Highways Asset Management in Birmingham

Teresa Jolley, Creative Director, DEFT153 Ltd

London Technical Advisers Group

17 March 2017

Delivering Efficiency for Transport, for the 153 local authorities in England

• Formerly West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, then Centro

• Now a devolved Sub-Regional Transport Body

• Scope increased from Public Transport to include Roads and Highways

• We’re getting a Midlands Mayor in May 2017

10 year logistical nightmare.....

• High Speed 2, (HS2) Phase 1: with significant rail, local road and motorway interfaces and diversion works

• Delivery of the Government’s Road Investment Strategy periods 1 and 2 (RIS1 and 2) running to 2021 and 2026 respectively, being delivered by Highways England

• Network Rail’s investment in a number of capacity upgrades on the network around Birmingham

• West Midland’s Combined Authority’s own investment in HS2 connectivity, Midland Metro, and local transport

• Investment in major maintenance and utilities works• Major development in Birmingham City Centre and other locations such

as Cannock

Big risks if not co-ordinated well...

• Congestion• Delays• Negative impact / costs to businesses, local

economy and tourism• Blue light services getting through – risk to life• Angry/frustrated travellers• Time spent dealing with complaints instead of

work

Share, publish and use open data between agencies and the public....

• Connect and optimise Urban Traffic Monitoring and Control systems across local authorities and with Highways England

• Optimise construction planning and scheduling in and between partners

• Drive joined-up public information through multiple communication channels

• Support LEP priorities incl. economic growth by encouraging SME’s and universities to help solve challenges

Partners:

Projects:•Birmingham in Real Time (BiRT)• Big Data Corridor

SME’s:

Innovation Engine

SMESME

SME

SME’s

Transport Incubator, iCentrum

Challenges

Funders:

• Engage SME’s

• Evidence collaboration

• Innovate

Transport organisations  

• Support economic growth

• Encourage Innovation

Funding bodies

wanting to:

+

-Events-Training-Networking-Collaboration-Media support-Workshops

SME’s, challenges, datahub, national networks

Facilitation of national, open, collaborative UK-wide standards for highways data (HighwaysAPI)Regional prototype in West Midlands

Venue, support

SME

Towards a Centre of Excellence for Highways and Transport Innovation in West Midlands

Plus you and others.....

#brumdatahackRecap, Results, Resolutions

Teresa Jolley, Creative Director, DEFT153 Ltd

• Have live traffic flow and journey time data across Birmingham City council at 5 minute intervals, based on Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) data, live car parking data and automatic detection of traffic incidents. 

• Want to publish openly, and build on work already done on open standards through European funded projects (Opticities, Open Transport Net). 

• Need to understand priorities for use and application of this data, to plan evolution of open source platform, and prioritise what data is published.

• Have access to public transport information, working in partnership with the public transport operators. 

• Want to understand impacts on the road network during incidents, scheduled maintenance and HS2 construction work. Use this to help encourage modal shift. 

• Need to bring together datasets to estimate journey time impacts to develop targeted communication to the network users.

• Have detailed plans of vehicle movements during the construction phase of HS2. 

• Want to understand what other public or private projects may impact the road network that HS2 must take account of, for example – tram extension, motorway upgrades. 

• Need to find out what data sets are useful to share to reach HS2’s goals and how the results can be presented visually. 

We asked organisations to donate their datasets and expertise...

http://deft153.com/birmingham-highways-data-challenge-2016/datasets/

5 prototype solutions1. Birmingham City Open Data

Under Threat 2. HS2 HGV Traffic Heat Map3. Brake-Thru4. A Breath of Fresh Air5. Birmingham Bus Tracker

http://deft153.com/birmingham-highways-data-challenge-2016/hack-teams/

• Take the data into universities, with a masterclass approach to help students connect with real life challenges, and identify skillsets (e.g. developers) to work with industry on future collaborations.

• Create a regional hub for West Midlands data and open, collaborative working, where individuals and organisations (universities, SME’s, corporates, professional institutions) can access the data and learn skills in data visualisation, coding and analysis and collaborate to solve the region’s key transport challenges.

• Prototype the basis for a national (UK wide) ongoing sustainable model for the exchange of highways data (HighwaysAPI), and establish foundations for its shared public / private / community not-for-profit management and direction.

Next steps...

Data Discovery Centre

Value of accurate, standardised Highways asset and inventory data

• Key enabler for V2V / V2i / CAV’s / MaaS• Robust evidence-base for additional £ funding• Improve efficiency of gritting / inspection routes• Feeds journey route planning apps and

services. More accurate data makes for better more accurate, reliable, informed journeys

• This in turn reduces risk of violence and abuse to highway workers – HTMA safety campaign

• Improve public transport routes and journeys

Single open resource for Highways Asset Inventory and Condition data...?

Can Open Street Map Deliver?• Worldwide coverage• Open, free and editable by all• Uses latitude / longitude geo-referencing• Updated instantly• Engages community groups• One single searchable database• Powers many routing apps, location services• ...Volunteers / incomplete / what use for us?

How to find stuff / know what’s there...

• Tagging and classification definitions in a ‘wiki’– Keys - wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway

• Key:lanes• Key:traffic_calming• Key:turn• Key:crossing• Key:maxspeed

– Information wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Restrictions

• Lanes• Bus_stop• Bicycle• Road_signs_in_the_United_Kingdom

How to see stuff on a map....Use: overpass-turbo.eu

2. The Wizard is the simplest way to search content on Open Street Map (OSM)

Highway=bus_stop

4. Click build and run query

3. Enter your search term

1. Find the location you want to view

(around Birmingham) railway:proposed

highway:secondary

highway:bus_stop

highway:traffic_signals

Monitoring=traffic

Open data releases via Amey (PFI contract Birmingham City Council)

Online routing tools / machines for business, freight and personal use

Highways asset and condition data is crucial for accuracy of routing tools

Summary• Share highways asset condition and inventory

data in multiple ways, including Open Street Map (lat/long georeferenced)

• Accuracy and availability of data improves by making it open

• Engage colleagues in other teams, companies public to contribute to asset inventory / condition data capture

• Open resource of highways data in OSM fuels SME’s and local economy

Action steps• Identify people in your teams, GIS / IT, suppliers,

Open Street Map, uni’s, SME’s, who get this and help them collaborate to make this happen

• Expose yourself to new thinking from Catapults (Transport Systems / Future Cities / Digital)

• Act, don’t wait. Small steps are good. Make change happen.

• Prioritise according to your needs and those of others

• Learn and do stuff yourself. Make time!

teresa.jolley@deft153.comMobile: 07835 219864Twitter: @teresacjolleyWeb: deft153.com