Oxfordshire County Council’s research and innovation team, iHub and Alchera Data Technologies, have announced the completion of phase two of its new mobility project, which will reportedly use real-time data to reduce traffic congestion.
The project’s overall aim was to improve the area’s traffic management through data-driven decisions and was conducted in two phases.
In phase one, Alchera conducted a study with control-room users, before fusing floating vehicle data from TomTom with existing under-road counters from CA Traffic. This was done to detect abnormal traffic conditions and help Oxfordshire County Council’s transport team react faster to abnormal road conditions.
Ruth Anderson, future of mobility team leader at Oxfordshire County Council’s iHub, said: “Finding a way to ensure all of Oxfordshire’s transport systems have access to the same data on which to make real-time decisions is critical.
“We can’t possibly hope to build intelligent infrastructure if all the systems are using different data.
“Alchera’s data hub, Alpha, gives us the ability to coordinate all our transport systems’ data needs, ensuring consistent analysis across the board both in real-time and historically to understand the impact of decisions.”
Phase two developed the earlier work and produced a functioning transport data exchange tailored specifically to the needs of public sector data analysis.
It compiled information from BODS, ABODS, local bus companies, traffic sensors, CCTV networks, ANPR cameras and more with the support of a £1m Small Business Research Initiative grant.
Oxfordshire claims to be UK’s first council to include autonomous vehicles in its local transport plan and has reportedly invested £3.5m in hi-tech vehicles and intelligent transport solutions.
