An introduction to highways asset management activities happening in Birmingham and the West Midlands, presented at the London Technical Advisers Group conference 17 March 2017.

1. 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

4. • 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

5. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Partners:
Projects:
•Birmingham in
Real Time (BiRT)
• Big Data Corridor
SME’s:
Innovation Engine
SME
SME
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.....

11. #brumdatahack
Recap, Results, Resolutions
Teresa Jolley, Creative
Director, DEFT153 Ltd

12. • 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.

13. • 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.

14. • 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.

15. We asked organisations to donate
their datasets and expertise...
http://deft153.com/birmingham-highways-data-challenge-2016/datasets/

16. 5 prototype solutions
1. Birmingham City Open Data
Under Threat
2. HS2 HGV Traffic Heat Map
3. Brake-Thru
4. A Breath of Fresh Air
5. Birmingham Bus Tracker
http://deft153.com/birmingham-highways-data-challenge-2016/hack-teams/

17. • 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...

18. Data Discovery Centre

20. 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

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

22. 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?

23. 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

25. 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

26. (around Birmingham) railway:proposed

27. highway:secondary

28. highway:bus_stop

29. highway:traffic_signals

30. Monitoring=traffic

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

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

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

35. 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

36. 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!

37. teresa.jolley@deft153.com
Mobile: 07835 219864
Twitter: @teresacjolley
Web: deft153.com