News & Views

Local authority active travel schemes will get the chance to be recognised thanks to a new category in this year’s Highways Awards.

Sponsored by highways and transport solutions provider, Clearview Intelligence, the new category – The Active Travel Scheme of the Year – is awarded to an organisation or highway authority or joint submissions.

This award will be judged on both the entry’s qualitative and quantitative impact and will cover design, use, and safety criteria, as well as contribution to carbon reduction.

Judges will be looking for how active travel schemes have used innovative or best in class design standards to improve the look and feel of a place or highway route to promote a safer, healthier environment for active travel as well as boost mobility. They will also be looking for statistics on how successful schemes have been, particularly any increases in the number of cyclists and pedestrians in the area, any decrease in road congestion, any improvements in road safety and any economic benefits felt by the surrounding area.

Commenting on the new category, Dominic Browne, Editor, Highways Magazine said: “The active travel category is new to highways awards and Highways would like to thank Clearview for making it possible. This is a vital area of the modern highways industry. From road safety, to decarbonisation, to public health to improving local palaces and boosting the economy, active travel is a golden thread that binds and benefits so many of our sector’s priorities. It is brilliant that a leading, innovative company like Clearview is supporting the recognition and celebration of this work and helping benefit the sector and the wider society by making sure active travel best practice is promoted far and wide.’

The Connex Active is Clearview Intelligence’s accurate real-time Pedestrian and Bicycle Count-Classification solution for active travel detection and analysis. It utilises the latest LIDAR technologies to provide its non-invasive detection and classification.

Designed for permanent use alongside foot and cycle paths as a solar or mains powered solution within a single unit. The detection range is configurable up to 7 metres without the need for an additional receiver unit as seen in traditional solutions of this type.

The use of LIDAR technology enables the creation of virtual lanes based on the distance of the object detected, this can be used to understand if potential conflicts are occurring on segregated pedestrian and cycle paths. Clearview Intelligence also has other active travel solutions including cycle and footpath guidance which helps encourage active travel by lighting up the path so that pedestrians and cyclists can use the pathway year-round and at all times of the day.

Alastair King, Head of Product at Clearview Intelligence added: “This year is going to be another milestone for active travel. Local authorities are investing their tranche 2 funding to support the creation of longer-term cycling projects, with many city regions joining councils in developing hundreds of miles of new cycleways across the UK. That’s why it is a perfect time to recognise the successful projects have already been delivered for the benefits they are bringing to the wider community.”

You can enter the Active Travel category and others at: https://www.highwaysawards.co.uk/live/en/page/categories