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By viv, 26 January, 2012 8:00 am

In September 2011, GeoVation challenge winner’s liftshare began development of ‘myPTP- A Travel Plan Just for Me’; an innovative web-based tool, designed to provide personalised travel plans to individuals at a fraction of the current time and cost.

liftshare’s myPTP Project Manager, Katie Lumley, gives us a most up-to-date progress report on how the tool has been shaping up over the last 5 months:

Since September 2011, the liftshare project team have been working hard to develop and refine one of our most exciting projects – myPTP – funded through GeoVation and the Ideas in Transit project.  myPTP will uniquely combine public transport, walking, cycling, and car-share options for individual journeys, and have the potential to help any organisation or community effectively deliver personalised travel plans (PTPs) at a fraction of the current time and cost associated with traditional approaches.

myPTP encourages and enables users to make informed choices about the way they travel.

Development began with design, before working to build, test, and refine the new and innovative web-based tool. During November, our biggest hurdle; accessing data for all modes of transport (walk, cycle, car-share, bus and train) across the UK, was overcome, and work to integrate data for all transport options then began in December.

Users will input individual’s journey information and in return will receive clear information on all transport options available to them, including maps, local provision options such as community transport, and any incentives the organisation has put in place to change their travel behaviour e.g. a week’s free bus pass. Ongoing communication is then possible to monitor modal shift and follow up changes in provision etc. Below is a sneak-preview of the online myPTP results:

Over 38 organisations have already expressed interest in using myPTP to deliver PTPs to individuals, and of those three organisations have been chosen to pilot the tool this February. These initial tests will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of West of England, through the Ideas in Transit project, and will help us to evaluate the usefulness and usability of myPTP from an end-user point of view (that’s me and you!), as well as assess its impact ongoing on travel behaviours. We are looking forward to hearing feedback from the test pilots so we can keep innovating and refining myPTP to ensure it is useful and effective for all.

We are very excited with the progress of myPTP so far; both internal development of the tool itself, as well as its seeming ability to appeal and meet individuals, organisations, and transport operator needs. If you would like to:

• Help individuals make informed smarter choices about their mode of travel, as well as improve accessibility.
• Better understand transport patterns of your organisation, to increase efficiency and save time and cost.
• Help Local Authorities determine shortfalls in provision and help local transport operators determine what services will best satisfy demand.
• Have on-going communication with individuals about their travel options to achieve real modal shift, and to relay any possible changes in provision.

myPTP could be your solution. For more information please feel free to contact me, Katie Lumley, on: (01953) 451166 or katie@liftshare.com.

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By viv, 22 September, 2011 8:00 am

Did you know that today is World Carfree day and an opportunity to leave the car at home and walk, take a bus, train or cycle? All this can help to highlight congestion on our roads, pollution from exhaust fumes and the threat of dangerous climate change caused by cars.

Some of the winners of our‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge have some great ideas and tools for alternative ways to travel.

If you’re cycling,  Cyclestreets have a great journey planner.  Their website and mobile apps use OS Street View® map data from the OS OpenData™ datasets as well as  OpenStreetMap options for route planning.

Public interest in the London Cycle Map Campaign is growing with nearly 1500 signatures but they need 100,000 signatures in order for a petition to be debated in the House of Commons. So if you think Simon Parker’s London ‘Tube Map’ for cyclist is  a great idea  – sign the petition now!

Mission:Explore are working closely with Sustrans and Arla to create challenges and activities called ‘missions’ along parts of the cycle network to encourage families and new users to get out and cycle on the National Cycle Network

If you have problems travelling on public transport, why not report it on FixMyTransport a site for public transport users to report problems and get them fixed!

AccessAdvisr, another of our winners are busy building their proof of concept for a new website and smartphone app that intends to improve the quality and richness of information about accessible transport networks.

And if you really need to take the car, have you heard about liftshare week (3^rd – 7^th October 2011)?  liftshare Week is the UK-wide event which aims to encourage more people to discover the benefits of car-sharing.

What maps or apps do you use to help you to leave the car at home and plan your cycle, walk or journey by public transport?

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By viv, 14 September, 2011 8:00 am

Have you heard about liftshare week?  It’s being organised by liftshare, one the winners of our ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge. Find out more about it and also what’s happening with myPTP below:

The countdown is now on to liftshare Week 2011 (3^rd – 7^th October 2011). liftshare Week is the UK-wide event which aims to encourage more people to discover the benefits of car-sharing.  Awareness of car-sharing is at its height during liftshare week and more people than ever are registering to share their journeys, so there is no better time to give it a try.    This year we’re incentivising individuals to give car-sharing a try, by reminding them that drivers in the 1980’s will only have been paying 37 pence per litre for petrol!!  The only way you can get yourself such a great price on petrol these days is by splitting your petrol costs with other people.  Share your commute with just one other person, and you will be leaving your car at home 2 weeks out of every four – typically saving yourself about £800 a year.  A persuasive argument we hope you’ll agree!  Individuals can register for free at www.liftshare.com and why not tell your friends and family members too?  The more car-sharers we’ve got, the better chance everyone’s got of finding their ideal matches.

For Businesses and Communities who have their own car-share schemes, there is no better time to do some promotion and capitalise on the heightened awareness. We’re expecting more car-sharers to join in this year than ever before, so taking part will do wonders for your travel plan targets.   Organisations already working with liftshare should already be well under way with their preparation and lots of promotional materials have already been made available.  If  you don’t have your own car-share scheme you can take a look at http://www.liftshare.com/business/liftshareweek.asp#chap3 where you can downloads lots of freebies to get your staff car-sharing.  Alternatively visit www.liftshare.com/business or give us a call on 01953 451166 to find out how you can get involved.

In other news…… myPTP is also in full swing and our developers have been working hard.  We’ve been talking to lots of organisations to ensure we’ve got a spot-on understanding of what their Travel Survey requirements are, which has proved really useful in helping us to hone our ideas into an exciting new tool.  More on this to come…

Louise Boom

liftshare