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On 2-4 April 2019, transport industry professionals and suppliers from across the globe converged on the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham for the biennial Traffex event, the UK’s largest and most established exhibition for those involved in the highways and traffic engineering sector.

As an exhibitor, what struck me most about the event was the diversity of suppliers, from speed cameras and modelling technology, through to traffic lights to surface repair solutions and everything in between. The 1Spatial stand was situated between fijen, a roadlight team from the Netherlands, Tac-Grid, a surface solution to enhance the safety of the visually impaired and, Bull Barrier, a traffic and pedestrian separation barrier solution.

In addition to the exhibitor space, 4 arenas hosted a series of presentations and informal debates that highlighted ground-breaking solutions and ideas, day-to-day issues and some of the key themes and challenges in the highways and transport sectors.

Here were some of my favourite presentations over the three days:

Data quality

Every exhibitor, without exception, relies on data to understand where their product has the most value in the market, where it sits relevant to the competition, the metrics that consumers can digest to inform purchasing decisions and positioning unique selling features to tee up a competitive advantage that allows their product to stand out above the rest.

On the consumer front, smarter data supports informed decisions, traffic authorities are able to analyse temporal road safety data feeds to understand volumes and optimal placement locations for traffic related hardware. This knowledge can drive hardware costs down by informing consumer organisations where and when to place the hardware and the exact numbers of assets required to meet regulation and their organisational needs beyond that.

At 1Spatial we work closely with organisations to deliver real value by making data current, automated, complete and consistent.

We are currently involved in several exciting innovation projects, one which generated a lot of discussion at the stand, was our Smart Signage solution. At the heart of the solution, our rules engine technology automates costly, time consuming and potential erroneous manual tasks by using rules defined in the Chapter 8 Traffic Signs Manual to create and share traffic management plans for street works.

What this means:

  • Manual time-consuming traffic management plans that can take up to 2weeks to generate using an onsite survey can now be produced and shared in-house within minutes
  • Time and cost reductions
  • Automated asset inventories with precise positional information
  • Reducing corporate fines
  • Increasing customer satisfaction

All in all, a fantastic opportunity to connect with industry professionals and suppliers involved in the highways and traffic engineering sector.

View from the High Line Bar and Lounge at the Genting, venue for the Traffex 2019 Social Evening:

If you would like to join the conversation or learn more about how our products, services and solutions might be able to help with the data challenges facing your business, please contact us.