Nabil Abou-Rahme is the new head of transport technology at global consultancy powerhouse Mott MacDonald, an influential platform for ITS today. Paul Hutton caught up with him to find out more about him, the industry and where it’s going…
How did you get into ITS? My father was a specialist in traffic signal optimisation, back in the days when this was done despite technology rather than by it! At school I hedged my bets with economics, physics and mathematics. I chose civil engineering over aeronauti- cal because I thought the job prospects would be better. While studying, I had two summer
jobs with Atkins, the first assessing the structural impact of abnormal loads crossing elevated motorway sections, and the second helping to build the Saturn Model for Heathrow T5. Despite being armed with these
references and graduating with a relevant degree from Imperial College, I found it impossible to get a job in the prevail- ing recession. I went back to Imperial College, applied for a scholarship and completed a Masters. My thesis was on Genetic Algorithms for optimised signal control and I believed it was only a mat- ter of time before artificial intelligence pervaded our transport systems. Some 20 years later I still think it’s only a matter of time! My first job was an opening at the
Transport Research Laboratory for their PhD Programme. The recruitment freeze was still in place but they were taking two graduates a year to join the ‘science stream’. The two day interview was intense and oversubscribed, but I still wonder if it was my post bank holiday sunburn that made me stand out, not my awe- some performance!
TV highlight: Interview on BBC Good Driver’s ‘Gridlock’ programme Photo credit: BBC
performance monitoring for the M25 controlled motorway, (initially between J11-J15). I had to extract and process the data as input to our operations meeting. I was able to apply my previous learn-
“I was introduced as an engineer
What was the industry like when you started? Life was simpler then, we all used Windows 3.1! I was mentored by Peter Still, an
who is ‘fascinated by traffic jams’, sad but true”
innovator whose passion for transport technology was contagious. Peter was a pioneer of data visualisation in traf- fic management. He got me to code up early prototypes of the Motorway Traffic Viewer (which he nicknamed MTV). We were helping the Highways Agency with
smartHIGHWAYS Vol 2 No 1
ing to the analysis of how signal sequences affected the onset of flow breakdown, and used the wealth of traffic data avail- able to develop and complete my PhD! The received wisdom of the time was that the relationship between speed and flow held the secret of when flow breakdown occurred. My studies showed that the dis- tance between vehicles was a better pre- dictor (through Bayesian Inference), and that the progression of the speed flow relation- ship was too chaotic to provide meaningful prediction. One of the highlights
was being interviewed by Nick Ross for the BBC Good Driver ‘Gridlock’ programme (pictured above). I was
introduced as an engineer who is “fasci- nated by traffic jams”, sad but true, as I still find the behavioural aspects of net- work management really interesting!
So how is it different today? We can chart improvements in all aspects of the delivery lifecycle, but the core
smarthighways.net
issue of managing supply and demand remains. I believe the next wave of inno- vation will be enabled by the current refresh of legacy technology platforms, the widespread distribution of data gen- erating devices, the convergence of phys- ical and digital infrastructure, and an emphasis on the triple bottom line.
What was the first major project you worked on, one that was maybe a trailblazer for the industry? If we’re talking trailblazer, then undoubt- edly the Active Traffic Management Pilot on the M42. I was part of the early learn- ing phase, synthesising international experience into a set of ‘candidate opera- tional regimes’ and helping the Highways Agency to define parameters for the pilot. On joining Mouchel in 2002, I quickly
became immersed in the development of the operating model, and thoroughly enjoyed the innovation challenge. The programme included development of signs and signals, testing the different sequences on drivers in a simulator, help- ing to draft the statutory instrument, developing the enforcement model, looking at design of the emergency ref- uge areas, creating procedures for control room operators and proposing the busi- ness case. The design factors contributed to the
delivery of the operational safety case, 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64