Road User Voice – August 2016 – Ensuring the road user voice is heard, everywhere

29 July 2016

We’ve had another busy month, attending several speaking engagements and making many more useful contacts in the roads industry.

First, road user director, Guy Dangerfield, spoke at the Highways Delivery 2016 conference in London. This is run by the Road Safety Markings Association and looked at integrating national and local roads issues. Our research shows that road users don’t differentiate between different roads. Ensuring that those responsible for building, maintaining and operating our roads work together is a positive step.

Our chief executive, Anthony Smith, spoke at the New Civil Engineer (NCE) UK Roads Conference. A different type of audience this time with more technical and engineering-based delegates. What was our message here? Put road users first – of course! With road users’ number one priority being improved quality of road surfaces, this was a good audience to hear what users have been telling us.

Finally, heading north, Transport Focus director David Sidebottom presented the ‘future for transport policy in the north’ in Manchester. There are many plans for transport improvements in the north, from the government’s Road Investment Strategy via Highways England, High Speed 2 (HS2) and £1 billion investment in rail.

David shared the stage with organisations including Transport for the North (TfN), Arriva Rail North, Peel Ports, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and HS2. Bringing these organisations together across different modes of transport is important for the user. Again we were able to share our research findings to ensure that users get the best deal out of any new improvements that are made.

Engaging with and influencing decision makers making choices which affect transport users is a top priority for Transport Focus. We are continually looking for the best way to do this as it will help to make a difference.

We are asked to speak at many different conferences, seminars and events. We’ve found that this is a good way for us to get our message out there. You can find our latest events in our calendar.

We have lots more research due to be published in the coming months, so we will continue on our travels representing transport users.

 

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