Page 83 - Linkline Yearbook 2018
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 passive collection solutions (e.g. Mobile Network Data and GPS analysis) are able to determine “normal” routes – identifying what is likely to be a home to work route and what is a-typical, but not an individual’s propensity to change or the purpose of an a-typical route. Short of asking all travellers to register normal journeys and modal shift preferences there is a clear requirement for more granular but non-invasive mechanisms for determining journey purpose and responding to this with tailored options to deliver Mobility-as-a-Service (‘MaaS’).
The optimal solution would result in strategic management of demand across public and private transport. Then, for example, a Dublin-bound driver heading in the M7 into a major traffic hold up on the Longmile Road could be told how much time could be saved by stopping at the Red Cow Park & Ride and taking the Luas; but only if this is appropriate based on the purpose of the journey.
As these systems are developed, their implementation will encounter many impediments around the technology, the data-gathering, the analytics techniques and the communications systems. The biggest challenges are likely to lie in persuading and organising people. Travellers will only listen to messages if they trust the source: if they trust their personal data is being used in an ethical and transparent way and that altering their route will produce the promised benefits. Passenger instructions and communications need to provide consistent messaging which, if acted on, delivers beneficial outcomes – both on an individual basis and for the transport system as a whole – without penalising users of the transport network with seemingly little overall benefit (e.g. camera-enforced average/temporary road speed restrictions). Only in this way can sufficient trust be built in the user base to provide confidence that instructions will be adhered to in order to deliver the aforementioned outcomes.
This in turn requires good coordination between all of Ireland’s transport operators and infrastructure managers to
manage the flows of data around the system, with the tools and relationships to gather data from – and transmit messages via – all the key actors guiding and carrying travellers around our growing transport infrastructure.
As we move from connected to autonomous cars – strengthening technology’s role in deciding vehicles’ routes – we’ll increase our ability to manage traffic flows across the whole network.
Integration and interaction should be broader than operators in a single mode (e.g. road) and should bridge both public and private transport such that, for example, passengers delayed en route to an airport for a flight can be fast-tracked through security scanning and an informed decision made on delaying flight departures.
If we use this data and develop an understanding of its use with the correct methodology, then it will go some way to catching up on the decades of transport planning and infrastructure that we have missed out on. Congestion and delays and sub-standard service needs to be consigned to history and the new ‘Data Dawn’ – helping citizens, transport managers and infrastructure investors to get the best out of our hard-pressed transport networks. At the same time we will help operators and authorities to maximise capacity of their transport networks and to realise cost efficiencies in enhanced management.
Sources: KPMG UK, Digitalist.com, SAP, StreetLightData, The Register, MIT Technology Review.
(Written by Universal Media Agency)
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