Public Funding for Simplifai Systems Limited

The UK Government 2019 Clean Air Strategy sets out plans to replace petrol and diesel vehicles over the next 20 years. Until then, the UK needs a transitional approach to reduce the significant health problem (100 premature deaths each day) caused by poor air quality. Air quality varies day-to-day and hour-to-hour due to changes in traffic and weather patterns (amongst other factors); no two days are the same. Fluctuating traffic patterns are the result of both the changing nature of everyday life and disruptions caused by events, incidents and other alterations to the transport network. Operational tools must respond to these continual changes by considering the benefit of intervention at specific points across the regional network, balancing air quality and other transport-related goals such as congestion. At Simplifai Systems Limited, we have developed a goal-centred approach to the operational management of transport networks. For the first time it will be possible to implement operational strategies for road networks that prioritise air quality on the days, times and locations where it is most needed while prioritising other goals (e.g. journey time reliability, incident management, event management, road safety, etc.) when they are a higher priority. The CHARM system in the North East Regional Control Centre (RCC) provides an opportunity to introduce innovative control strategies onto the Highways England network that weren’t previously possible due to the closed nature of the system architecture. Our proposal identifies transport corridors in the North East RCC region with significant movements of people and goods, then integrates with existing detection and control systems (such as CHARM) supplemented as necessary by temporary sensors and connected vehicles, to apply an Integrated Corridor Management approach. It balances traffic flow to provide real-time operational improvements in air quality, taking a holistic approach to transport-related air quality management across a region. The proposal builds on work undertaken in the Leeds City Region, which used an integrated, collaborative approach to managing air quality across corridors, including Highways England and local authority roads. The feasibility study will determine which functions can be provided and in what geographical areas within the nine month demonstration project. The demonstration project will improve the existing control systems using Simplifai’s enhanced capability, connected to the North East RCC CHARM system and urban traffic control centres via a web-based data and control platform.