Manual for Smart Streets released

Online guide offers advice on transport, data and EV charging

A new manual to provide guidance to support local authorities in implementing technology that supports traffic management and the operation of streets has been launched.

The Manual for Smart Streets has been produced by the Transport Technology Forum (TTF) and Connected Places Catapult and was launched at the TTF Conference in Leeds.

The online resource includes use cases on how traffic signals will develop to connect to vehicles into the future and how new sources of data can link into implementing other services in the local authority. It also provides recommendations around cyber security.

The Manual for Smart Streets is based on the success of the Manual for Streets which, in the 15 years since its publication, has become an essential document for anyone delivering a local road network. It is hoped that the Manual for Smart Streets will become a sister resource to the earlier report.

The manual was written by Daniel Hobbs, principal technologist at the Connected Places Catapult. “The manual will help local authorities understand the equipment and new technologies that are out there,” said Hobbs.

“It contains evidence about solutions that have been implemented, evidence that they work so that business cases can be written based on knowledge that the new technology is proven.”

The manual contains a series of use cases and resources addressing specific functional areas to assist in both the understanding of how an authority might implement the solutions in its own locality, and also the arguments needed to build a business case for investment:

• Asset management
• EV charging information
• Parking management
• Public transport
• Traffic management
• Road user information
• Transport data management
• Signal control
• Vulnerable road users’ safety
• Cyber security.

“The Manual for Smart Streets is a major new reference document for local authorities to guide authorities in using technology to deliver service, both existing and new,” explained Darren Capes, ITS policy lead at the Department for Transport.

“The manual is written to help ensure that every local authority starts to think about the fact that the coming ten years will see a change in transport in a way that we haven’t seen before in our lifetimes, and I think people need to appreciate that need to have the skills to be ready to react to that.”

The Manual for Smart Streets is on the TTF website:
ttf.uk.net/manual-for-smart-streets/