Birmingham Highways Data Challenge

#brumdatahack

The first Birmingham Highways Data Challenge, on 25th and 26th November 2016, brought together local authorities, data publishers, data users, SME’s, research organisations, government departments and large businesses around shared data challenges to facilitate creation of innovative, practical solutions for transport services.

Presentation to Department for Transport in January 2017 sharing what we did, what we learnt and proposed next steps:

Organised by DEFT153 Ltd and delivered in collaboration with ITS (UK) and ODI Birmingham, it was hosted at the Innovation Birmingham campus with support from the Innovation Engine project.

Compered by Nic Cary, Head of Digital Transformation and Open Data at the Department for Transport, the event explored three key Birmingham-based data challenges:

• Birmingham City Council – visualisation challenge around conveying the operational and strategic information to planners, senior managers and operational staff.
• HS2 – understanding the infrastructure and construction schemes developed by different organisations (public and private sector) that will impact each other. e.g. Highways England, Local Authorities, Jaguar Land Rover
• Transport for West Midlands – using this information and seeing the impact on other modes of transport and to encourage behaviour change, where there is an operational or construction impact how can we use the data to encourage people to make different choices

ITS (UK) explored a UK perspective to these regional challenges, set in the context of Mobility as a Service. Through the shared morning plenary session, and the dedicated ITS(UK) afternoon seminar, ITS (UK) members explored how Mobility as a Service fits into future ITS (UK) activities.

Datasets were made available for the hack from HS2, Highways England, Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Combined Authority, West Midlands Fire Service, roadworks.org, transportapi, GEOmii, Mott MacDonald, Open Street Map and Amey. Many of these datasets have also been pledged for future use in the region.

Expertise in working with these datasets was on hand throughout the event:

• Birmingham City Council – Andy Radford: UTMC and Road Safety data
• HS2 – Monica Howat, Information Strategy Manager; Jonathan Brown, Muniba Saleem, Tom Winslow and Andrew Gaitskill
• Highways England – Peter Radford and Ivan Wells
• Department for Transport – Katherine Attwood
• roadworks.org – Shane O’Neill, Chairman, Elgin
• GEOmii – Martin De Heaver
• West Midlands Combined Authority – Glyn Simpson, Systems Development Manager
• West Midlands Fire Service – Jason Davies
• TransportAPI – Jonathan Raper, CEO, TransportAPI
• Mott MacDonald – Michael Montgomery
• Open Street Map (Mappa Mercia) – Brian Prangle
• Amey – Huw Dumpleton