Guidance

Local authority transport: data sharing case studies

Information about how local authorities use open data to stimulate growth and innovation, save costs and develop more sustainable transport.

From:
Department for Transport
Published
28 March 2023

This section features case studies about local councils sharing data successfully.

Improving internal understanding by sharing data

Understanding traffic in York by making better use of existing data

City of York Council wanted to better understand the traffic on their road network. They looked at the data they were collecting and found out they were not using it as efficiently as they could. They saw that their urban traffic control (UTC) system was already collecting useful traffic data that could help them.

To assess the benefits of using this data, they developed a prototype. This prototype published UTC and camera data to the cloud. This meant the council could share data with internal stakeholders.

The benefits were significant and the council is currently procuring a full solution.

Benefits

Reducing costs: The council used the traffic data to calibrate their traffic model. This saved significant costs they would have spent on traffic surveys.

Helping teams understand specialist data: Typically you would need the specialist knowledge of a traffic engineer to understand UTC data. Instead the council’s prototype presented UTC data as visual maps and graphs that all traffic professionals could understand.

This meant that operatives with less experience could find faults more easily. It also helped the council to understand network operations at all times of day.

Providing evidence for new initiatives: The low-cost prototype provided immediate benefits. This helped to create the business case for procuring a complete solution.

Further information

Smarter Transport Evolution Programme - City of York Council

Helping teams and the public find the information they need in Bristol

Bristol City Council digitised their data to allow them to share it internally and with the public.

The highways maintenance team digitised their asset data, including the number, location and length of maintenance regimes and defects records for their assets.

This helped the team to deal with problem assets before they became an issue for the public. It also allowed them to forecast their maintenance budget by predicting the lifespan of an asset.

In response to the many data requests they get, the council developed a Power BI platform. It allowed internal staff to visualise transport data. This meant they needed fewer technical skills to use the data.

The platform also encouraged people to find the data they want for themselves. For example, one project used it to try to predict levels of pollution from road runoff. The air quality team often use the data.

The council also developed a public-facing geographic information system (GIS) platform. This platform publishes various data sets. It allows people to search for themselves, rather than submitting freedom of information (FOI) requests. They may search for:

  • whether a street is on a gritting route
  • if a new development has a Section 38 agreement in place for the council to adopt it
  • details of public reports made for a particular ward

Benefits

Increasing internal efficiency: Once they had digitised their data, open sharing was an easy way for the council to increase their efficiency. It also reduced the amount of time staff spent on FOI and other search requests.

Helping teams work together: Data sharing increased awareness of the data held within the council and enabled teams to work together to make use of it.

Centralising asset management: Sharing information about maintenance and defects helped the council deal with potential problems early and to forecast their budget for the future.

Further information

Pinpoint local information - Bristol City Council

Using smart city strategies for more efficient council services in Hull

In 2018 Hull City Council adopted a smart city strategy. They aimed to open their publicly-held data so it could be used for the public good.

The council procured a smart city platform to bring together data and intelligence they held in different systems. This allowed them to plan services based on data processing in real time. It also helped to identify gaps in the information that needed to be filled.

They integrated their geographic information system (GIS) platform into the smart city platform. This holds multiple layers of data in a managed open source (QGIS) data warehouse. The smart city platform allowed them to publish real time passenger transport information.

They used Department for Transport (DfT) funding to develop a comprehensive knowledge archive network (CKAN) website to publish smart city data, including real time information about:

  • parking
  • traffic movement
  • passenger transport

This also involved decoding complex data about congestion from the council’s traffic control system.

They also used the DfT funding to buy software that could extract data from CCTV cameras. They used this to count vehicles and vehicle types passing along roads in the city. The council did a trial with the support of the University of Hull. They used the university’s Viper supercomputer to count vehicle movements in the mornings and evenings, when students did not need it.

This trial resulted in the council buying a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) server. This GPU server processes real time vehicle movement data from up to 200 cameras across the city. The council also added this data to their smart city platform.

As a result of the project, they also worked with DfT’s traffic regulation and national parking platform projects to help them implement digital traffic regulation orders (TROs). They have integrated their TRO platform into the smart city platform. This means they can use it to support real time TRO, parking and moving order data use.

Benefits

Making internal systems more efficient: By integrating their data systems the council could plan their daily activity in real time based on multiple sources of information. This helped them to develop an automated feedback loop from customer accounts to customer enquiries for services such as bin emptying. This reduced the number of calls to the call centre.

Working with other organisations: The funding bid resulted in collaborations with other organisations nationally and internationally. For example, the Smart ways to Antwerp project.

Centralising asset management: The council used the smart city platform to bring together all their core asset management systems. This meant they could use it to help them plan services.

Further information

Hull open data

Sharing roadworks data in local councils

Most local councils use a solution from a supplier to help manage roadworks data. The supplier provides an internal platform for sharing planned street and roadworks. This platform provides better visibility of road network management within the council.

The streetworks team in a local council typically consists of about 5 people. On average there can be up to 20 users accessing the data for every person inputting data into the platform. This shows how significant road network management information is within a local council, beyond the streetworks team.

Benefits

Internal understanding: Road and streetworks data could be easily accessed by a range of internal stakeholders. This provides transparency and improves understanding across the local council.

Sharing data between neighbouring authorities and other public sector bodies

Transport for Greater Manchester work with police to improve road safety

The coronavirus (COVID-19) national lockdown meant there was less congestion in Greater Manchester. This resulted in an increase in speeding with the potential for a rise in collisions.

In response, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) worked with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to identify speeding hotspots and share their speed data. This meant GMP could prioritise enforcement when and where it was needed to deal with the problem.

Benefits

Improving road safety: By sharing their data the council helped GMP understand the problem and organise enforcement more effectively. This lead to potential improvements in road safety.

Sharing data to minimise the impact of essential roadworks in the West Midlands

The Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) Regional Transport Coordination Centre (RTCC) developed an OpsDashboard to help manage the effects of major network improvements taking place across the West Midlands.

These improvements include:

These infrastructure works are essential for long-term growth. However they will effect road users, passengers and businesses. Given the region’s role in the centre of the strategic motorway and rail network, the impact of these works will also be felt more widely across the UK.

The RTCC OpsDashboard provides a real time view of the transport network. It can be accessed online by anyone with permission. The dashboard collects open data shared by other agencies about multiple modes of transport. It uses this information to display a map interface showing planned and unplanned disruptions.

Benefits

Joined-up planning: Over 50 partner organisations used the dashboard to help them plan transport services more effectively, including:

  • transport operators
  • local authorities
  • central government
  • National Highways
  • Network Rail
  • logistics companies

Developing business cases: Organisations used the data in regional transport models to provide evidence to support new schemes and help them make more detailed forecasts.

Improving monitoring and evaluation: The dashboard helped TfWM and their partners understand current transport conditions and the impact of construction works. It also allowed them to forecast the benefits of new schemes.

Connecting national and local traffic management systems to ease disruption and congestion

The Collaborative Traffic Management (CTM) programme connects National Highways’ Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) systems with local council UTMCs. It allows them to easily share data about:

  • journey times
  • incidents
  • events
  • roadworks

It also coordinates variable message signs (VMS) settings and faults.

Through CTM partnership agreements, National Highways and local councils have developed joint strategies such as intelligent diversion routes. These respond to planned and unforeseen events using traffic signals and VMS assets.

The CTM programme is currently operational in the South East and the Yorkshire and North East regions.

Benefits

Building a more resilient network: The programme allowed partners to use dynamic road network management strategies across boundaries. This reduced the impact of incidents, events and congestion on the road network.

Coordinating better responses to events on the network: By sharing data partners could coordinate their responses to events across the network. This meant road users and neighbouring communities were less affected by disruption.

Reducing congestion: CTM resulted in smoother traffic flows across local council and National Highways network boundaries. This meant road users could travel more easily throughout the road network and minimised disruption to communities.

England’s Economic Heartland shares data about 160,000 parking spaces

England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) opened up data about approximately 160,000 parking spaces. This information was held in local council Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) systems. EEH is developing an extension to cover all UTMC data.

Benefits

Scale: By making UTMC data accessible for people across the region, the value of the data is increased.

Improving road user experience: Making parking space and occupancy information available reduced queueing, congestion and pollution.

Opening data for economic benefit

Transport for London’s open data powers over 600 apps

In 2007 Transport for London (TfL) opened up their data to the public. Since then, the authority has released hundreds of data sets. These include public transport, roads, cycling and walking.

TfL publishes important data sets about its public transport network on an open data portal. They also provide a unified application programming interface (API). This provides live feeds to registered developers. The authority offers APIs for approximately 75% of their data sets.

TfL also has an open technology forum. This allows developers to post and answer questions about how to use their data.

Benefits

Improving the experience of transport users: Over 17,000 developers have registered for the unified API. Estimates suggest that over 600 apps use TfL’s open data and that over 40% of Londoners use those apps.

Economic benefits: Deloitte estimated that releasing open data led to reductions in internal costs. They also estimated that it generated annual economic benefits and savings of up to £130m for travellers, London and the authority itself.

Further information

Reducing fuel breakdowns in the Blackwall tunnel

Blackwall Tunnel is one of London’s busiest and most congested roads. In 2017, 36 million journeys were recorded through it. Breakdowns can cause costly delays in the tunnel. Estimates suggest annual delays total 400 hours at a cost of almost £7 million.

A review of breakdown data found that many delays were caused by vehicles running out of petrol. In response, Transport for London (TfL) established a two-way data exchange with a navigation app. This gives drivers the option to re-route to a nearby fuel station before they drive into the tunnel.

Benefits

Reducing the risk of breakdowns: Over a 6-month period, 459 drivers chose to be re-routed to a nearby fuel station. This reduced the risk of breakdowns in the tunnel. The number of breakdowns fell compared to the same period in the previous year.

Further information

TfL works with Waze and Eurotunnel to prevent Blackwall Tunnel closures - TfL

Opening traffic data for sat navs, local councils and the public

National Highways provided access to traffic and operational data through its National Traffic Information Service (NTIS) on the Traffic England website. Subscribers can access incidents, journey times, speeds, flows, variable message sign and matrix signal settings data via a DATEX II feed.

The site also provides roadworks information to help the public plan their journeys.

Benefits

Improving driver experience: Subscribers include satellite navigation companies who use the data to provide information to drivers about incidents and roadworks.

Working with local councils: They use the service to understand how the strategic road network might affect them.

Further information

Traffic Report - National Highways

Helping drivers in Harrogate find a parking space

Several local council share their parking data with third-party parking apps. Parking apps can allow users to pay for parking without having to predict the length of their stay.

For example, Harrogate Borough Council installed 2,000 sensors in parking spaces. They released the real time data from these sensors. Users can find out which parking spaces are available in real time. They can navigate to a free space and pay for parking with one click. The sensor technology ends a parking session when a vehicle drives away.

Benefits

Making savings: Harrogate identified that people paying via apps extend their stays by an average of 6 minutes for on-street or 23 minutes for off-street parking.

Reducing congestion: Letting drivers know which parking spaces are available helped them find a parking space more easily and reduced congestion.

Further information

Harrogate AppyParking - Harrogate Borough Council

London Councils sharing information about electric vehicle charging points

London Councils aim is for a city-wide network of public electric vehicle (EV) charging points. This network would let drivers charge their vehicles when they are at home and away from home.

They worked with Transport for London (TfL) and the London boroughs to release the locations of all EV charging points in London. Users can visit the online map to see the location of all currently available charge points. As part of the Go Ultra Low City Scheme (GULCS), Londoners can also suggest a location for an EV charging point. This information helps London Councils prioritise the installation of new EV charging points.

Benefits

Reducing emissions: Making EV charging locations more visible could encourage people to use EVs. This will lead to reduced emissions.

Further information

Developing an open database of road signs in the Netherlands

In 2020 the Netherlands became the first country to provide a digital overview of its road signs. The project was undertaken by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management working with regional authorities.

The database of road signs includes images of the road signs and the exact location of signs on the network. The system also includes data from temporary signage and is updated in real time. The data is published as open data through the National Road Traffic Database.

Benefits

Better information for road users: Traffic apps and satellite navigation companies have access to this data. This means that sat navs can provide live and accurate information about traffic conditions and speed limits.

Improving safety: Accurate and reliable information can contribute to increased road safety.

Further information

Supporting innovation and the Future of Transport programme

Using Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms to help people travel more flexibly

Department for Transport (DfT) invested £92m in 4 future transport zones (FTZs) to support local leaders and industry to trial new approaches. This is an important way to establish the risks and benefits of new technology and business models.

Some of the initiatives funded by FTZs focus on better capturing and using transport data. This includes launching Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms and data hubs and improving data traffic monitoring.

The Solent Transport FTZ MaaS app will launch in the Spring of 2022. It will be the first multi-city product in the UK.

It will include:

  • a journey planner
  • smart ticketing
  • a payment system
  • rail, ferry and bus connections
  • bike, e-scooter and car rental services

The app will experiment with incentives to encourage travellers to use more sustainable transport. It will include a carbon footprint calculation to help people make choices that benefit the environment.

Benefits

Better policy making: the use of data in projects like the Solent Transport FTZ MaaS app provides local councils with evidence to make well informed decisions about their local areas.

Improving passenger experience: MaaS allows users to travel more flexibly and be better informed about their transport options.

Using predictive modelling to reduce traffic fatalities by 5.5%

Tennessee Highway Patrol analysts pioneered the use of predictive crash software. Their Crash Reduction Analyzing Statistical History (CRASH) programme uses open data to predict when and where accidents are likely to happen. They use information including weather, events taking place nearby and historic crash data. Police officers use this information to make sure they are near collision hotspots.

Benefits

Improving safety: traffic fatalities were reduced by 5.5%.

Reducing response times: Tennessee Highway Patrol recorded a reduction in average response time to crashes.

Using artificial intelligence to reduce congestion in Manchester

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) used Artificial Intelligence (AI) controlled road junctions to optimise traffic networks. Using sensors with in-built AI, high-specification cameras record and classify road users at junctions. The sensors can control traffic signals, allowing them to prioritise different types of road users at different times.

First TfGM trialled the system at one junction. It has now been extended to 3 neighbouring junctions in the Blackfriars area of Salford. They are planning to scale up the project to cover up to 20 junctions in Manchester.

Benefits

Reducing congestion and improving air quality: This initiative has the potential to reduce congestion and queueing. AI-controlled traffic signals respond to events on the road network quicker than existing systems.

Encourage active travel: High specification cameras allow them to identify road users so they can prioritise different modes of transportation. This means that with an increase in cyclists and a decrease in public transport users they can prioritise pedestrians or cyclists.

Using big data to plan and manage multi-modal transport

Transport for London (TfL) understands the way people travel across their network by combining data sets. These data sets cover many kinds of travel, including traffic, public transport and cycling. For example, ticketing data builds a picture of travel patterns across their rail and bus networks.

One of the ways they have used big data is to create multi-modal predictive models for planning and managing their transport network. These models combine data from on-street sensors with data from third-party cameras.

Another is to support the Mayor’s Vision Zero for road safety in London by developing an online London collision map. The map allows the public to see the locations of all collisions on the London road network in the past 15 years.

Benefits

Improving transport user experience: TfL’s models enable them to predict the impact of events on the transport network. This means they can tailor their travel advice, so that customers are aware of events that affect their journeys.

Improving network management: Using these predictive models allows TfL to predict pressure points. This means they can help passengers and road users to make better decisions about how they plan their journeys. It also allows the authority to provide extra capacity within the current network.

Further information

Using open data to understand real journey times on buses

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) worked with Open Innovations to calculate the ‘real journey time’ of bus journeys. They used open data from their TfWM API to do this.

Bus journey times vary by time of day and are heavily influenced by congestion. Calculating the real journey time meant that they could make an informed prediction about when a passenger is likely to arrive at their destination.

They can analyse the data along services or from stop to stop. This information is available to the public on the Real Journey Time website.

TfWM used this data to analyse changes on the transport network and how they impact passengers’ experiences. They have looked at the impact of events such as traffic around the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham and YouTube celebrities visiting the Bullring shopping centre. The closure of the West Midlands Metro meant that people had to use the bus instead. TfMM used real journey time data to understand how passengers were affected by this.

Benefits

Analysing economic impact analysis: TfWM used the data to show how different journey times affect productivity and economic activity in the region.

Improving passenger experience: By analysing journey times, TfWM could identify the ‘worst journeys’ on the transport network. This helped them understand passengers’ views of the transport network and how these influence the way they plan trips. TfWM could use this information to identify possible solutions that make journey times more consistent.

Further information

Making the city accessible for disabled citizens in Rennes

Handimap is a journey planner app for disabled citizens in Rennes. It can design a route suitable for the user’s specific disability. The service does this by combining transport with geographic data.

The app uses information from the city’s open data platform. This platform was built with software developed by Opendatasoft. It contains data sets including real time traffic information and active travel counts.

Benefits

Making the city more accessible: The app allows users to find accessible parking facilities and attractions. It shows wheelchair-friendly pavements and road crossings with sound indicators for people with sight issues.

Further information

Preventing sharp braking at traffic lights in the West Midlands

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) installed and trialled Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA) at 10 junctions on the A45 Coventry Road.

GLOSA predicts traffic light changes and sends optimal approach speeds to drivers. It does this by sending the approach speeds to a smartphone held by a passenger. This allows drivers to adjust their speed to avoid sharp braking.

Benefits

Reducing congestion: A trial showed a reduction of 10 to 14% in stop-starts on the 6 km route. Journey times also fell by 6%.

Supporting the Future of Transport programme: GLOSA is the first use of connected vehicle data. This is essential for autonomous vehicles.

Potential to reduce emissions: Early trials suggest that GLOSA has the potential to reduce emissions from vehicles. There is a particular reduction in emissions from trucks on uphill sections.

Further information

Increasing transparency for social and economic good

Using open data portals to increase local council transparency

Some local councils have created open data platforms. These platforms share a range of data including information about health, social care and transport. Typically open transport data includes:

  • cycling infrastructure
  • electric vehicle (EV) charging points
  • growth in cycling volumes
  • parking and road issues
  • roadworks
  • safety statistics
  • streetlights
  • traffic volumes

Some authorities are expanding their offering to share real time data.

Benefits

Increased transparency: Open data portals provide large amounts of information to residents for free.

Encouraging innovation: Several local authorities think their open data platforms encourage innovation. They believe that the platforms can help stimulate growth in the local council.

Further information

Opening travel time data to encourage cycling in Oxford

Oxfordshire City Council and partners released real time cycling data on OxBike. OxBike is a dashboard of data collected by 60 sensors at cycling hotspots. The dashboard captures:

  • the number of cyclists and other road users travelling at cycling hotspots
  • live travel times for 4 of Oxford’s key commuter corridors
  • a breakdown of vehicles currently used to travel across Oxfordshire
  • current and historic trends of the number of vehicles on Oxford’s streets

Benefits

Encouraging active travel: OxBike will encourage cycling by demonstrating how quick it is to travel by bike.

Further information

Sharing 2012 Olympic Games transport plans to reduce congestion

London made significant investment in transport infrastructure to prepare for the 2012 Olympics. They aimed for 100% of spectators to arrive by public transport, walking or cycling.

Transport for London published their London 2012 transport planning documents to let people know when tube and railway lines and stations would be busy. This helped to reduce peak time transport demand, making sure that people could get to events as well as commute to work.

Benefits

Increasing trust: Sharing transport planning documents gave employers, government and event organisers confidence in the authority and the transport network.

Reducing congestion: Sharing this data helped to reduce regular transport demand by 20% during peak Olympics travel times.

Helping people maintain social distancing with an online tool

The social distancing dashboard displays interactive city maps that show whether it is possible to maintain social distancing in different areas of the city. This is based on a number of factors including the width of pavements and location of bus stops. It covers Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag and other Dutch cities.

The dashboard uses open data from the Basisregistratie Grootschalige Topografie, the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek and OpenStreetMap (OSM). It was developed by the Technical University of Delft and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.

Benefits

Increasing public awareness: The social distancing dashboard aims to raise awareness of social distancing in public spaces. It is especially useful for people in higher risk groups. They may want to avoid areas of the city where maintaining social distancing is more difficult.

Informing policy making: It helps policy makers make planning decisions about coronavirus (COVID-19). For example, in relation to public health. It can also be used by city planners.

Further information

Published 28 March 2023
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