Mapping Great Britains Traffic Data www'dft'gov'ukmatrix

1
Mapping Great Britains Traffic
Data(www.dft.gov.uk/matrix/)
17th October 2007 IRLOGI GIS Ireland 2007
Conference

• Andrew Smith Nigel Robbins

2
Introductions

• Andrew Smith GB National Traffic Survey
  Manager, DfT
• Nigel Robbins Managing Director, GeoSolveIT

3
Presentation Overview

• Andrew
• What is the Department for Transport
• What is the National Traffic Survey
• Scope of the GIS project key aims and
  objectives
• On-going developments and planned project
  enhancements
• Nigel
• Overview of the technical solution
• Key project issues and solutions
• Project benefits and lessons learnt

4
The jargon!!

• DfT Department for Transport
• AADF Annual Average Daily Flow, an
  estimate of the
• daily volume of traffic passing a given
  point on a major
• road link on any particular day of the
  year
• Traffic traffic volumes (as measured in
  vehicle
• kilometres) are produced by multiplying
  the AADF for a
• given major road link, by the length of
  that link and the
• number of days in that year.

5
About the Department for Transport

• The Departments aim is transport that works for
  everyone. To that end, it works in partnership
  with others to
• tackle congestion
• improve accessibility
• reduce casualties
• respect the environment, and
• support the economy
• Good transport links, for moving people and
  goods, are vital to a successful and growing
  economy. The Department plays a key role in
  meeting these demands by providing the strategic
  framework for the delivery of transport services
  and by planning for future transport needs.

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What is the National Traffic Survey?

• Traffic flows on all links on the major
  road network
• Covers England, Scotland and Wales
• Collected under contract to the Department
• Manual Classified Counts (MCCs)
• Automatic Traffic Counts (ATCs)
• Used to inform statistical publication
• Informs policy decisions
• Provides information to support
  planners/modellers
• Informs decisions on network requirements

7
How the National Traffic Estimates are Made for
Major Roads

• Automatic Traffic Counters
• 160 counters outside London 56 counters in
  London
• Type of road and geographic area
• 365 days a year, 24 hours a day
• 22 vehicles types

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How the National Traffic Estimates are Made for
Major Roads

• Manual Traffic Counts
• 3,500 km of motorways, and 47,000 km of A
  roads
• Around 18,000 major road count sites
• of which, some 5,000 per annum are counted
• Mainly in neutral months to minimize
  seasonal factors
• During weekdays 7am to 7pm
• 11 vehicles types
• Wide coverage by type of road and
  geographical area

9
What has the project achieved?
Public access
Contractor extranet
Search
Map
DfT Admin
Contractor network flow data
www.dft.gov.uk/matrix/
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Public Web Site

• Constructed to be as simple as possible to use
• Home Page
• Simple navigation/search facility to
  download AADF data
• Interactive map, illustrating DfTs major
  road network with
• underlying OS mapping systems for guidance,
  with ability to
• download selected AADF data

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Public Web Site Home Page

• Featuring
• Data availability
• Data definitions
• Methodological Note
• Data updates
• Help menu
• Cautionary notes
• AADF Website

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AADF Web Site Navigation and Search Facility

• AADF data disaggregated by
• Count Point
• Gov Office Region
• Local Authority
• Major road number
• Major road class
• For both AADFs traffic
• AADF Website

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AADF Web Site Interactive GIS Map

• Featuring
• Layers which can be
• switched on/off
• Zoom features
• Selection tool for
• downloading data
• Ability to print off map
• AADF Website

14
Further Developments the Datasets

• Other automatic traffic flows for GB major
  roads
• Congestion monitoring data for major
  inter-urban road network
• Speed limit data using DfT speed limit
  database national road network
• Road condition data
• Traffic data relating to the minor road
  network
• Traffic flow data collected by individual
  Local Authorities

15
Key issues

• Central hosted solution
• Easily scaled but for how many and when?
• Conformance to DfT and wider government
  standards
• Data quality
• Make change happen but also managing it!

16
The technical bits!

• Hosting development, staging and live
• Key technologies
• Development using PRINCE2 and RAD
• OGC WMS server supporting the DfT

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Key Benefits

• Simple OGC web services
• Improved data quality
• Timely data collection
• Reduced enquiry overheads

• Joined-up information chain
• Central and scalable solution
• Common map base
• Capture of key information

• Ease of public access
• Extensible to other DfT uses
• Improved cost control
• Improve contractor management

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Lessons Learned

• The AADF web site can be found at
  www.dft.gov.uk/matrix/
• Generic name for GB road network and
  related data sets
• Data quality and standards are critical,
  requiring data cleaning
• On-line demonstration of web site has
  received positive
• feedback, enabling improvements to be
  captured
• Great potential to expand contents with other
  datasets,
• providing excellent method to combine
  disparate dataset layers

19
Contact Details

• Andrew Smith
• Statistics Roads, Department for Transport
• Telephone [phone]
• Email andrew.smith_at_dft.gov.uk