Conference Programme

The performance, delivery and resilience Directorate of the Scottish Government.

Traffic Scotland has led information sharing throughout severe weather events for nearly fifteen years. Making use of CCTV and partnerships to deliver incident updates for road users to make informed decisions on their journeys. With all these resources available and using a light-hearted approach when appropriate, it encourages engagement from the public and paints Traffic Scotland to road users and customers as personable and approachable.

What has shown to be the most impactful communication methods during weather events such as Beast from the East? How has the public perceived this information and has it been advantageous to them?
Robyn will cover these aspects such as the Gritter Tracker and how it has encapsulated followers not only from Scotland but worldwide, drawing attention to the wider service from Traffic Scotland.

This presentation will also look at how social media works with operations in the control centre to deliver key messaging and communicate information from the travelling public back to the operatives and police officials to act quickly. Looking to the future, how will Traffic Scotland reach more audiences, continue to position itself as the trustworthy source for traffic and travel information and encourage planning ahead during the winter period?’

The NWSRG is the leading group with representatives from local and national road authorities in the UK dedicated to advancing understanding of best practice for winter service delivery, taking the best from currently available knowledge, and supplementing any gaps with new knowledge and research. 

The NWSRG had produced a comprehensive Guide to provide practitioners with practical guidance in all aspects of setting up and delivering their winter service. The group is now looking to the future in its aim to continue to provide valuable guidance and winter research. The presentation will detail recent changes to the group’s structure, update on the current guidance and areas for further research.

With over a million connected vehicles on UK roads, large volumes of data are currently being wirelessly transmitted back to vehicle manufacturers. Accessing and processing such data has the potential to inform road engineers about their road network and the behaviour of the drivers using it.

Connected vehicles have been around for many years, but making sense of all that data for practical end uses is the challenge. No one needs more data if they are not able to interpret what it means. RoadTrace™ is a dedicated new system from a global automotive supplier, Aisin.

With over 30 years of experience with designing and manufacturing car sensors and systems, and with existing relationships with most global car manufacturers, Aisin can not only access the widest possible range of data but can then interpret it for real-world applications in road safety and asset management.

But rather than be ‘another place to look’ the insights can be embedded into existing road management systems. Concentrating on the potential for road safety improvements, this session will outline how insights from connected vehicles can help road professionals identify the highest risk areas on their network before a serious crash occurs.

Gary’s presentation will focus around the Tri-Council provision of an out of hours Duty Officer for Winter Maintenance purposes by Falkirk Council, Clackmannanshire Council, and Stirling Council, respectively. At local government reorganisation in 1996, it was deemed efficient to continue the arrangement to ensure continuity of service as well as being cost effective.  This service provides a 24/7 log of all actions, forecasts, and weather station updates; as well monitoring of conditions and reacting to any road related emergencies.

Police Scotland and Transport Scotland work closely with the Met Office to monitor winter weather and how this may impact on the Trunk Road Network. This is achieved by daily liaison with an embedded Met Office representative at the Traffic Scotland National Control Centre. This provides advanced information on potential weather warnings and permits a structured and scaleable response to any impact on the road infrastructure.

Transport Scotland convenes severe weather planning meetings which involve Trunk Road Operating Companies. This provides an opportunity to share independent weather forecasts and discuss proactive plans to mitigate weather effects on the roads. It also provides the platform to discuss whether a Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) should be activated for the duration of the event.

Police Scotland and Transport Scotland will thereafter decide whether a Police Travel Advice (PTA) notice will be issued in support of the Met Office warning. PTA’s are scaleable to reflect the severity of the weather warning and are supported by Transport/Traffic/Police Scotland communications across multiple media platforms. The effectiveness of all winter weather messaging and deployments by Operating Companies are continually reviewed to ensure maximum effectiveness is achieved in keeping our roads safe.

With Storm events and power outages becoming more frequent throughout North East Scotland, and the presence of challenging winter seasons, is clear that the Roads Industry need to adapt to changing conditions and ensure adequacy of implemented measures. Aberdeenshire Council’s Roads & Infrastructure Service Team are committed to developing solutions to these challenging scenarios to improve winter performance as well as resilience.

How can we ensure we react quickly to these conditions whilst also maintaining performance in the day-to-day?

This presentation will outline some of the conditions we are faced with, and introduce some of the measures that Aberdeenshire Council have implemented. It will discuss how they have worked on the ground and lessons learned.

A Cold Comfort Scotland special with Lieutenant Colonel Andy McCombe, Retired military officer, civil resilience practitioner, trainer and exercise planner

A Cold Comfort Scotland special with Lieutenant Colonel Andy McCombe, Retired military officer, civil resilience practitioner, trainer and exercise planner