Managing Director, Martin Leak attended the 22nd ITS World Congress in October. With a focus on intelligent mobility and better use of space, two of the more pressing concepts were the emergence of automation as a real focus for innovation that will not only lead to safer transport but also has the potential to change vehicle use and reduce individual vehicle ownership, and the changes of thinking around big data, which are creating a new paradigm for data sourcing, data sharing and data exchange.

Automation can improve efficiency, reduce fraud, help overall service management and contribute to service and policy outcomes. Automation of roads with effective incident detection and management can improve safety and efficiency. Automated management using decision support systems enables complex issues to be handled efficiently and effectively.

In the transport and mobility domains, satisfying individuals’ wishes for the best personal travel solution has long had priority over the needs of overall network management. The combination of better access to traditional transport related data and increasing availability of new sources of data coming from end users (smartphones, social media, crowd sourcing), transport and communication infrastructure and vehicles (probe data), creates a new paradigm for data sourcing, data sharing and data exchange. We may for the first time have the chance to satisfy the needs of both the users and the stakeholders in transport management.

Particularly interesting to Martin, was American speaker Abbas Mobaddes, who believes, “We are at a tipping point of emergence of mobility and information technologies… Connected and automated vehicle technologies are expected to have a profound impact on travel behaviour, research, operation, transportation business, and economies around the world.”

Senior Consultant Karen Fehl recently attended a seminar in Auckland presented by the NZTA National Cycling Team, a group designed to promote and streamline planning and procurement, cycle safety and the optimisation of transport networks.

Cycling is currently the fastest growing mode of transport in Auckland and with the government announcement in March of a further $100 million in funding for cycling through the Urban Cycleways Fund (UCF), there is now an associated emphasis on delivering cycle projects.

The seminar was aimed at assisting future programming and planning for cycle projects in light of this investment and was attended by people from a range of backgrounds, including consultants, cycling advocates, coordinators and educators, project managers and funding specialists.

Topics of discussion included the current state of play with cycling and cycle strategy in NZ, funding and the business case approach, types of people on bikes and their needs, overview design concepts, community involvement and promotion, and evaluating the benefits of cycle schemes.

Karen, who worked on cycle facilities early in her career in Wellington, and is interested in how different road user’s needs are managed on arterial road projects such as the bus lanes project on Great North Road, found the seminar both stimulating and worthwhile.