‘Pick my brains’ 2017 taking shape

NRSC 2017

After a successful introduction in 2016, ‘Pick my brains’ will return for the 2017 National Road Safety Conference – with three topics already confirmed.

The optional session, which will take place at the end of the first day, will see experienced road safety practitioners provide help and advice to small groups of colleagues in an informal setting.

Richard Hall, Road Safety GB’s specialist with regard to the school crossing patrol (SCP) service, will once again host a session on SCPs.

Richard has worked in road safety for 30 years and is currently road safety manager for North Lincolnshire Council. He has been Road Safety GB’s SCP specialist since 2007, and chairs the Road Safety GB SCP Working Group. In 2010 Road Safety GB asked him to lead on a project to update the Assessment of Walked Routes to School Guidelines.

Jo Edwards from Warwickshire County Council will follow in the footsteps of her colleague Philippa Young in hosting a session focusing on revenue generation and charging for road safety services.

In a road safety career spanning more than 25 years, Jo has carried out numerous roles and is highly experienced in engaging with local members. She is currently Warwickshire’s principal road safety engineer.

Her current role has involved approaching the private sector to seek funding for the ‘Warwickshire Road Safety Club’ which was developed as a result of potential budget cuts to the road safety education service. As well as attracting sponsorship from the private sector, Jo also encouraged schools to fund their membership of the club.

A new topic for 2017 is ‘Speed and speed management’, which will be facilitated by Nadeem Mohammed from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

Nadeem has been working in highways for more than 15 years. One of his first roles was seconded within a road safety engineering team responding to residents and politicians, as well as analysing and delivering schemes.

In his current role as safer roads manager with TfGM he leads on the day-to-day activities of DriveSafe, the casualty reduction partnership, including operational intelligence, maintenance and digitisation of safety cameras on behalf of the 10 local highways authorities and Greater Manchester Police.

Nadeem’s session will focus on matters relating to dealing with the public and media on queries relating to the setting of speed limits and the use of speed cameras.

Further topics will be added to the Pick my brains session in due course.