A data project which gathered and analysed traffic and cycling statistics from local authorities across England to help understand transport changes due to Covid-19 restrictions has won the Project of the Year Award from ITS (UK).

The Transport Technology Forum, working with Arup and White Willow Consulting, supported the Department for Transport in understanding how lockdown had impacted traffic, and continued to supply vital information as stay-at-home restrictions were eased.

Although the DfT is well informed about traffic on the Strategic Road Network through Highways England, it had had limited visibility on other roads with much of the data being held locally. The judges were impressed that this project demonstrated how the industry can come together, and underlined how the TTF can coordinate a collaborative front with Local Authorities and commercial data suppliers to collect, process and visualise over 16 million travel movements during the lockdown period and beyond.

“This work represents the first time that anyone has ever brought together these datasets from around the country to create a more complete picture of the transport network,” explained Tim Gammons, Intelligent Mobility Lead at Arup. “As the data pipeline continues to evolve, it will enable the TTF to improve scalability across a larger number of Local Authorities as we hope to increase national coverage to enrich the UK transport picture and help stabilise transport operations, services and infrastructure.”

The TTF has been publishing weekly summaries of the datasets.

“It was extraordinary how quickly everyone pulled together to share data,” added Andy Graham of White Willow Consulting who along with DfT, co-ordinated much of the early data gathering.  “I must also thank ITS (UK) and its members for their contribution, who stepped up quickly to facilitate the transfer of data.”

The ITS (UK) Awards were held online and hosted by ITS (UK) President Steve Norris.

Watch the winning moment here: