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Traffic management adopts public transport information |
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Bringing together traffic and public transport data
If political coalition has recently been sprung on us, another union has been developing for several years as the worlds of traffic management information and public transport information are brought together in the realm of UTMC data management.
The UTMC common database and protocols have become fundamental to traffic management since the introduction of the Department for Transport’s UTMC initiative in 1997. Leading unitary authority Reading was involved from 2001 as a demonstrator site. One of its goals was to support public transport alongside private traffic. Subsequently it has been decided to bring together all relevant transport information available to the unitary authority within the UTMC common database. One intended benefit was the maximum delivery of transport information to the public giving travellers the best basis for an informed choice of mode. Another was to gain the best available picture of the state of the highways to assist traffic management. For the original demonstrator, rail departure information joined highway and car-park data in the UTMC common database and bus departure information was made available to the public separately on street, but that has all now been brought together under UTMC.
Since 2005 Interglossa has been delivering components of a unified system, as part of Reading’s broad partnership of suppliers. - Summer 2005 – ‘CallYourStop’ voice response system which gives a voice to UTMC data
- Spring 2006 – new ‘PTDB’ bus and rail data objects (static and real-time)
- Summer 2006 – bus and rail timetables available in UTMC common database
- Autumn 2006 – multi-modal journey-time selected comparisons for web delivery
- Summer 2007 – combined bus and connecting rail departures web page for local hospital
- Summer 2007 – area bus departure lists (real-time) by postcode for web delivery
- Spring 2008 – regular input of bus departure information to UTMC common database
- Summer 2008 – area bus departure screens in Hexagon theatre and other civic sites,
- Summer 2009 – bus schematic maps derived from timetable for web site, with real-time departure information as pop-ups
- Summer 2009 – new ‘HBS’ product for delivering web pages from UTMC demonstrated with Zing Digital Media’s DSi media display technology
- Spring 2010 – live real-time bus and rail information available as ‘PTDB’ data objects.
Unified transport data
Bringing this data together evidently allows a unified picture to be presented to transport managers and the travelling public – allowing inter-modal awareness in real time. It allows emergencies to be handled on the basis of broad common information.
It also makes possible the derivation of additional highway information frompublic transport progress. When we looked at multi-modal comparisons in 2006 we realised that the data on journey times then available from SCOOT was only adequate to give estimates of road journey time for a few pre-selected routes. ANPR is now coming in and will deliver more accurate and detailed journey-time data. But more is still needed to give universal multi-modal comparisons. Bus progressdata, if corrected for stop dwell time, could significantly increase the data available; this is being actively considered at present and UTMC database suppliers are already making provision for this.
Channel choices
Travel planning is complex. Most people limit choice by using rules of thumb, or wellknown routes, in order to make the job of planning a journey tractable. It follows that finding the right way to present information and choices (which may be different for different travellers) can increase patronage and encourage modal shift. The interface has to suit traveller and journey. To get it right requires a rich and freely accessible database of transport data. We favour UTMC’s protocols because they support very general forms of access to the underlying data.
Finding the right delivery channel, whether mobile application, static or mobile web, voice response, on-street display or paper timetable, matters too. To reach a broad public a spread of channels is required. Voice response is a useful channel because it reaches a very high proportion of the travelling public, it covers all stops with no additional on-street investment, and it is an alternative to visual channels for those who prefer or require it.
Product offerings
Interglossa’s offerings targeted at the unified UTMC transport data environment are a foundation for monitoring transport in an integrated way and delivering integrated information to the public:
- PTDB – a UTMC common database implementation supporting bus and rail timetables and real-time information
- CallYourStop – a voice response system for UTMC data including bus and rail times and car park state
- HBS – design interface to easily add live UTMC data to web pages of your choice with the web server engine efficiently to deliver them.
For more information
Web: www.glossa.co.uk |
