Two Yorkshire schemes shortlisted in national hunt for ‘roads for the future’

Two Yorkshire schemes which will look at developing ‘roads for the future’ and driverless cars have been shortlisted in a national competition.

Launched in January with Highways England and Innovate UK, the Roads for the Future project sought ideas for preparing the UK’s road network for the growth of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). The commission received 81 entries and five have been shortlisted; including one in Leeds and another in York.

The York scheme, submitted by AECOM, will examine how smart signals could warn drivers and vehicles of the speed they should drive at, so they arrive at the next set of traffic lights just as they turn green, helping to cut congestion and ending polluting ‘stop-go’ driving. The concept will be tested using a simulation model of the A59 in York.

Leeds City Council’s scheme has also been shortlisted. This will examine how data generated from digitally connected cars could be used to improve traffic light systems, allowing highway authorities to better manage traffic on their roads and reduce tailbacks. The team will use models of roads across Leeds to test this idea.

Each of the five teams will receive up to £30,000 each to test their ideas, with a £50,000 prize available for the overall winner.

 

Heather Hawkins, Principal Consultant at AECOM said: “We are excited and eager to get started so we can better understand the potential impact of vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies on our local road network in York. We are fortunate to be living and working in a city which has chosen to be an early innovator, deploying and testing these technologies on street through existing research programmes – it’s truly inspiring and we are grateful to be a part of it!”

 

Richard Lewis, of Leeds City Council, said: “As a council and city, we’ve made it clear we want Leeds to be at the forefront of developing technologies to help transform our transport network, so it is very pleasing our work in this area has been shortlisted. Digitally connected and autonomous vehicles have the potential to offer massive benefits in major cities like Leeds so we will continue to work with all our partners and stakeholders to turn this potential into reality.”

 

The five shortlisted entries have three months to develop their ideas further, each working with a range of partner organisations to fully develop their idea.

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