Five companies shortlisted for Roads of the Future project

Five companies will present ideas ranging from smart traffic lights to segregated driverless zones in a competition to make UK roads fit or driverless cars. The candidates will receive £30,000 to test ideas, with £50,000 prize available to the winner this autumn. The National Infrastructure Commission shortlisted the companies from 81 entries submitted to The Roads for the Future initiative – led by Highways England and Innovate UK. Aecom is examining how smart signals could advise drivers and vehicles
May 29, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

Five companies will present ideas ranging from smart traffic lights to segregated driverless zones in a competition to make UK roads fit or driverless cars. The candidates will receive £30,000 to test ideas, with £50,000 prize available to the winner this autumn.

The National Infrastructure Commission shortlisted the companies from 81 entries submitted to The Roads for the Future initiative – led by Highways England and Innovate UK.

Aecom is examining how smart signals could advise drivers and vehicles the speed they should be driving at, so they can arrive at the next set of traffic lights as they turn green. The technology is intended to cut congestion and eliminate stop-go driving. This concept will be tested using a simulation model on the A59 in York.

Arup is looking at how kerbsides with fixed features such as double yellow lines, parking bays and bus stops could become more flexible and change according to the time of day and levels of demand. The team will select a high street in London to test their FlexKerbs model.

City Science is investigating how sections of existing roads could be dedicated to driverless cars and make it easier to manage risks and integrate connected and autonomous vehicles into the existing transport network.

Immense Solutions is examining how artificial intelligence could help sat-nav systems learn better routes to help driven and driverless cars change course to avoid congestion. The concept will be tested in collaboration with Oxfordshire County Council using simulations on Abington Road, Thames Street, Oxpens Road and Botley Road.

Leeds City Council is investigating how data generated from digitally connected cars could be used to improve traffic light systems and allow highway authorities to manage traffic on their roads better and reduce tailbacks. The team will conduct its test using models of roads across the city.

Related Content

  • December 16, 2015
    Trials show fuel savings with connected vehicle technology
    American and European trials point to fuel and emissions reductions. A trial by University of California-Riverside (UC-Riverside) has shown connected vehicle technology has the potential to reduce fuel consumption (and therefore emissions) by up to 18% compared with an uninformed driver.
    Read More
  • August 30, 2018
    Ordnance Survey to provide geospatial data for OmniCAV project, UK
    Ordnance Survey (OS) will provide geospatial data to support the OmnviCAV project’s ambition of accelerating the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the UK’s roads. The £3.9m initiative’s aim is to develop an artificial intelligence-based simulation model for testing autonomous cars safety. The simulation model will feature a 32km circuit of Oxfordshire roads, covering rural, urban, main roads and intersections and will be used to create and run different test scenarios. OS’s role includ
    Read More
  • March 4, 2019
    Kerb your enthusiasm, warns Passport
    Dynamic kerbside management is crucial if urban authorities are to address increasingly chaotic situations caused by the gig economy and mobility innovation, says Adam Warnes at Passport Demand for the kerbside is growing and changing and it’s no surprise when you consider the recent innovations within the mobility industry. For starters, there are new modes of transport, including ride-shares, electric vehicles (EVs), dockless cycles, last-mile consolidations and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Secondly, the
    Read More
  • February 3, 2012
    Flexibility, interoperability is key to future traffic management
    Jon Taylor of Faber Maunsell and Tabatha Bailey of Transport for London describe how an unusual mix of traffic practitioners, researchers and industry are working together to build new tools for the future. As we face higher expectations for managing congestion from both citizens and politicians, and as more and more data is becoming available from new sources, our traffic management challenge is changing.
    Read More

Highlighted Content