Department For Transport
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 councils 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 councils 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 universitys 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 DfTs 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
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