By John Challen

Artificial intelligence has been cited as a game-changer for a wide variety of scenarios including decarbonisation and helping businesses reach net zero goals. Transport consultancy Agilysis specialises in the use of data and AI to understand the complex relationship between the movement of vehicles and people, and how these impact on safety and other policy areas.

Its experience in the UK and overseas has seen it deploy novel data and technologies to measure vehicle speeds, detect the presence of vulnerable road users and assess the impact of changes to road networks on travel times, safety, operating costs and emissions.

The company was also a valued contributor to CIHT’s recent report on the subject: ‘The role of data and artificial intelligence in achieving transport decarbonisation’.

“AI is a broad terminology that brings together many technologies but shouldn’t just be used as a label or buzzword,” reasons Richard Owen, the CEO of Agilysis. “Ultimately these technologies help people rapidly process information that would either be impossible or very time-consuming, and they also provide a way of identifying patterns that would not be seen through traditional analytical tools.

“At one end of the spectrum, they are simply replacing the human role in classifying and measuring road use by humans and vehicles, and at the other end they are helping us discover existing new possibilities, unearthing insight we just can’t do ourselves.” 

Owen explains that much of the company’s focus recently has been looking at historical data to assess patterns, including congestion modelling for cities and the impact of large-scale public events, such as the British Grand Prix, and unexpected incidents such as the full closure of major motorways. 

“By analysing historic events – and then using live data plus AI technologies – we hope to work on more predictive models that could work in real-time to inform authorities about increased congestion (and its impact on emissions) plus the increased road risk associated with diversions onto roads with lower infrastructure safety ratings,” he explains.

Agilysis will be working with Transport for West Midlands to understand and develop tools leveraging AI technologies that will deliver actionable insights for road authorities wanting to reduce casualties, as well adjacent policy goals of increasing sustainable transport, active travel, and reducing emissions.

Image: Richard Owen, CEO of Agilysis; credit: Agilysis.

Other beneficiaries in AI

In March 2024, the previous government gave its backing to using AI in helping lowering emissions when it announced the Artificial Intelligence for Decarbonisation Innovation Programme, in which £1.73m was split between projects in three sectors: the generation, demand, transmission, and distribution of electricity; transport decarbonisation; and land use for renewables generation.

The winning bid in the transport decarbonisation slot was Flexible Power Systems (FPS). The company received over £200,000 to: ‘Use AI to optimise electric fleet operations and charging schedules, based on analysing traffic and the locations of chargers.’ The overall goal is to help minimise costs and cut transport emissions and at the centre of the project is the company’s FPS Operate platform, which has been in operation since 2021.

Image: Richard Owen, CEO of Agilysis; credit: Agilysis.

Newsletter image: tracking traffic on a motorway using artificial intelligence; credit: Shutterstock.