Esri UK - Annual Conference 2016 Transport for london

Editor's Notes

1. Hello, my name is Tom Wooldridge and I am a GIS Specialist in Road Space Management Department at Transport for London I’m going to give you an overview today of a mobile GIS trial we have been carrying out over the past 6 months. The aim of the trial was to give our traffic engineers a mobile mapping solution, so they could have spatial data at their finger tips when out on site visits.
2. When most people think of Transport for London they think about the tube, buses or perhaps the cycle hire service. The road network is not something that immediately springs to mind. But without an efficiently run and managed road network, London could grind to a halt. We have a few statistics here on the slide about about the road network. So from Left to right, 18 million trips take place on the road every day 80% of all trips in London take place on the road network Over 90% of freight in the capital is transported on the roads. And London Buses carries 6 and a half million people a day on London’s roads. At TfL we maintain and manage all of London 6000+ traffic lights and manage 580km of the core road network. This is only about 4% of the overall network but it carries 30% or nearly 1/3rd of London’s road traffic. It’s vital that we keep this flowing well.
3. So, what are some of the key issues we face when managing this network. Apart from day to day road works, accidents, vehicle breakdowns of events taking place in London we have a large amount of schemes taking place across the network. Some of these schemes are aimed at improving and enhancing the roads. The ambitious Road Modernisation Plan which is taking place over the next 15 years includes 100’s of different schemes across London. One of these is the Cycle super highways. These dedicated cycle lanes aimed at making cycling more accessible and safer can have a large impact on the available road space for road traffic In the example here we can see a section of road in Southwark which was previously 4 lanes (2 northbound and 2 southbound) has now been reduced to 1 lane in either direction and the same for cyclist as well. It’s the job of our traffic engineers to make sure that they are getting the most effective movement of traffic out of these two lanes. To make sure traffic lights are correctly phased and that nothing in the available road space will cause and obstructions to the free flowing of traffic. With the increasing demand for road space, we have to make sure that we are using the available space effectively and GIS is vital in helping our engineers access the data they need to do this.
4. Here’s another example of a scheme in the road modernisation plan. The redesign of Euston Circus in central London. Euston circus is a major junction between Euston Road and Tottenham court road. It has both Warren street and Euston Square underground stations in the area and many bus route pass through here. The aims of the redesign were: To improve the environment for all users of the junction. This includes pedestrians and cyclists moving through the area. It included wider pavements and more trees to create a nicer environment. Signal modernisation to make the most of the most recent technology in traffic management and simplification of traffic movements to make it safer for cyclists and clearer for drivers/ During the planning of these schemes and the monitoring during building and assessment of the scheme afterwards regular site visits by our engineers are needed. Having the correct relevant information is essential and having maps and plans of the area would really benefit our engineers..
5. So what did we do for our engineers in the mobile GIS trial? A typical site visit at the moment may involve them taking a small laptop, telephone, camera and printed map and plans of related site information. The gentleman on the left in the slide would be a fairly typical site visit for an engineer looking at the timings of traffic lights at a junction. We wanted to simplify this as much as possible. Cut down on the amount of gear and paperwork they would have to carry with them and make their life easier. So we wanted to provide them with a tablet to give them all the mapping they needed and the ability to take observations and photos.
6. The main aims of the trial were to: Giving Engineers the power to view maps and spatial data out on the street. Rather than having to print off maps or prepare site information before a site visit User having the ability to Record location and observations on site. This might be a photo or a note about the traffic flow at a particular junction or evidence of a road layout not working effectively. Allow for more flexible working. Again this is having the ability to query any dataset they need, and not having to rely on pre-prepared information or a colleague back in the office. Trial low cost tablets and off the shelf software and data services. So we wanted to see if tablets not designed for rugged outdoor use would be suitable for out engineers. We also wanted to see how ESRI’s collector app would be suitable without having to build any expensive custom made data collection tools. We also wanted this solution to be able to integrate into our internal GIS infrastructure we call GISaaS. We have recently taken most of our spatial data and centralised the storage of it in an Oracle database. And we serve all our data out to internal applications through ArcGIS server and Portal. So we wanted whatever mobile solution we were going to implement to be able to easily fit into this architecture. How did we carry out the trial? We purchased 5 android tablets with 4G data connections and padded cases with keyboard. We downloaded the Collector App which is free to use and created some maps to share with the app using out ArcGIS Online account. We used AGOL as it is close to our internal GISaaS system so we could integrate the two if the trial was successful. We then gave the tablets to our engineers and told them to go and start using them to view maps and capture the information they needed.
7. I’m going to demonstrate the two apps we used now with a couple of short videos. Here we have the collector app. Produced by ESRI and downloaded through the Play store on the android tablet. We created a map for display of all relevant traffic data. The app allows the user to select any feature displayed on the screen and bring up all the relevant attribute data. For the traffic light sites we also attached links to detailed site layout diagrams as pdf’s. These contain all the information on location of cabling and the timing phases of the lights so are an important source of data for the engineers. In the past they may have printed out large copies of these for site visits. We can also add in other data through the layers list. We can add in the bus routes for example. And query this layer to see what bus routes run up the road in that location. Finally we wanted our engineers to be able to capture observations at site. So if we click on collect feature and zoom into the map. We can select new feature and add a site name and comment. Attach a photo if required. Then click on the map to place the pin. Once you click update the site is saved and can be viewed later on the base map.
8. Here we created and app using the Web app builder wizard in ArcGIS online. This was a very simple to use wizard and allowed us to customise the map interface and add in tools for a specific purpose. In this example we set up tool to allow the engineer to locate a point on the map. They could then set up a buffer of a certain distance around that point and query any feature that was within that buffer. Bringing back information on how far away it is and any relevant site information. This was really useful if an engineer went out to a junction and wanted to know where the nearest other junction or traffic sensor was to that location. This may be needed in order to coordinate the timing of junctions. Using the map they could easily find this information. And if they needed had the ability to download the results into a csv file that they could open in excel back in the office.
9. So how did the engineers use the devices. One use was for Bus reliability schemes in London: Bus reliability Schemes - Engineers walked along sections of bus routes to check traffic flow and look for ways to improve running of buses along that section of road. Making sure there are no obstructions. Engineers note observations about how they could redesign or make changes along the route to aid flow for buses Traditionally, visits include printing maps of route and noting observation and taking photos for evidence then writing up a standard report when back at the office. The report involved transcribing details from notes and map into spreadsheet and could be time consuming taking 1 or 2 hours of time back in the office. The mobile device and collector app enabled the engineer to record observation directly in the format needed. Observations could be viewed on the map back in the office and exported into a spreadsheet to be added directly to the report. This saved considerable time in the office writing up the reports.
10. Another example how they have been used is in the assessment of a junction after an improvement scheme has taken place. The Traffic engineers need to spend time at the junction to make sure that the new layout is working as expected. They will check the timing of the lights to make sure that traffic isn’t queuing on a particular arm of the junction and generally make sure that the road markings and visibility of signs is correct. Having the tablets enabled the engineer to capture all the relevant information easily. Adding notes and photos so that back in the office they could easily carry our there junction review and add any supporting documents that they needed. Again with the previous example the write up time of reports was easier and the ability to view the Site layout diagrams at site helped the engineer on the visit. I hope those two examples show how the tablets were used effectively to capture information at site.
11. A little bit about the results and feedback we received from the trial so far. We gathered feedback in a couple of ways. We held sessions where we got all the engineers together and discussed use of the devices and mapping. It was good to have these discussions early on in the trial so we could change anything in the mapping if needed. We also sent out a user survey to get the users to rate the apps and devices in terms of how easy they were to use and how useful they were in carrying out their work. Some general feedback on the tablets and software was that: Easy and intuitive to use. They found it easy to get up and running with the tablets when out on a site visit. It was simple to take the tablet out and open up the app. The screen was bright enough for use outside and the 4g data connection worked with no problems to give them data and mapping all the time. It was easy to find the information they needed in both the collector app and the custom made app. The interface is simple and with minimum training they could find how to interrogate features and capture new information. The base mapping was good and provided the correct level of detail needed. We also identified some clear business benefits in the feedback and discussions. Several engineers gave us evidence that it was saving them time back in the office in writing up reports and collating data. The ability to accomplish tasks independently was also mentioned. Not having to call back to somebody in the office to get them to look something up in the map was a big benefit and saved time at site and in the office. And being more flexible when on site visits. Not having to prepare so much data beforehand was a benefit. The tablet gave them the ability to query and information they might think of.
12. I’m going to conclude with a few points to sum up the trial and give a few tips for anyone in a similar position thinking of using this technology. We provided a small group of our engineers tablets with ESRI collector app installed. These were fairly cheap tablets and the collector app was free so the outlay for us was low. We published some maps using ArcGIS online to view any data relating to the road network and trialled out base mapping services for ordnance survey data. We also made sure that the solution we were testing would integrate into our current GISaaS infrastructure and wouldn’t require any additional major costs or changes to the system architecture. From the trial we have identified some clear business benefits. Consolidating the equipment needed for a site visit into one single tablet. The time efficiencies in documentation. And The ability to work independently. This is all great evidence for us to build a business case to deploy the technology on a more permanent basis to our engineers. I’d also like to add how relatively easy it was to deploy all of this and set up. If you have an ArcGIS Online account and a tablet or smartphone you can install the collector app and start viewing or editing data. I would really recommend that you give it a go, it’s easier than you might think. Thank you for your time.