“We think empowering people to show their talent will allow better customer experiences – Google, Apple, HERE etc are touching the customer as much as National Highways is.”
We are told about data services to untap value to deliver data services for external partners around road and lane closures, speed managed areas, digital variable message signs, diversion routes and road limits and features.
“We think we have made available the ingredients for everyone to innovate – we want to get out of your way to deliver the quality that you can trust to make our customers’ journey better.”
The service is in DATEX II to provide data in a standard form, so not delivering in a bespoke way. We need to use Europe-wide standards because data crosses boundaries. That way can deliver the best solution for customers.
Kamran says there are new skills that have been required within National Highways – the partner experience group for the data engineer, for example, the people who pick up the data and use it. “We’ve got experience from Traffic England data of the past who said data wasn’t good enough to use – I try to use that data and I cry when I open up the file – so the data was poor and almost unusable and that is changing.”
They have a partnership management team that deals with feedback if there is data that is poor – it’s about having a partner management two-way conversation, while there’s also partnership engagement to explain what is being done and the benefits from using the DATEX II data set.
“It’s not about AI or quantum, they are tools – it’s about the person you’re delivering for. We have seen multi-million pound solutions in the past deliver to absolutely no-one. We have made it our mission that every partner doesn’t just take the data but delivers a new experience for people have been involved in the past.
He then shares this video:
That’s it for now – time for a break and visit to the exhibition. Back in about 40 minutes.
16.18
And we’re back and the cross-border issues of delivering transport technology are discussed with Agne Vaitekenaite of ERTICO – ITS Europe talking about new ITS regulations in Europe.
It’s “interesting and complex”, Agne promises.
After a summary of ERTICO’s scope and activities, Agne then discusses ERTICO focus areas: Connected, Cooperative & Automated Mobility, Urban Mobility, Clean and Eco Mobility and Transport & Logistics. ERTICO has been working with new EU Commissioners and key ITS topics include digital booking and ticketing, 5G corridors, the sustainable transport plan and implementing digital leglislation.
She talks about the challenges such as conflicting objectives and policies – and she thinks that the UK is doing well because our innovation and regulation works really well here. She talks about ensuring competitiveness, building resilience, privacy and security concerns and limited data availability.
Agne then discusses the EU ITS Directive that is a legal framework to accelerate the deployment of ITS, focussing mainly on road transport to establish interoperable and seamless ITS with the basis around data.
A recent amendment adapts to new technology – new road mobility options, apps and connected and automated mobility.
She then talks about the ITS Market Radar report… which you can read here. The benefits of ITS adoption, challenges and solutions:
Talking of policy vision to deployment, we are at the point of the Commission’s automotive action plan and then from 2026-27, there’s a large scale roll-out of CAV pilots.
Agne then closes by inviting everyone to the ITS European Congress in Seville the week after next (which, of course, Highways News will be reporting from) and then the ITS World Congress in Birmingham in 2027.
“Innovation has no borders, so cross border co-operation is very important,” she says.
16.36
Jonathan Mann from WSP is next talking about PIARC (Permanent International Association of Road Congresses) – learning from international case studies.
He starts by showing this video explaining what PIARC does.
Jonathan discusses strategies around road administration, mobility, safety and sustainability and resilience in infrastructure. It creates a focal point to gather thought leadership.
One of the themes involves ITS for sustainability and is important to highways authorities and the DfT including digital for customer and understanding the latest developments in road network operations both in Europe and globally. He also touches on a new group set up on Connected and Automated Mobility which gets access to global views on CCAM and showcases UK expertise. There’s also work about evaluating the impacts of new mobility.
16.50
The final session involves Anthony Ferguson, Deputy Director in the Traffic and Technology Division, is about to retire.
Anthony starts by sharing some of his thoughts.
“In 16 working days’ time, I will retire. 35 years in the DfT and 38 in the Civil Service.
“In this role, involving roads, everything I do touches everybody every day. So everything we do is really about what we all do all the time, unlike other parts of transport.”
He talks about the fact he’s not a technologist, Anthony is a policymaker, and the TTF is about talking to non-technologists who link technology with the policy. He also said he picked up plenty of knowledge from an earlier session involving Jackie Davies where he realised “we’re not getting it right” – “really important insight.”
He then moves onto his “technology journey” – “10 years trying to answer the eternal question”.
He talks of events like ITS World Congresses “aren’t I lucky that I get to go to Melbourne, Los Angeles and Hinckley (or as he calls it, Nuneaton). He says this is key to understand what is happening across the world and if you don’t look around “you’re a mug”.
He points out the timescales of what he has heard, he says things hardly ever happen the way they are promised. “I’m dressing up a semi-serious point in a frivolous way” – we go to events to hoover up all the information and knowledge and learn from it.”
He then talks about the fact that the UK is getting better at getting messages out at World and European Congresses – telling the world how good we are, selling our wares and promoting what we do (paying tribute to LCRIG, Darren Capes and private sector for helping fund it) where we get the prime spot and getting everyone to come and talk to us.
He moves onto how he’s worked on “turning the powerpoint slides into things with wheels” such as driverless pods. He also mentions the Volocopter in Singapore that, sadly, we didn’t get to fly in. Sitting in a car doing automatic valet parking, or the UTAC event with the airbag going off, is what sticks in your mind – not powerpoint slides. You have to make things stick by seeing, touching and feeling stuff and trying it out.
“Congresses are hard work with long days, so getting to know your colleagues are important,” through socialising at events and pays tribute to his friend and colleague Gary Crockford who has also retired, who he says was brilliant at making friends with those he worked with which created a network of people and thought.
He then pays tribute to colleague Graham Hanson who is also retiring – “He knew everybody and introduced me to everyone I had to meet. Without him, we wouldn’t have a conference like this today. He is the master of commissioning a piece of work to tell him what he knows already – getting the proof you need.”
Graham Hanson listening to the tribute.
“In a transport technology point of view, I’ll be a lingering small shadow, but Graham is the large imprint,” Anthony says.
And he finishes by asking what the C is in C-ITS…
17.11
That’s it for the day. See you in the morning!
(All pictures – TTF)
