Driving force in solving transport woes

EDINBURGH council's transport department hasn't exactly covered itself in glory in the past 12 months.

From a failed congestion charge bid costing the city £9 million to a rapid U-turn on the disastrous city centre traffic management scheme, Andrew Burns and co haven't made themselves the most popular councillors around.

But ironically the city's much-maligned transport department could have had the solution to some of its woes right under its nose.

A unique Capital-based traffic management firm offering a state-of-the-art road modelling system to an international market sounds like just the ticket for the council's troubled transport chiefs.

Braidwood Associates, headed by Edinburgh transport engineer Richard Braidwood, has been a key port of call for those running transportation and roads networks in some of the world's busiest cities, including Brisbane and ones in California and Florida.

But Mr Braidwood's Montgomery Street office never once took a single call from a transport chief based just a stone's throw away.

Working with software designed by other Edinburgh-based companies Quadstone and Sias, Braidwood, formed in January last year, facilitates simulations of real traffic situations, giving local authorities the chance to try out virtual solutions for their transport problems.

What's more, the company is believed to be the only one in the world to focus solely on micro-simulation.

The technique allows experts to look at traffic issues by focusing on the behaviour of individual vehicles, rather than groups of cars or lorries.

And the firm offers bespoke solutions for problems in both cities and open highways - with individually-tailored packages even taking into account factors such as pedestrians and on-street parking.

In many ways, Braidwood is not a typical start-up company. Sharing a building owned by the award-winning ad firm Newhaven Advertising, the company is desperate to shake off the dry image of a transport consultant.

A pinball machine stands by the door, while two chunky remote control cars take pride of place on the shelves in the Braidwood office for a spot of light relief in quiet moments.

But, speaking to the firm's director, it is difficult to see when Braidwood's three permanent staff and numerous freelancers find any time to play.

Most companies start off locally and look to gradually expand, eventually spreading their wings overseas.

But at less than one year old, Braidwood has already won contracts with America's biggest transport department, has work in Australia, and is only now beginning to look to the UK for work.

With a total of nine years' experience working for Quadstone and Sias, Mr Braidwood knows what he is up against and is already looking to expand his staff.

"Without the experience I had there, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today," he says.

"There is a skills shortage in our field - it's not the most sexy in the industry - but it's very important.

"There are other, especially larger consultancies, that use micro-simulation, but they are multi-disciplined and we have chosen to focus on this specific field.

"We are probably the only micro-simulation specialists in the world. We mainly use freelancers at the moment - I am the only full-time staff member - and I have two part-timers as well, but we are looking to take on more staff. It [the business] has grown much faster than we would have expected."

He adds: "If we do a good job, everybody hears about it - this is a very small industry. The guys in California are really satisfied with what we're doing.

"There would be a lot of large UK and US-based consultancies who would be beside themselves to win the contracts that we've got."

Although coy about exact figures, Mr Braidwood will admit his company is already in profit, and says he expects "significant" growth next year, thanks to US contracts already in the pipeline and joint projects with Australian commercial companies.

"The problem with British organisations is that they often require three years' worth of accounts before they will make a contract with us," says Mr Braidwood.

"As we're a start-up, we just don't have that, so it makes it more difficult over here. In the US, they have worked with me before, in my previous roles, so they're happy with what I can do."

He continues: "Obviously, we would be very excited to work in the UK, and particularly Scotland, and we have got some bids in for work here at the moment."

Mr Braidwood describes the way things have worked out for the firm in America first as "quite unusual".

But the Edinburgh born consultant, who gained a master's degree in transport engineering at Napier University, seems happy with his Stateside work.

And the US has provided the firm with some out-of-the-ordinary contracts.

"We're delighted that we got the California and Florida contracts," says Mr Braidwood.

"They give us something different and exciting to work on that we wouldn't get from a local authority here."

In Orlando, Florida, Braidwood has been asked to tackle natural disaster traffic management, where, in the case of a disaster like the New Orleans hurricane this year, transport systems to evacuate people from the city would be in place. Mr Braidwood says: "They have so many bridges and so much water in that area that we have to work out what the routes would be out of a city if a key bridge went down, for example."

And in Orange County, California, Braidwood has been chosen to help develop the state's highway road network.

The project, working in conjunction with San Francisco transport consultancy System Metrics Group, will tackle the 15,000 miles of highway in the state of California, where car ownership exceeds 17 million.

Terek Hatata, managing director of Systems Metric Group, says the depth of Braidwood's experience in micro-simulation modelling "exceeds anyone else in the United States".

In Edinburgh, Mr Braidwood has watched events concerning the Central Edinburgh Traffic Management scheme unfold with interest.

But, strangely, his sympathies lie with the city council's struggling transport bosses. "I think Edinburgh is a victim of its own success," he says. "There is so much commercial and retail success here and everyone wants to live in the city centre.

"All the council can do is play catch up with the transport system. Transport can be a horrible, political issue, which I think is what we've seen in the past few months.

"At least they've got traffic at the top of the agenda and are trying to do something about it."

He adds: "I'm sure the council would have used a traffic model to look at the potential impact, but I personally wasn't involved. It's something that most local authorities would do."

A chance to see the plans for Edinburgh city centre's traffic in motion before digging up the roads - now, there's a thought.