Giles spoke to TP Weekly News as the second White Paper from the Live Labs initiative into smart places was published this week.

“Transport and mobility have been very late to the digitisation agenda; if you look at retail, the pivoting towards digital started over 20 years ago when the first home shopping was done at scale,” he says.

Now, however, the transportation sector is catching up and, he adds, “it is entirely logical that the digital landscape is part of the mobility landscape”.

Giles says that accelerating innovation in the local roads sector is "not about technology for technology's sake" but about highway assets performing better "to deliver improved outcomes for people".

He explains there are many benefits of deploying thousands of sensors across a local authority area to monitor air quality, traffic levels and types of movement as well as “the mundane things” such as the level of material in grit bins or when gullies silt up, rather than waiting for a road to flood.

“With our second White Paper we are trying to illustrate the digital landscape and its applicability to local roads; using sensors and platforms to derive insights to deliver beneficial outcomes.”

Giles adds that challenges with innovation involve “taking uncertain things through a traditional procurement and legislative approach” and persuading more stakeholders to “value the intangible asset” such as the data – and insight – coming from sensors.

Pilot projects that form part of the £23M Live Labs programme have included the use of drones to detect potholes and the installation of geothermal probes to de-ice car parks.

“The ultimate ambition of Live Labs is to discover innovations that will revolutionise services for local authorities across the country,” Giles added. “It is exciting to see the developing business cases demonstrating that the data being collected is valuable and useful.”

To read the digital White Paper, click here.

(Photograph: M Corfield - Shutterstock)