HIGHWAYS ENGLAND
News
An array of screens helps to keep traffic on the move (Glen Rees).
O
n a cold and snowy February day a group of 24 Brooklands Trust Members gathered
at Godstone Vineyard ready to be ferried to Highways England South’s regional headquarters. Formerly the Highways Agency, this organisation is responsible for the traffic management of motorways and major trunk roads and their safety, accessibility and free flow. We were greeted by Operations Manager Nikki Luthwaite who fielded questions, imparted information and anecdotes, all with the same entertaining good humour. Given the weather on the day we expected the Operations Control Room would be very busy but Nikki told us that while quite a few vehicles may slide off the road, it is during sunnier times when an arm is in the breeze and the radio is playing On Days Like These that high-speed, high-impact accidents happen. While this HQ is responsible for the southern part of the M25 and motorways from Ringwood in the west down to Dover, they can access ‘real- time’ traffic information from all parts of the country. This is supplied by a variety of sources including 2,000 CCTV cameras, MIDAS (electronic loops in the road surface), automatic number plate recognition cameras and 16,000 roadside electronic matrix signals. Information is disseminated to the motorist by 4,600 roadside variable message signs. We gleaned a vast amount of useful information
from Nikki, including that if you break down on the motorway, if at all possible use the roadside emergency telephones to call for assistance. They will contact your recovery service quicker than you can and know exactly where you are. Horror stories included the mum who stopped in the outside lane to change a nappy, the disturbing number of older motorists who drive the wrong way down the motorway and the people who take the ‘Tiredness kills – take a break’ message as an
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One of the fleet of Traffic Officer vehicles (Glen Rees).
immediate instruction rather than advice. We were joined part way through by three members of the Kent, Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance who were unable to fly due to the weather. Two paramedics and a doctor told us about the problems they encounter in the course of operations. Power lines and finding safe land- ing sites in urban locations, especially at night, being among the greatest. Although the problems of finding the £63 million of funding needed each year, much of it from charitable donations, runs a close third. Adjourning to the Operations Control Room, Nikki showed us some of the very impressive technology at her disposal – technology better than in America but behind the world-leading Dutch. Assisted by a wall of screens and banks of computers, a team of around eight people take in information, not just from electronic sources but also from the Police, the public and the media, and use it to keep the traffic moving. Much of the variable speed management is activated automat- ically by MIDAS sensing some sort of abnormal
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