Ahead of this month’s CiTTi Awards 2024 ceremony, City Transport & Traffic Innovation Magazine is profiling each of this year’s finalists – continuing with those shortlisted for The Road Safety Award!
This award recognises pioneering efforts that significantly enhance road safety, focusing on initiatives that showcase innovative design, practice, and technological application.
Entries highlighted a measurable impact on reducing accidents and improving safety for all road users while demonstrating innovation in road safety.
What’s more, the use of data analytics, AI for predictive safety measures, and community engagement programmes were core tenements of successful entries.
This year’s finalists are:
Medway Council & Project Centre
Medway Council & Project Centre are nominated for the launch of the Safer, Healthier Streets Programme in 2023, focusing on road safety, reducing congestion, improving connectivity, and promoting sustainable transport. The programme delivered five strategic red routes, seven school streets, and moving traffic enforcement at eight locations. The design approach combined technical assessments with community insights, involving key stakeholders, and conducting consultations to ensure inclusivity. The School Streets initiative, enforced by ANPR cameras, made Medway the first authority in southeast Kent to implement timed road closures around schools. The moving traffic enforcement programme was launched in July 2023, ensuring motorists obey road rules at key locations, while red routes addressed congestion from large goods vehicles and illegal parking, using 24/7 camera enforcement. Extensive engagement with residents and businesses ensured the programmes met the needs of the community.Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan Police is nominated for the Toolbox Talk initiative. Launched in 2022 by the Metropolitan Police’s Commercial Vehicle Unit (CVU), the initiative seeks to enhance safety by engaging with the logistics and haulage industry. The programme educates drivers on road risks, vulnerable road users, legislative changes, and offers post-incident support, including well-being advice and signposting. The initiative has been highly successful, reaching over 60,000 commercial vehicle operators across the country. Most notably, it has contributed to a 62% reduction in preventable road deaths involving commercial vehicles in London, with a 12% reduction nationwide, a trend that has been sustained since its launch.SoMoCo
SoMoCo is nominated for the ‘Fasten Up Your Future’ project aimed at increasing seatbelt usage among young South Asians in Birmingham, addressing the high road casualty rates in this community. Research highlighted that generic safety messages were less effective than those co-created with the target audience. Funded by Transport for West Midlands and the Road Safety Trust, SoMoCo designed an innovative online campaign that involved young people in every stage of the process. The campaign created short-form, culturally relevant videos shared on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, leveraging the popularity of these channels to engage the audience. The campaign’s impact was significant, with seatbelt usage rising from 50% to 82% among surveyed young people. Furthermore, 73% of participants could recall the campaign’s key messages 4-8 weeks after viewing, demonstrating strong message retention.Transport for West Midlands & VivaCity
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) & VivaCity are nominated for improving road safety across the region. The initiative addresses a significant road safety data gap by moving beyond post-incident reports, which only provide limited insights into road user behaviour, trends, and infrastructure flaws. This gap has previously hindered TfWM’s ability to proactively address safety issues before incidents occur. To tackle this, TfWM has implemented a network of VivaCity’s AI-powered computer vision sensors, which provide high-quality, anonymous multimodal traffic data. These sensors are now being enhanced with VivaCity’s Smart Road Safety features, including the innovative Near Miss feature. The system uses classification, speed, and pathway data to analyse the interactions between vulnerable road users (VRUs) and vehicles, identifying high-risk areas. The Near Miss feature zooms in on specific interactions, assessing their severity and potential risks to VRUs.WSP
WSP is nominated for its work towards achieving Vision Zero, aiming to eliminate fatal and serious casualties on roads through a Safe System approach. A key challenge is prioritising actions to reduce KSIs with limited budgets. WSP’s data-driven approach, initially used in the City of London, helps authorities make informed, cost-effective decisions on road safety. It developed three tools: a Power BI Collision Dashboard, a Vision Zero Action Plan, and a Collision Cluster Analysis and Comparison Tool. The dashboard simplifies collision data analysis, reducing report preparation time drastically. The Action Plan prioritises actions based on potential impact, cost, and effort. The Cluster Analysis Tool consolidates data to identify high-priority schemes. The tools were shaped through workshops with experts and stakeholders, enabling more efficient, data-led decision-making. Authorities are already using them to prioritise actions, with positive feedback on their ease of use. Although the impact on KSI reduction is ongoing, the tools are helping select the most effective safety measures.
Acclaimed Irish stand-up comedian Andrew Ryan has been announced as the special guest host of CiTTi Awards 2024. He will reveal all the winners on Tuesday November 26 at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in central London.
The ceremony will be attended by 200 of the UK’s leading transport professionals from local, regional and central government and other place stakeholders – including landowners, developers, and business improvement districts – and their project partners, such as architects, planners, contractors, and technology companies.
Guests will be greeted with a drinks reception held in the Balmoral Suite ahead of the winners being announced within the impressive surrounds of the Grand Hall, which features arched ornate ceilings, beautiful wood-panelling and dramatic chandeliers.
November’s trophy-giving ceremony and public announcement of the winners follows a thorough and exacting shortlisting and judging process, which saw more than 20 transport industry experts evaluate written entries and Zoom-based presentations from nearly 90 organisations across 20 categories.
Tables of 10 and individual tickets can be purchased here. Each seat booked includes a ticket that grants each guest access to the pre-ceremony drinks reception, a three-course dinner, the trophy-giving presentation and invaluable networking opportunities.
Anyone is welcome to attend CiTTi Awards 2024. You do not need to be an finalist to book, so secure your place now for this year’s most exciting social event in the UK transportation sector’s calendar!
The third annual CiTTi Awards will be held on 26 November 2024 at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Visit www.cittiawards.co.uk to learn more about this unmissable event for the UK’s transportation sector – and to book your table!
