Jenny Melbourne nee Ashworth (Martlet 2001) works for Transport for London and as a Performance and Planning Manager in the Network Management Directorate, Jenny manages a team of people who look after the timings of over 2,000 sets of traffic lights in South London! 

Jenny explains, "We set the day to day timings of the signals and plan contingency timings around various events and roadworks. Most of the London signals work on a dynamic system which adjusts the amount of green light for different roads depending on how busy they are and we set this system up to get the best balance for the busy London roads. We also look at the impacts of proposed changes to the road network using traffic signal modelling and establish how these will affect different transport modes and work with designers to get the best outcomes for London.

As a department we review the timings of about 1200 sets of signals every year to improve the signal timings to prioritise buses, cyclists and pedestrians through the network."

TfL have always undertaken a range of activities to celebrate International Women's Day and one of the activities this year was a poster campaign to celebrate women who work across TfL in a variety of different roles. To celebrate the diversity of roles and experiences of women across TfL, posters of a number of women were displayed in Victoria Tube station, West Croydon Overground Station, Hammersmith Bus Station and West Poplar DLR station. 

Jenny volunteered herself to be part of this campaign as is keen to show that to be a woman working in the transport industry, you don't always need to drive a train or wear a hard hat! She explains “It is really important women feel they can be a part of STEM and for the wide range of STEM jobs to be more visible and seeing women in these roles is a key part of this.”

Looking back to last year for IWD, one of the programmes Jenny was involved in was to roll out some "green women" in a few locations in the London traffic network. You can see how she got on here.