Highways Voices: Talking Roads and Transport Technology innovation

“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 even...

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 in...

“People did not want self driving vehicles to protect the occupants more than other road users,” Professor Nick Reed explains on this week’s Highways Voices podcast as he discusses how to program driverless cars ethically. “The participants in our survey and workshops are quite clear that other road users have not necessarily chosen to be exposed to the risk that these vehicles are presenting...

"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. S ubscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts &n...

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...

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. S ubscribe to Highways Voi...

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

“People… buy a new football strip every six months because of the team they support," says motoring journalist Richard Hammond on this week's Highways Voices, "Or a new pair of trainers made on the other side of the world by somebody else’s children out of fossil fuels-derived oil-derived materials and then shipped around the world where you’ll use them for six months before putting them in landfi...

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

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. S ubscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never miss an episode! The whistle-stop...

"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 bein...

"It's nice to have all these companies and institutions showcasing their nice things," says Joost Vantomme on this week's Highways Voices podcast, "but what does the user think of that? What does the citizen think of that? There's a lot of questions on the new technologies. How do they work? What do they promise?" The ERTICO - ITS Europe CEO is looking ahead to this year's ITS European Congress in...

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 le...

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. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or &nbsp...

Following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's decision to halt the building of new smart motorways, this week's Highways Voices discusses the implications. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never miss an episode! Highways News co-owners Paul Hutton and Adrian Tatum look into wha...

"I do find that the naysayers, for want of a better expression, around these systems are almost giving the providers and the utilisers backhanded compliments," says John Piper of Jenoptik on this week's Highways Voices podcast as he talks about critics of enforcement technology. "Because what, in effect they are saying, is they know it works - they know that there's no way around it, it is going t...

This week on our Highways Voices podcast we look forward to one of the most popular events in the highways and transport technology industry, the JCT Traffic Signals Symposium in Nottingham. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never miss an episode! We chat to organiser Joh...

"HGV drivers have been on the National Risk Register for quite a long time, recognising that a significant proportion of them are over 50s, and are likely to retire in the next 10 years," comments Professor Phil Blythe on this week's Highways Voices, as he explains why automating logistics isn't a threat to jobs, but a technical solution to jobs that risk not being filled. He comes on the podcast...

It has been a year of records in the ALARM survey as the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) delivers its 28th edition, according to its Chairman, Rick Green, our guest on this week’s Highways Voices. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never miss an episode! Local authorities...

“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 gues...

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. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never m...

This week's Highways Voices podcast features one of the leading journalists specialising in the how the transport and energy sectors are working together to deliver a cleaner future. Subscribe to Highways Voices free on  Apple Podcasts,   Spotify ,   Amazon Music ,   Google Podcasts   or   Pocket Casts   and never miss an episode! Alec Peachey, publisher of the w...

“The first thing they do on your first day, at the end of the day, they say, there's the takings - can you take it down to Barclays at the end of the road?” explains Bridge of Hope founder James Fellowes on this week’s Highways Voices. “Now, some people look at them go, you do realise that I was an armed robbery in my earlier days, or I had a big fraud or whatever, and the answer is hurry up...

“Nobody talks about the traffic jam they didn't experience because the motorway had been inexpensively widened,” comments behavioural scientist Rory Sutherland on this week’s Highways Voices podcast as he discusses the challenges facing the perception of Smart Motorways, “so, passenger feedback or driver feedback on its own is not going to be a reliable measure of how good an idea this is. Be...

In such a fast paced, rapidly changing industry, local authorities have to keep up with many challenges, as we not only change the way we travel and how we travel, but also become more sustainable, and think about how we create an effective, efficient network of the future. Our guest today on Highways Voices is Paul Hudson, head of sales at Now Wireless, a company that has been working closely wit...