If ever there’s a real must-listen Highways Voices, this is it, as we get a sneak preview of the guidance for the bidding for a share of the £20 million Intelligent Traffic Management Fund with Darren Capes from the Department for Transport.

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He's currently finishing the guidance at the moment and tells us about what you’ll see in it.

"I expect each of the winners to use technology in a different way to solve particular problems, whether you're a large urban area with traditional traffic problems we see in urban areas, whether you're a smaller authority wants to use technology to better manage a rural network, or deal with rural exclusion and all kinds of other issues," he says. "I expect each successful bid to be different in flavour, even if it's built on the same core technology."

The intelligent traffic management fund gives authorities a chance to deploy advanced technology for traffic signals, using emerging technologies to optimise traffic flow and balanced traffic across city centres. The application process will be underway in April, with applications closing at the end of July.

"I think what we will come up with here is a whole range of a whole selection box of technologies that people can then go and pick," he says, as he likens them to a box of chocolates in the interview. "If you're if your particular city needs the needs the strawberry cream, that's fine, if it needs if it needs the caramel fondant, that's fine, you can pick what you want from the selection box."

Find out what you're going to get, by checking out this podcast, and remember the guidance, when published will be shared with you on Highways News.