Latest update: 21 April 2023
Transport Data Management

Advances in sensing and collection are producing more and better quality data transport data. Sources include in-vehicle connected devices, smartphones, roadside equipment and other assets, and third party or crowd-sourced data services.

Transport data is generated and collected in many ways – by transport service providers, manual collection, third-party applications and sensors (fixed and mobile).

Transport Authorities need timely, high-quality transport data for decision making to help them plan, operate and maintain transport networks more efficiently. For example: public transport route scheduling; traffic management; real-time event and schedule information; and operating transport hubs such as bus and train stations.

This use case focuses on the data management services that Authorities need and the interfaces to their systems. Some requirements will be similar regardless of the underlying technology used, so the focus as an Authority should be on compiling and, where appropriate, publishing accurate and complete data sets that are of use to services providers and the travelling public.

 

The transport data management service may provide either the foundation for other services or the means to integrate with systems and services outside the direct provision of transport illustrating that transport is a means to an end – the delivery of goods, retail, commuting etc. The Transport Systems Catapult estimated that not making transport data open and available could cost the UK £15bn by 2025. Additionally, duplicating existing data or not fully using existing data sources may cause extra costs for Authorities.

Managing, using, and sharing transport data does however introduce challenges that need to be managed, for example, privacy and security control. As a result, the use of such data is not mature despite the potential financial benefits.

 

CHALLENGES

Internal Challenges

• Authorities often lack the expertise to manage data internally, including creating data management strategies and procedures.
• Limited availability, access to, and integration of transport data – leading to inefficient transport strategies. For example:
  • – Lack of data for smart parking and traffic management schemes
  • – Air quality data to inform the general public or to inform air quality strategies
• Limitations to data sharing and collaboration within Authorities – between different departments or between different Authorities. Siloes need to be bridged, and where appropriate, data sets linked or fused.
• Inefficient management of data collection and processing assets. Late detection and identification of asset deterioration may lead to poor prediction and hence more expensive repairs or even replacement of the asset.
• Reluctance to write off sunk costs in physical sensors makes paying for “data-as-a-service” difficult to justify.

 

External Challenges

• Coverage/reliability of communication networks in some areas can limit real-time data availability.
• Limited social media penetration in some cases/demographics means a lack of end-users able to access data via these means, requiring alternative approaches.

 

Technical/ Commercial Challenges

• Some common protocols, data storage and data sharing approaches exist between Authorities and transport operators. However, these vary and sometimes conflict. It can be challenging to identify and choose the most appropriate specification for a specific application.
• Data that are not available in digital formats are hard to share and catalogue.
• No comprehensive, online transport-related data catalogue in the UK, although activities are underway to address this (The “Finding Transport Data” Service, led by DfT).
• Data security, firewalls and conflicting levels of access are confusing and create technical barriers that limit data exchange.
• Public sector data and data shared by the public tends to be open, but shared in different platforms which hinders linking data, or has quality constraints. Private datasets are not free to access but may be of a higher quality or have elements that are otherwise unobtainable. Contractual barriers may prevent fusing public and private data and then disseminating it.

 

High-level objectives

The Transport Data Management Service will support the following outcomes:

• The DfT’s Future of Mobility principles.
• Improved quality and efficiency of information dissemination helping Authorities make better, and well-informed management decisions.
• Improved road safety due to better planning from data availability and analysis from near misses, accidents and hot spots.
• Influence modal shift and behavioural change to sustainable transport modes and Active Travel.
• Asset management efficiency and hence fiscal savings due to the better maintenance planning from improved information and near ,real-time asset condition and state data.

 

Additional outputs are:

• Improve transport information storage, analysis, exchange and availability for other stakeholders including other Authority departments
• Service improvement for users due to more reliable and timely delivery of good quality information
• Some new revenue sources may be possible from services developed on the back of the improved and enhanced transport data although this is likley to be minimal.
• Real time data services implementation to help manage traffic congestion and network usage, and improve end-user awareness of disruptive events on the network.
• Improved and optimised services for disabled and vulnerable transport users through better information on travel patterns.
• Support integrated transport through fusion of digitalised information.

 

Policies potentially supported by the service

The Transport Data Management Service will support the following policies:

• Data digitalisation
• Asset management
• Road safety
• Land use planning
• Improving air quality and reducing noise
• Decarbonisation & electric vehicle charging
• Modal shift
• Active Travel
• Services for disabled and vulnerable road users
• Mobility on demand and efficient network use

 

Qualitative Benefits

The Transport Data Management Service can support the following benefits:

• Access to high quality information for all road users.
• Improved transport user experience.
• Modal shift from private vehicles.
• Improved productivity due to more informed and optimised journey choices.
• Better network intelligence due to better analytics and reporting, potentially reducing whole life costs of equipment.

 

Quantitative Benefits

The Transport Data Management Service can support the following benefits:

• Less costly asset management and increased longevity of assets.
• Reduced capital spends on owning roadside sensors and maintenance costs.
• More efficient network management due to real-time data availability, e.g. journey time information for all transport modes.
• Increase in road safety, reduction of traffic collisions, accident prevention due to early identification of hot spots and near miss locations.
• Improved traffic collision response time and clearance management time.
• Improvement in air quality and reductions in noise levels.
• Better coordination of incidents and events at a cross-authority and regional level.

 

Figure 2 – The potential impacts of the Transport Data Management Service 

 

 

 

Introduction

This section intends to support the development of plans and specifications by providing the following information:

• Actors: who need to be considered in the development of the system.
• Architecture and Data flows: showing how administrators and users interact and use the system, to help identify and develop the needs and specifications of the system.
• Standards: that are important and how these are used in the context of this use case.
• Possible future developments: in practices and technology that may provide opportunities in the future.

Actors

The key is the interaction between the service and the actors (any user or system that interacts with the service). The following actors need to be considered in the service design:

• Data Manager / Administrator within Authorities – The data manager is responsible for the management of data collection, transfer, fusion, storage, publication, and disposal. They need access to software to generate data, as well as creating digital and data capabilities within their organisations by upskilling their existing staff or recruiting additional, new staff. Legal roles such as Data Controller need to be fulfilled for example if Personal Data is collected (e.g. vehicle registration marks)
• Transport User – These are members of the public or businesses that need transport data to support their interaction with the transport network. Transport users include the emergency services to help their vehicles navigate through the network.
• Data User within local, regional, and central government, as well as sub-national transport bodies – The bodies and Authorities responsible for transport management or local politicians influencing transport policies.
• Transport Operators – Public Transport Operators host and publish their data, although, for busses this will be increasingly part of the Bus Open Data Service. Includes taxi operators and mobility on-demand providers; Non-public transport operators (such as freight and fleet) and other commercial road users.
• Data collection service providers – This includes third party systems who may also own the data they provide (e.g., WAZE, O2, INRIX, Google, TOMTOM, HERE, Citymapper), as well as new service solutions from start-ups providing specific or unique data sets.

The journey of the user through the system is key to and the focus of the description of this Use Case rather than the processes that a Local Authority would follow to develop a transport data management system.

 

Architecture and Data Flows

The transport journey is considered as one journey on a single vehicle – not a trip from A to B which may include more than one mode of transport. Journey planning itself may give multiple journeys and options.

The data flows are illustrated in Figure 2 – Idealised Journey for Surface Transport User and Figure 4 – Idealised Transport Data Management Service Architecture from Data Manager’s perspective.

The data requirements and data flows are tabulated in Figure 3 – Data Requirements for Idealised Journey for Surface Transport User and Figure 5 – Data Requirements for Idealised Data Manager/Administrator Activities.

 

Figure  2– Idealised Journey for Surface Transport User 

 

 

 

Figure 3 – Data Requirements for Idealised Journey for Surface Transport User

Figure 5 – Data Requirements for Idealised Data Manager/Administrator Activities

Interfaces

Interfaces between systems and services will depend on the specific design and the boundaries with other systems and services.

The general principle is that interfaces should be specified to use standards and protocols wherever they are available to support integration.

 

Making the most of data that is available and making the most of your data

Authorities have access to several existing DfT centralised data services for:

• Streetworks and permits for roadworks at Streetmanager which must be used by to:
  apply for street and road work permits
  • – assess permits
  • – notify live works
  • – record inspections
  • – add reinstatements (after work has been completed)
  • – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-and-manage-roadworks . The website enables Authorities to publish and access timetables of streetworks and disruptions with neighbouring Authorities.
  • – Commercial services such as one.network provide a validation and publication service of the data to sat nav companies further adding value.
• Bus location, tariff and bus stop location data is all now centralised in the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) with free to access live bus location data and free tolls for data analysis. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-open-data-service has more guidance. Note that the data is not yet being used for managing bus priority but it is being considered.
  • – DfT has published guidance on how to share Authority Transport Data: (insert URL )
• The emerging “Find Transport Data” service (previously called the National Access Point) will be a catalogue where Authorities and other providers publish a register of their data and how to access it.
  • – https://wearefuturegov.com/case-study/dft-national-access-point

 

Sat Nav companies provide websites for Authorities to correct map errors: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/10271004, https://help.tomtom.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013960619-About-MapShare-reporter, /www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/public-sector-geospatial-agreement/error-reporting-improvements

Other work is underway on centralised services for Parking (The National Parking Platform) and for Digital Traffic Orders.

 

Standards

The European Commission aims to standardise ITS data for the optimal use of road, traffic and travel data. Including defining mechanisms for the exchange and shared use of data between the stakeholders (relevant public Authorities and service providers). More specifically, standards are required which define information and data structures and dictionaries in the field of road, traffic and travel. For example: road traffic event information, operator-initiated actions, road traffic measurements and travel time data. The exchange standards include both centre-to-centre (C2C) and centre-to-roadside communication.

It is important to note that road traffic data is not limited to the systems provided by Authorities and service providers, but is part of many information chains along the user’s journey. There is on-going cooperation of international working groups to align their standards on the development of data exchange for Public Transport, Traffic and Traveller information, and integrated transport information, management and control. There is currently no work in the area of centre-to-roadside communications. However, the following standards are relevant for Data Management Services that are either published or in development.

• Standards for Traffic Management Data Exchange (DATEX II). DATEX II is a long-standing European initiative defining the European Standards for the terminology, encoding and exchange of several forms of traffic management data. The DATEX II website provides guidance, downloadable data models and schema, and toolset support.
• Transport Protocol Experts Group (TPEG) is a format for telematics data. TPEG provides a standardized method for the delivery of traffic and travel information that is language-independent and compact. It uses a variety of ways to reference locations, while the main use is for cars, TPEG is extensible and can be used by many types of applications. TPEG is coordinated and controlled by the Travelers Information Services Association.  (TISA website). The standard contains information on traffic events, traffic flow, fuel, parking, and weather.
  The ISO/TS 21219 series provides the generation 2 (TPEG2) protocol suite for traffic and travel information.
• The National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol (NTCIP). The NTCIP is an industry-wide, standard data communication protocol designed to ensure that the electronic traffic control systems and messaging systems produced by computers and different suppliers are interoperable.

 

Possible Future Developments

Ongoing developments to technology will change the way that users receive and access information and extend the data sources available to Authorities for monitoring and analysing their network.

The transport data management service is the foundation of and enabler for other smart street services. Future development will be driven by domain and mode specific developments, such as new centralised services which will influence an Authority’s approach to access and use data across the transport network. As more data sources become available and more service providers use the data, and the value the data management service brings will increase.

Existing sensors such as loops will continue to deliver much real-time data. While conventional ITS systems include authority controlled sub-systems (roadside equipment, traffic control centres), a central focus of current development is gathering information from road vehicles, both sensor-derived, real-time data from vehicles themselves and data available from smartphones and other personal devices travellers carry with them.

Many commercial companies and vehicle makers already offer services including feeds of connected vehicle data ranging from journey times to pothole reporting and parking availability.

Mobile location data is generated, collected, and utilised by organisations like Google to enhance their services (e.g., mapping and navigation, search, etc.).

Lower resolution mobile information can be collected based on cell phone tower connections, and from Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth connections – a process known as “sniffing”. This is used in locations such as Newcastle thorough the city’s Wi-Fi network and in commercial data feeds from mobile operators and data companies.

When considering the use of data sources, Authorities should consider:

• Using centralised services such as BODS wherever possible as they are well supported and often free.
• Making use of existing platforms for new deployments in different areas:
  • – Rather than rolling out a dedicated platform for each use case, Authorities should build off existing networks to support multiple applications and enable data re-use.
• Adopting standards to give more freedom in choosing the appropriate vendors according to their needs
  • – For example: several services such as BODS reference NeTex1 (CEN/TS 16614-3:2015) are available for fares data.
  • – Ensuring data is exchanged and published to standards wherever possible to maximise the potential for consumption of the published data.
  • – Promoting access to ‘open’ data in standard formats. This allows synergies and integration of the data in other services.
  • – Providing opportunities for developers to trial new service to continue to learn and develop their capability to engage is this arena.
• Developing and making available high-quality data that makes it easy for service providers to find and use, so making it available to the public
  • – Focusing on service quality and service levels so data feeds can be relied upon and can be dependable.
  • – Using the “Find Transport Data” service when it becomes available.
• Developing a cloud-first strategy for data storage
  • – Cloud technology tends to be more flexible and scaleable.
  • – Reduces the costs of maintenance and security of using owned servers. infrastructure