Strategic Business Partner, Amey & Chairman, Modelling World

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When Tom van Vuren is not thinking, talking or writing about transport modelling, he is probably walking with his two dachshunds. A firm believer in best practice sharing, he uses his positions as Strategic Consulting Partner at Amey, as Visiting Professor at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds and as Board Member of the Transport Planning Society, to identify key reports and findings, to challenge conformist thinking, to explore new ideas and technology, and to support the development of the profession – always with a keen eye on combining academic rigour with practical pragmatism.

Martin is an Associate Director in SYSTRA’s Digital-Modelling-Analytics sector. With over 20 years’ experience in the transport planning and modelling industry, he has worked on a wide range of modelling platforms and model sizes.

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Martin is currently the Strategic & Commercial Lead for Paramics Microsimulation responsible for the development and commerciality of the product.

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He also sits on the SYSTRA AI Steering Group focusing on the development of AI tools for use in modelling applications / analysis and is also currently working on a new demand modelling optimisation platform at SYSTRA.

UK Product Specialist, Aimsun Ltd

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Tessa is the UK Product Specialist at Aimsun Ltd, responsible for developing modelling best practice and training. She is experienced in the development of microscopic, mesoscopic and hybrid models applied to a diverse range of contexts and scales, such as dynamic models applied at the largest scale encompassing millions of trips, down to working at the nanoscopic scale for the modelling of accurate trajectories for autonomous vehicle co-simulation. Tessa’s most recent work focusses on exploring and understanding how dynamic models can best be applied to tactical and strategic use cases

Lead Evaluation Officer (Transport) at West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Principal Transport Modeller at Department for Transport

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Qi is a transport modeller at the TASM of the Department for Transport, where he is the model owner of National Transport Model V2r, LGV model and freight model. He has 20 years modelling experience from both private and public sectors. His recent work areas include developing Freight Analysis and Modelling Environment (FAME), Revising the modelling and analysis work at TASM To Design 2 (R2D2) and freight value of time study.

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Transport Modelling and Major Projects Lead at Arup

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Matt is Arup's chartered transport planner with 23 years’ experience covering a wide range of transport modelling, from countywide strategic model development, to detailed micro-simulation models utilising adaptive signal controls and Agent and Activity Based Models. He leads the modelling team within Arup's London office with a focus on developing emerging modelling approaches to answer the challenging questions faced by our clients. He is passionate about demonstrating the benefits of schemes that offer equitable outcomes across all modes to help deliver a more sustainable world.

Principal Transport Planner at National Highways

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Robin Lovelace is Associate Professor of Transport Data Science at the Leeds Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) and Lead Data Scientist at Active Travel England. Robin specializes in data science and geocomputation, with a focus on developing geographic methods applied to modeling transport systems, active travel, and decarbonisation.

Robin has experience not only researching but deploying transport models in inform sustainable policies and more effective use of transport investment, including as Lead Developer of the Propensity to Cycle Tool (see www.pct.bike), the basis of strategic cycle network plans nationwide, and follow-on Network Planning Tool (see www.npt.scot) and BiclaR (seehttps://biclar.tmlmobilidade.pt ) tools to ensure that hundreds of millions of pounds of investment are spent cost effectively.

Dr Erica Thompson is an Associate Professor of Modelling for Decision Making at UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy.  Her work on the appropriate use of mathematical models to support decision-making is funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, and encompasses ethical questions about embedded values and the role of expert judgement as well as mathematical questions about model construction and evaluation.  Dr Thompson’s latest book, Escape From Model Land (Basic Books, 2022) is an accessible introduction to the power and pitfalls of using models to inform decisions.

Ricardo Herranz is co-founder and CEO of Nommon. He graduated as an Electronics and Control Engineer from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) and as a Telecommunications Engineer from the École Supérieure d'Electricité (Supélec), and holds a Master in Quantitative Finance and Business Administration from the UPM. He has more than 20 years of experience as an engineer, researcher and entrepreneur, in which he has led the development of different digital products for the transport and mobility industry. He has been coordinator of several pioneering European research projects on the use of new sources of big data for travel demand analysis and transport modelling, and is the author of more than 20 scientific publications in this field.

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Claire Hannon is a Product Owner at AITL. After winning the Microvision Prize for her GIS Master's Dissertation Claire has worked with Utilities, National Mapping Agencies and Transport Network Modellers to maximise their investment in spatial and network data. She has guided many migrations, transformations and innovations with particular focus on semantic disambiguity, quality and building trust within and across organisations as they utilise these complex datasets.

Within her work at AITL Claire ensures that development of the product maximises value across the customer base, enabling AITL's mission to accelerate an informed, fair and affordable transition to a net zero energy system.
 

Sandra Hill-Smith is an Associate in SYSTRA’s microsimulation sector. She has over 20 years’ experience in the industry, starting out in development management before seeing the light(?) and moving to traffic modelling. Sandra now manages projects across the UK and Ireland using a range of software packages to test developments and infrastructure schemes. This includes leading traffic modelling (primarily mesoscopic) for National Highways spatial planning in the Northeast, Yorkshire and Humber.

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Liz is a strategic modeller with over 20 years experience in the private sector. For the last 10 years her main focus has been leading the development and use of the PLANET Framework Model, supporting the various HS2 Business Cases. A role which has secured her standing as an EMME trainer and a SATURN and multi-modal strategic model expert

Mia-Jade Thornton is a Principal Transport Planner within the Transport Planning Group for National Highways. With over 10 years of experience within the Transport Planning Industry, Mia specialises in transport modelling and appraisal. She is a specialist both in strategic highway modelling and microsimulation modelling, working across a plethora of projects of all sizes, and is leading Transport Planning Group’s research into mesoscopic modelling and hybrid modelling approaches. 

Director, WSP

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Rehan leads the strategic transport modelling team at WSP. He has a wide range of international experience but is based in the West Midlands where he is involved in modelling commissions and studies that make use of a range of tools, some using established techniques and others that require alternative approaches to meet evolving needs of decision makers.

Associate Director, SYSTRA

Simon holds a senior position at City Science, using city data to inform decision makers the benefits of sustainable transport and renewable energy solutions. I am responsible for building the business and team in England's South East, as well as overseeing and providing technical inputs to transport, energy & sustainablity studies.

Katie is SYSTRA’s Business Director for Transport Planning in UK and Ireland. She has 20 years of wide-ranging experience across transport policy & strategy, appraisal and business case development, evaluation and using behavioural insights and research to inform transport investment decisions.

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She is definitely not a transport modeller but is interested in how behavioural insights can better inform transport modelling and how outputs generated translate into transport policy decisions and the evaluation of investment in transport.

A senior transport economist in the Business case and Impact assessment team at Connected Places Catapult with more than 15 years of experience in the transportation sector, Shipra has worked on business cases for transportation projects across multiple modes. Her recent work includes some of the most important areas of innovation, namely alternative fuels, alternative modes, sustainable modes, digitalisation and policy reassessments. She has also worked on monitoring and evaluation of various projects including grant funded innovation schemes. She has extensive experience in transport demand assessments for highways, public transport network and sustainable transport systems.

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Transport Analytics Lead at West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Senior Modeller at Arup

Andrew Gordon Consulting Ltd 

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Andrew has been working in transport modelling, economics and research for more than 30 years.  For the last five years he has been an independent consultant, supporting and advising a range of public and private sector clients. He is particularly interested in developing new techniques to enhance existing modelling systems, improving their representation of traveller behaviour, and enabling the development of more robust transport scheme business cases.

Operational Researcher, Department for Transport

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Robyn has worked as an Operational Research analyst for the Civil Service for her whole career. She has moved between several departments, experiencing how analytical methods can be applied to different areas of public life, and the similarities that occur in unexpected places.

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Two years ago, Robyn joined the Department of Transport. Since then she has been delighted to learn more about the world of Transport modelling. Her fantastic team is responsible for Uncertainty, the National Trip End Model, and Strategic Forecasting. Still an Operational Researcher, she’s committed to supporting these two professions working together and learning from each other.

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Robin is the head of profession for transport modelling at the Department for Transport. He oversees the development of appraisal and modelling guidance in DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) and its national policy analysis models (NTMs). Robin is passionate about building capability and confidence in the use of models in transport analysis to inform better decision-making across the sector. For more information, read TAG: Transport analysis guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Rhiannon Hedingham is a senior professional with 20 years’ of experience in transport modelling across consultancy, public sector and research and innovation.  She is a Technical Director at WSP specialising in leading expert teams to answer the ‘What if?’ questions of the future.

She previously led the Modelling and Visualisation Team at Connected Places Catapult and has a keen interest in approaching problems from different angles to reach solutions.

She has led teams to deliver major projects such as the ServCity programme for Innovate UK, appraising Autonomous shared taxi services, and contributed to an expert team from across the industry to assess the Future of Modelling for National Highways.

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Chris van Hinsbergen founded the Dutch company Fileradar (in English: 'QueueRadar') in 2010. The company specializes in data-driven traffic analytics. In 2023, they launched Traffic Effects, a new online platform designed to automate the generation of high-quality decision support information in the traffic domain. The platform supports various products, including:

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• Reconstructions of historic traffic flow (vehicle counts and speeds) for 100% of the roads in any city.

• Computation of emissions of noise and pollutants.

• Predictive models for "what's next" and "what if" scenarios.

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Michael has over 20 years of experience in traffic modelling research, product development and advanced model applications. Michael has made fundamental contributions to traffic simulation theory and practice for large scale applications, including the development of lower-order traffic flow modeling, techniques for simulation-based dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) and demand adjustment algorithms.

Michael is an active member of the research community and a founding member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) standing committee on Traffic Simulation (ACP80). He currently leads the research and development at Bentley on traffic simulation and dynamic traffic assignment (DTA).

Kathryn started her career calibrating the parameters for Smart Motorways algorithms at TRL, rapidly moving the automating various steps to improve the efficiency of the process. Since joining City Science five years ago Kathryn has moved her automation focus to strategic transport models alongside honing her software development skills on Cadence 360 and other transport related products. Outside of work Kathryn is an keen vegetable grower with her local growing co-operative.

Peter started off life as a chartered civil engineer and transport planner but has spent the last 45 years modelling transport in the UK, Europe and around the world. He is the managing director of Peter Davidson Consultancy Ltd which specialises in transport modelling, together with the complex market research and the software development needed to make it work and find innovative ways of modelling some of the new transport technologies that are coming down the track. He will be showcasing recent modelling innovations for Oxfordshire County Council so come and join-in the discussion. 

Mike is PTV’s technical director for North Europe, leading a team supporting PTV customers in their innovative applications including dynamic assignment and activity-based modelling. In recent years, Mike has led the deployment of dynamic assignment for real-time modelling in the City of York and supported a range of mesoscopic simulation applications in the UK.

Director of Transport Modelling, Stantec

John Bates is a mathematical economist, and has been at the forefront of transportation model development for the last fifty-five years, with particular reference to travel demand. He has been a leading figure in the development of stated preference techniques within the transport field, and has international expertise in evaluation methodology, in particular the valuation of time savings and reliability. He works as an independent consultant, based in Abingdon near Oxford.