"A lot of our time is firefighting, fixing day to day problems, maybe some signal timings, but it's hard to look into the future when we don't have time," admits City of York Council's Sean Bulmer in a panel discussion at the SWARCO User Group meeting in Coventry, featured on this week's Highways Voices.

Mr Bulmer was joined by Emily Madsen from Staffordshire County Council who admits she struggles for time in her day job so "coming to events like this helps me think about the future".

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The local authority representatives were joined by CEO of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG), Paula Claytonsmith and SWARCO's MD in UK and Ireland, John Pickworth. They discussed Innovation and planning for the future, strategies for more efficient transport around technology and localised approaches.

The need for incremental progress and the role of private sector involvement were also discussed to help, for example, the ability for an authority to make the most out of the data it has. "It's how you use that data, how you present that data," Mr Pickworth explains. "Is it presented in a way that enables decisions to be made?"

Ms Claytonsmith added that support for authorities is vital. "I spoke to [one] who says they've literally got 20 or 30 different systems, each holding different sets of data, not communicating. And I think now that we're in a much more complex environment, the fact that we don't have as many people in our teams... So actually having an integrated system that allows you to make complex decisions drawing in different data becomes ever more important."

You'll hear more on this fascinating discussion, recorded in a rather echoey hotel conference room, which also covers infrastructure obsolescence and funding priorities as well as risk taking, innovation, challenges and priorities.

Despite bringing you daily podcasts last week thanks to our sponsors SWARCO and AGD Systems, we still couldn’t fit in everything we gathered, so in this bonus podcast we talk about road safety, companies coming together and artificial intelligence.

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The Australian company Acusensus has proved it’s not just speed that can be enforced by technology on our roads thanks to its technology to spot people using their hand-held phones whilst driving, and those who aren’t wearing a seatbelt. We catch up with founder and Managing Director Alexander Jannink, before talking to smartmicro CEO Ralph Mende about the company's new products and its acquisition of a British company.

A new name to us since the last Intertraffic is Umovity, a partnering of American signals technology company Econolite, and the well known PTV Group. VP, Engineering, Sunny Chakravarty explains how, by better combining hardware, software and now transport modelling, intersections can become safer and more efficient.

Many, many companies talked AI across Intertraffic, so McKinsey’s expert in the subject, Alberto Chiulli, cuts through the hype before we close the programme with the CEO of Yunex Traffic, John Newhard, who hosted a panel session at Intertraffic Amsterdam 2024 looking at AI, the Cloud and Mobility, and how new technologies and computing could affect our industry. He reflects on what was discussed.

The last of this week’s Highways Voices podcasts from Intertraffic Amsterdam 2024 explores more of the cutting-edge technology and leading opinion, thanks to the sponsorship of SWARCO and AGD Systems.

In today’s programme we hear about the Australian invention Multipatcher, a safe one-person operated way to fix our roads, which has been making a difference Down Under for decades and is now on streets in the UK.

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We meet two leading executives from enforcement company Jenoptik about how technology is making our roads safer, while the importance of safety and adherence to speed limits is underlined by the European Cyclists’ Federation.

We also catch up on driverless technology from Germany, with the latest from pioneers MOIA, while we talk start-ups with Kevin Borras as he looks forward to Friday at Intertraffic.

Whether you’re at Intertraffic or not, we give you a valuable flavour of the event – timed for you to listen to while you’re getting strolling through the Amsterdam showers to the RAI, or getting ready for a Friday working from home.