Women's Role in Traffic Technology 

The Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) is a UK-based organisation that facilitates positive change within the highways community and among its members (384 at the time of publication). Consisting of government, local authorities, national organisations, supply chain, academia and associations, those members represent a diverse cross-section of the traffic technology sector in the UK.

LCRIG acts as a vital link between central and local government, the supply chain, and the wider highways community, and the organisation also supports the Department for Transport (DfT) and other Government teams to provide policy advice and share challenges faced by councils and suppliers.

LCRIG also delivers the Transport Technology Forum on behalf of DfT and Innovate UK, supporting local authorities in navigating innovation in future technologies., together with the highly popular Innovation & Learning Festival and Strictly Highways conference and awards.

One of LCRIG’s USPs is its support of women in the ITS and traffic technology sector. With nine of the company’s 10 full time staff being female, women accounting for a healthy percentage of its apprenticeship scheme students and a significant number of its members having women in high-profile roles, LCRIG are doing as much as anyone in the UK to promote and accentuate the role of women in the highways sector. Intertraffic spoke with CEO Paula Claytonsmith about who and what has inspired her career and why, despite hugely encouraging improvements, there’s still a long way to go before parity is the order of the day.
 

Paula Claytonsmith

Intertraffic: Firstly, can we talk about some of the women that have inspired you? Teachers, lecturers, colleagues, bosses - anyone who has had an influence on where you are today.

Paula Claytonsmith ( PC): There isn't one person. There have been different people along my career path, really. No one has ever asked me who my inspirations were before so I’ve been going through some of those people that have inspired and encouraged. One was a maths teacher that I had at school. I was top in English, drama, art and some other objects, but in the bottom for maths and it really knocked my confidence. He was just brilliant saying you can do anything. I think that really was very inspiring.

And then there's a guy who's still in local government today. He’s a director at South Gloucestershire Council, Nigel Riglar. He gave me my first national job, and up until that point, I'd worked in local authorities, in frontline services, but he gave me my first national role, and he was so encouraging. He really inspired me to have a love for that sort of national picture that I'm now in, 25 years or so later. He was amazing. 

And then a person that I think has a real sort of influence on me day to day, is one of my colleagues, Susanne Ingham. She encouraged me to join LCRIG, which obviously was a brilliant move for me, but she is such a wonderful, kind, inspiring, individual. And every day, she always looks at the positive. She's very creative. She always makes good connections. And I think sometimes when you're in a position that's quite high profile and eyes are on you, it's really good to have somebody like that. If you have a bit of imposter syndrome, there's somebody that's like, ‘Oh, this is great. This is exciting.’ So for me, she is that sort of brilliant person. 
 

Nigel Riglar

Finally, I’d have to say Prof Sarah Sharples, the UK Department for Transport’s Chief Scientific Advisor. She is so down to earth. She's interested in everything around technology, not just transport, I just find her very inspiring every time I get a chance to be with her or share a speaking platform with her.

Susanne Ingham

Intertraffic: Other women that we’ve spoken to for this feature have talked about having to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to make a similar impression - as recently as the later 1990s/early 2000s. Is that still a familiar story in 2025? Have things changed much? The idea behind writing these articles might suggest that they maybe haven't.

PC: The stories that they've told you about their earlier career, I can see that and that happened. I think in your early career, you don't realize the subtle, sort of put downs and bullying and things like that that can be quite detrimental to your confidence. Is that the same now? I not sure I'm qualified to comment now. What I will say is there are an emerging number of great women in the transport sector.

The highways maintenance sector, for example, has traditionally been very male orientated, but certainly again, over the last few years of LCRIG activities, we've seen an increasing number of young, ambitious, vocal in a positive way, women that are pushing their way forward. So I think we see more of that.

Now, it must be said that LCRIG is a team of 10 and nine of us are women, so maybe you could say we add diversity to how we approach things. I think there might be micro-issues for people emerging in their career. But again, I feel really uncomfortable about being qualified to say, given, I feel like I'm an ’oldie’ now, and I've done it, and I've got to a certain point.
 

Sarah Sharples

If you'd have asked me if I still experienced some of the things I did in my earlier career, absolutely, there is still an element of that. And you just learn different strategies and techniques. And I sometimes think that's more about the individual, and there are less of them. And there are so many male industry colleagues who want a much more diverse workforce. Our values are achievement, family, laughter and integrity. Enjoying what we do is incredibly important and I think that oozes through all that we do, really. And I think when that oozes through, it creates an environment that more people want to be a part of.

Intertraffic: One way of keeping track of the changing face of the industry is in how many women are now attending the big trade shows. Intertraffic’s attendance figures for 2024 showed an increase in female visitors, and in terms of the summit programme women are making up a much bigger percentage of the speakers than ever before.

PC: I joined the sector 10 years ago next month, so not as long as Susanne who is celebrating her 30th anniversary. It’s funny because we met a young woman recently who was saying how difficult it is, but for us, we've actually seen a dramatic improvement. So it's all about your reference point, isn't it? And I think with the more varied jobs that we have now, with more of the programs around engineering, more of the different types of activities that are available, I think it's it's encouraging and it's positive,

I also think it's as much about diversity of thinking as it is diversity of individuals. Because, you know, let's not make white males the pariah of the industry, but it’s as much about different thinking, different ways of approaching things, different ways of encouraging communities to engage in things. So for me, that's the magic, for want of a better word, that will keep our industry becoming more diverse, to being open to different ways of thinking.  There are, sadly, some loud voices which drown out others, shall we say, but I think that's becoming less and less of an issue, which is great, for those that are coming up through the ranks. It’s also incredibly important to make sure that if you are an older professional that you're not pulling up the ladder behind you in any way, shape or form. Regardless of whether you're male or female. We don’t have enough young engineers coming into highways and traffic and technology and everything else – we can’t afford to not think about who's coming behind us or even what role models we all play, even if we feel slightly embarrassed about it.

 

Intertraffic: So would it be fair to say that female contribution to the traffic technology sector is increasing in global recognition and importance, but there’s still more to do?

PC: I often meet women who feel like they are not a role model and I say yes, but there will be a younger woman (or man) that looks at you and thinks “I'd like to do that,” or “I'd like to think about things in that way”. That level of inspiration is really important and we have to make sure that we don't lose it.

So we have to remember where the industry has come from, to answer your question. There’s a generational sort of period we're going to have to go through, which might not be a popular remark to make, but I think as more big industries look less at having a chief of something which was a long-standing traditional career, and actually have somebody that is good at bringing an organization together, then I think we will see more women that have come from different industries that bring a new perspective into things. So I think that will start to happen invariably, because of the complexity of the societal issues that we're now playing with. If you look at the ITS world, it’s now encompassing so many different things. Now you're looking for individuals that can knit things so I think it will change. We've just got a bit of a lag. The make-up of the boards of some of the larger organizations, because it might be fine to have a male CEO, but if you've got a male CEO and a full male board, then that, for me, is sort of slightly alarming. As the complexity of our world increases, then I think there will definitely be more women in CEO roles.