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By viv, 16 August, 2011 8:00 am

As you know, at GeoVation we like to run challenges and in June we told you about our colleague Andy’s cycling challenge from Land’s End to John O’Groats (LEJOG). Find out how he got on below….

Eight of us set off from Lands End at 8.30 on Monday 11 July looking to complete the LEJOG challenge in seven days, averaging near 130 miles per day. We started from Lands End as there are supposed to be prevailing winds,….however this was not the case! We encountered five days of head/cross winds and only one day where a tail wind helped us.  I had planned the route using Bike hike, an application which has been developed using the OS OpenSpace API. We planned to stop and meet our support crew for refreshments every 30 miles or so, and they did not let us down on any occasion. We had a great array of, sarnies, pasties, pasta, rice and other goodies.

Day 1 Still and sunny conditions, ideal! We aimed to cross Dartmoor as part of our journey and this was a great experience, overcast conditions meant that the climb onto the moor was easier than anticipated. What did dampen our spirits was the 16% climb after 125 miles of cycling nearing Exeter.

Day 2 started a bit wet, but soon cleared up. Unfortunately a stiff northerly wind battered us all day into Hereford. The Severn crossing was the highlight as we felt we were really making progress as we made our way into Wales and up the Wye Valley.

Day 3, and the sun came out….but the northerly wind still blew, we agreed to keep off the infamous A49 until we reached Whitchurch. All the guys were very focused and got their heads down, not much banter was heard. Due to the wind, we arrived into Wigan after the rush hour traffic had subsided, which was a bonus.

Day 4. We had to navigate through the northwest during morning rush hour. This was to be our shortest day at 118 miles, but an unannounced closed road north of Garstang changed that. The 15 km climb out of Kendal on the A6 was a real treat, but the descent was harder work than it should have been due the wind. A missed turn out of Carlisle to Gretna meant a few unnecessary miles were added to our day.

Day 5 At last, a tail wind! We rode parallel to the M74 until Moffat, a gradual climb the whole way, but were averaging 18mph. The 11 km Devil’s Beef Tub climb awaited us at Moffat but spun up there nice and easy. We encountered our first set of mosquitoes and soon discovered that they are unable to keep up with you above 17 mph. We tore into Edinburgh touching 25 mph and got blown across the Forth Road Bridge. Looking back, this was the highlight of the trip for us all. Mentally some of thought we were nearly there….but Scotland is a big place!

Day 6 Wet, wet, wet….and windy! We used the General Wade’s Military Road along the A9 and for 11 miles the cycle path was in a desperate state, but we only suffered one puncture. It rained so hard that we had to take shelter under a petrol station canopy for half an hour. A few miles out of Aviemore we were metres behind a head on collision involving two cars on wet roads. Evasive action was required on our parts and we all bailed out down a grass bank to avoid flying debris. We were delayed for about an hour whilst all the emergency services arrived.

Day 7 Again the rain came down in stair rods…horizontal stair rods. We crossed the Cromarty Firth and saw our first sign for John o’Groats….only 85 miles to go! Lance Armstrong was in the area staying at Skibo Castle. We tweeted him to see if he would like to join us but got no luck. The rain cleared but remained cold as we entered Wick, only 17 miles to go. We organised a peloton, where the front man stayed in front for twenty pedal revolutions before moving the back. The adrenalin of nearly finishing meant we were able to barrel along at 20 mph. We arrived at John O’Groats just on 7 pm all relieved the challenge was finished. We got the photos taken, bikes in the van and back to Wick for a curry and beer(s).  We had cycled 899.25 miles in seven days, had three near misses with cars, 5 punctures, a broken spoke, creaked wheel bearing, a shredded rear tyre, 5 days of head wind and two days of rain. In hindsight, we should have started in John O’Groats and gone south, after all, it is downhill…..and yes, one of the guys cycled round the car park until he had reached 900 miles!
Andrew Hanley

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By viv, 5 August, 2011 9:26 am

mySociety, one of our  ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge winners, have been working on their new website. Below you can find out more about how it’s being developed.

In the months since winning our share of the GeoVation award, the FixMyTransport website has quietly gone live. I say ‘quietly’ because we chose to launch in private beta until we are absolutely certain that every part of this complex website works as it should.

It’s been absolutely fascinating watching the first public transport reports come in, gather supporters, and spread via the power of social media. That is, of course, just what head developer Louise Crow built the site to do, but there are always unknown quantities once software meets actual living, breathing users. Louise is currently being kept exceptionally busy responding to user feedback and implementing suggestions for improvement.

The GeoVation award was, of course, to allow us to add a mobile component to FixMyTransport, and this has mainly fallen to a second of our developers, Dave Whiteland. Thus far, he is deep in the research phase that is vital to any decent application.

This has involved speaking to specialists in the mobile field, a process Dave describes as “useful, especially in the (few) places where they didn’t quite agree”.

The next step was to build a very simple mock-up, focusing on allowing the user to report a problem with as little typing as possible, and with easy-to-press big buttons that Dave hopes will make the report-making process a lot easier when on a bumpy bus or crowded train. This skeleton implementation has already been useful, throwing up some complexities that are better fixed now than way down the line.

A crucial part of the app will be its geolocation component: again, it’s important to get this exactly right if we want people to report problems on the go. Producing a map with a “you are here” marker on it isn’t enough – FixMyTransport aims to do better than that, by proposing not just the nearest station (if you’re on the train), but perhaps also the station(s) you’re most likely to have just come from. We have to think, “passengers are mobile, so what would help most?”

Dave’s also been looking at which parts of the FixMyTransport website are most immediately useful when accessing it via a mobile device – browsing behaviours differ from on a desktop. Therefore it’s likely that the mobile app will signpost different routes through the content.

In all, it’s proving to be an interesting job for the mySociety developers, taking them deeper into areas such as jQuery mobile and responsive web design – and hopefully kitting them out with tools they’ll be able to use in future projects, too.

Myf Nixon
mySociety

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By viv, 21 June, 2011 8:30 am

Simon Parker of London Cycle Map Campaign is one of our ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Challenge winners. Below he shares his thoughts on why we need transport alternatives to the car to keep our cities moving:

If you were to look at maps of London as often and for as long as I do, you might find that your imagination wanders on occasion. In my case, I have created a little fantasy. By an as yet undetermined means, I travel back in time to the period just before the railways were developed. Then, with a carte blanche in front of me, I set about recreating London, imagining how the metropolitan area might look with the benefit of hindsight. If only we knew then what we know now!

Anyone who saw these maps would fairly conclude that I am not anti-car. But, like many people––including, I might add, a former CEO of Volvo: ‘Private cars are not a suitable mode of transport in town’––I recognise that large numbers of petrol-driven vehicles driving about the place diminishes the quality of city life. Thus it is that I spend many a fanciful hour considering how to mitigate the car’s less attractive features.

If we were able somehow to start afresh, it is almost impossible to believe that the capital would look much the same as it does now. Don’t get me wrong. I love the randomness of London’s road network, and personally I wouldn’t change that aspect even if I could. But if, as I say, we had ourselves another chance, then surely more emphasis would be placed on alternatives to the car the second time around, including, of course, the bicycle.

It might surprise those of you unfamiliar with the history of the bike to learn that in 1949, 37% of all journeys in London were made by bike (20% nation-wide). The main reason that this enviable position changed was that the bicycle came to be regarded as a poor man’s form of transport. People were looking to move on from the austerity of the post-war years, and with the increasing availability of mass-produced cars, four wheels became more desirable than two.

The car, of course, is more than just about getting from A to B; it’s about status as well. But even though we cannot turn back the clock, we can still wind it up from time to time. Let me conclude with some choice words from Andrew Marr in his programme on Megacities:

If we’re all going to live in the megacity––and it rather looks like most of us will––are we all condemned to a future of choking jams and sweat-packed tube trains? No, I think that maybe, we don’t want to turn our backs on our low-tech past. Maybe Dakha and its half-a-million cycle rickshaws does have something to teach us. Across the globe, and London is gearing up for a three-speed revolution.

To get real change in the city, you need two things: you need pent-up demand on the streets, and you need proper leadership. When the two come together, change can happen very, very fast. A good example would be the London bicycle [hire] scheme. When this got going, a lot of people said, ‘Well, it’s not going to work.’ And within the first ten weeks there were a million journeys made.

There’s no single magic bullet that’s going to solve the megacity transport crisis. We have to snaffle ideas from all over the place, taking smaller, smarter solutions which, when you take them together, can have an impact. London’s first large-scale public bike hire scheme is part of that potential mix.

In the economy of the great cities, they’re always learning and copying and stealing from each other. And it’s not from just the high-tech cities, so Dakha in Bangladesh may be a nightmare, but it’s a nightmare run on pedal-power, and that’s something that modern cities are re-learning. And so to have a transport system that really works, you need everything. You need the taxis, and the cars, and the buses. You need the trains. And you need bicycles, and of course, decent places to be able to walk safely as well. It’s a bit like fusion food, you know, that we eat all the time. You bring in all sorts of lessons, all sorts of flavours, and you mix them up, and with a bit of luck and leadership, you get a city that’s moving again.’

Simon Parker

See Simon’s London Cycle Map

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By viv, 20 June, 2011 8:00 am

Andrew Hanley, one of our colleagues here at Ordnance Survey is part of a group embarking on a cycling challenge from Land’s End to John O’Groats.  Below, he tells us more about why he’s doing it and how he mapped the route.  He’s going to give us an update along the way as well.  Good Luck, Andrew!

In July a group of 7 cyclists (6 fire fighters and me!) are leaving Lands End and heading for John O’Groats. Our aim is to arrive in John O’Groats in 7 days, averaging 125 miles per day.

A year ago firefighters James Shears and Alan Bannon lost their lives fighting a fire at Shirley Towers in Southampton. We are undertaking this challenge to raise money for the Fire fighters Charity.  The Fire Fighters Charity exists for all fire service personnel during their times of need, and assists thousands of individuals every year, by providing pioneering treatment and support services. The charity is completely reliant upon donations from the general public and fire community.

We are leaving Lands End on 11 July, heading to Exeter and some 900 or so miles later we should arrive in John O’Groats early evening on 17 July. We aim to stay in Fire Stations en route in Exeter, Hereford, Wigan, Gretna, Perth and Inverness, and hope that there are no call outs when we are there!

As I work at Ordnance Survey, a rather dangerous assumption was made by the team that I would know all the roads in Great Britain. Therefore I would sort out the route and expect to be punished, when, not if, we get lost! Bike hike is an application which has been developed using the OS OpenSpace API, and has been a great resource for planning the route (and avoiding getting lost).  Using Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 mapping was a great help in deciding the best route as it really provides a good representation of the “real world”, as well as having designated cycle routes visible on the mapping. I have been able to download the route into a Garmin unit which will be on my bike. I have also contacted numerous cycling clubs en route for local knowledge on the roads; Preston Wheelers have even offered us an escort!

If you would like to find out more please visit the Fire Fighter Cycle Challenge website. To sponsor us click on the charity/donate tab and visit our Just Giving page.  You can also follow us on Facebook/ Lejog fire cycle challenge). Look out for a further update on our progress on the GeoVation blog in July.

Andrew

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By viv, 17 May, 2011 8:30 am

London Cycle Map Campaign, one of our ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?‘ GeoVation Challenge winners have produced an exciting new film about the Campaign  ‘London’s True Colours’.

Produced and animated by Stuart France from stuffanimated.com, in partnership with Cycle Lifestyle magazine, the film shows how the capital could be transformed by Simon Parker’s ground-breaking, Tube-style ‘London Cycle Map’.

‘London’s True Colours’ is also available for free viewing on youtube. We hope you’ll enjoy watching it and sharing it with your friends.  And – if you haven’t yet – please do sign the petition for the London Cycle Map Campaign!

This is a great film to understand how the London Cycle Map would work.  Find out more at cyclelifestyle.co.uk.

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By viv, 5 May, 2011 12:41 pm

Well done to everyone who took part in the GeoVation Showcase yesterday at Ordnance Survey’s head office.

After an exciting day of pitching and presentations, the judging panel selected 6 winners from the ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?‘ Challenge to be awarded a share of £160 000 in seed funding (including £10 000 for best use of OS OpenData).

Mission: Explore and myPTP were awarded £36 500 each:

• Mission:Explore, whose  idea is to encourage children and their families to get cycling through completing missions located across the National Cycle Network, also won the Community Prize of £1 000 voted for by those at the Showcase.
• MyPTP, (Personal Transport Planner) idea for a journey planner that enables users to make informed travel choices in real-time.

Three others winners were awarded £27 000:

• CycleStreets with their idea Crowd-sourced cycling solutions. The  funding will help them built their cycling advocacy toolkit to help groups across the country campaign for better cycling facilities.
• My Society plan to implement their idea ‘FixMyTransport- Anywhere!‘ to encourage us all to become micro-activists when we find problems with the transport network.
• @ccessAdvisR whose idea is for a route planner for those with limited mobility to help take the stress out of journeys.

• London Cycle Map Campaign were awarded £6,000 in funding  for their idea of creating a colour coded Tube style map of the Capital’s cycling network.

The winners from our previous challenge  ‘How can Britain feed itself?’ were also awarded their seed funding to take their ideas forward.

• Foodnation - Louise Campbell was awarded £10 000 funding to enable her to develop a location based web and mobile application to promote locally grown food and farms.
• City Farmers – Helen Steer and Peter Boyce were awarded £3 500 to engage communities in local growing schemes using OS OpenData mapping.

PausePlayPlayPrev|Next

Audience participaton

Dan from Mission:Explore pitches

Helen and Peter from City Farmers

The GeoVation judging panel watch the pitches

Louise Campbell from Foodnation

Martin from Cyclestreets pitches

At the GeoVation Showcase

Neil Taylor with AccessAdvisR

Voting for the Community Award

Presentations to winners: AccessAdvisR

GeoVation cakes

Presentations to winners of How can Britain feed itself? - City Farmers

Peter Boyce and Helen Steer of City Farmers

Presentations to winners: Crowd-sourced cycling solutions

At the GeoVation Showcase

Presentations to winners: FixMyTransport Anywhere

Presentations to winners from How can Britain feed itself? Foodnation

GeoVation Judging panel

Presentations to winners: London Cycle Map Campaign

Audience

Ben Irvine and Simon Parker from London Cycle Map Campaign

Presentations to winners: Mission:Explore

Presentations to winners: myPTP

Presentations to finalists: OurMeetingPoint

Kate and Angela from Aberdeen University with OurMeetingPoint

Abby Couriers with their idea Parcel Tracker

James Swanston of Carbon Voyage with Sustainable Mobility Platform

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who has participated in both the challenges.

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By viv, 20 April, 2011 8:30 am

Following our successful ‘How can we improve transport in Britain?’ GeoVation Camp at Ordnance Survey in March, the local Daily Echo newspaper ran an article ‘ Inventors focus on transport’ to tie in with their Save Fuel Campaign, looking at ways around escalating fuel prices.

Nine of the finalists, selected at this weekend will be pitching for a slice of £150 000 funding at the GeoVation Showcase to be held at Ordnance Survey on 4 May.  There are also awards for best use of OS OpenData.  All of the ideas are looking at sustainable ways, using geography,  to improve transport in this country.  If you would like to learn about the ideas and be part of the audience when they pitch ‘Dragon’s Den’ style to our panel of judges register now for your free ticket.

There will also be the opportunity for you to vote for your favourite in the Community Award and network with other innovators, technologists and those involved in food and transport sustainability.

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By viv, 7 April, 2011 8:30 am

Find out more about some of the great ideas selected to go forward to the GeoVation Showcase on 4 May.

Today, Cyclestreets describe their Crowd-sourced cycling solution idea, Neil Taylor of ITP tells us more about @ccessadvisR and you can read about mySociety’s Fix My Transport idea to alert authorities to small problems and get them fixed.

Three ideas were described on Tuesday and a further three yesterday.  If you want to see these and other ideas pitch for a slice of £150 000 funding from Ideas in Transit plus an award for the best use of OS OpenData register here for the GeoVation Showcase to be held at Ordnance Survey on 4 May.

Crowd-sourced cycling solutions
Cycling levels in the UK are low by continental standards. Despite recent improvements in places such as London and the Cycling Demonstration Towns, cycling remains the exception not the norm. Fast traffic and little space allocated for cycling puts people off.

Yet, as shown abroad, there is huge potential to turn cycling into the pleasant, easy and safe activity that can help transform cities into efficient and wonderful places to live. Conditions need to be improved around the UK if we are to attract new people to start cycling.

Our proposal is for an extensive suite of tools that will assist cycling campaigners around the UK – people who are already enthused – to be more effective in their work. Despite the large scale of the problem, these groups are sadly often poorly-resourced.

Funded by GeoVation, our proposal will provide a powerful but easy-to-use web-based system to resource existing cycling advocacy groups much more effectively, combining the power of geography and the web. It will build on our existing Photomap of over 27,000 locations, bring in resources such as planning applications, collision statistics, and more. Crucially, it will provide resources and workflows specifically designed for the needs of the existing cycling advocacy community.

It will help them collect and catalogue these problems, prioritise them, and watch and respond to potential new problems/opportunities (e.g. planning applications). It will make discussion easier, will involve people who cycle through specific areas, and will focus debates to being solution-based, bringing in best-practice examples more easily.

In short, we want to help turn problems into well-argued solutions, and to help groups work productively with Local Authorities to see these solutions implemented.

Our proposal is backed by groups around the country, including the CTC, London Cycling Campaign and groups from Bristol to Edinburgh, Dublin to Cambridge.

@ccessadvisR

You might not be aware, but there are two transport networks in the UK.  One which 80% of the population can readily use and another, the accessible transport network, which the 10 million people who experience mobility impairments are able to use with greater ease.

The process of planning and making journeys, particularly unfamiliar journeys, can be something of an ordeal for people with mobility impairments.  The main reason is that the smaller accessible transport network is often hidden, with little information to give travellers confidence that accessible transport features exist or work reliably.

Research we (ITP – www.itpworld.net) have undertaken on behalf of the Department for Transport reveals it is common for people with mobility impairments to ‘dry run’ an unfamiliar journey several days before they need to make it in order to reduce the uncertainty and anxiety they experience when making the journey for real.  Many people also piece together information from multiple web-based sources including journey planners, discussion forums, and street maps; placing considerable emphasis on peer-to-peer advice and recommendations.

@ccessadvisr will improve accessible transport information by bringing together disparate sources of pre-journey information on a single website.  We want to present accessible transport information on a map base using a simple set of search tools.  We want to enable a user community of people with limited mobility to rate accessible transport information and infrastructure features at transport stops/stations, on board transport vehicles, at their destinations and on specialised transport services.  A supporting Smartphone app will enable travellers to gather dynamic geo-coded content (images and videos) and blog about the quality of their accessible journey to give other people the confidence to make similar journeys.  We intend to work with UK mobility impairment groups to deliver this innovation and enhance our existing prototype, available at www.accessadvisr.co.uk/.

FixMyTransport – Anywhere!

Problem
It is hard for normal people to get the transport industry to make small and medium sized changes that would improve the travelling experience
It is uncool and scary for most people to become “Transport Campaigners”
It is too hard to register your complaints/wishes when you are actually using public transport.

Solution
A platform that has two distinct functions:
The ability to enable travellers to report small problems directly to transport companies to get them fixed
The ability to coax people who do not think of themselves as ‘activists’ or ‘campaigners’ over the edge into being micro-activists in relation to their own transport problems.
The ability to do both of the above at the location and time of the transport problem.

Work so far
FixMyTransport.com has been in development for a year, is currently in alpha testing. It makes use of NAPTAN, NPTDR and OS Boundaries data to create database of the location of every transport route and stop in the country and linked details of every company and authority that has responsibility for each of these.
The site enables users to swiftly and easily log problems, automatically routing them to the appropriate authority.
Furthermore it provides the tools to enable users to turn their problems into nascent campaigns

What GeoVation will enable
mySociety does not have the resources to develop a mobile application for FixMyTransport, only light re-work of the desktop website version for mobile access
GeoVation will enable the creation of a bespoke, cross-platform mobile application that leverages the inherent geolocation functionality of mobile devices.  In order to succeed the user interface needs to be simple, beautiful, intuitive and swift to use when on the move.

Route en Route. This idea from Matthew Somerville (@Dracos) and Anna Powell-Smith is for a simple, streamlined integrated mobile journey planner.

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By viv, 6 April, 2011 9:42 am

More ideas today which were chosen to go forward to the GeoVation Showcase on 4 May.

Today, you can find out more about Carbon Voyage’s Sustainable Mobility Platform,  Mission:Explore’s idea to help more families use the National Cycle Network and OurMeetingPoint, developed by Kate Pangbourne of the University of Aberdeen.

Three ideas were described yesterday and there will be more on the blog tomorrow.   If you want to see these and other ideas pitch for a slice of £150 000 funding from Ideas in Transit plus an award for the best use of OS OpenData register here for the GeoVation Showcase to be held at Ordnance Survey on 4 May.

Carbon Voyage: Sustainable Mobility Platform
Problem
Transport is responsible for almost a quarter of all carbon emissions. Most commercial road transport is empty 30% of the time and 84% of all commuter journeys in cars only have single occupants. Congestion, partly a side effect of this inefficiency, creates additional costs. Getting people to travel more sustainably can be difficult to achieve particularly as access to the right information and ticketing options is not always available. As a result, it is harder for organisations to measure the impact of commuting and business travel and to incentivise staff properly.
Solution
The solution we are proposing is to incorporate a public transport tool within our sustainable mobility platform; while already have an informed personal travel tool, it doesn’t allow a user to compare public transport with their existing transport options. Providing user choice should help staff to travel more sustainably, and if this tool can link in management information, it may allow organisations to understand the impact made through staff travelling in more sustainable ways, and incentivise them appropriately. Adding in a ticketing element to this may also facilitate opportunities for to have corporate/ organisational schemes for using public transport.
Execution
Manchester will be a likely pilot location given existing links with organisations there; it will also correspond closely with research done by Manchester Business School that we have been involved in. Manchester has a very disaggregated public transport system, so it would be possible to generate some quick wins. It will be of use to run a pilot in London where there is a more integrated public transport system to allow a comparison to occur. Part of the pilot activity would be to explore the feasibility of incorporating a ticketing solution into this product offering.
About Carbon Voyage: More information about Carbon Voyage can be found on the website.

Mission:Explore Nature using the National Cycle Network
Our team includes The Geography Collective (a national partnership of geography educators), The Workshop (an interactive agency based in Sheffield), Sustrans National Cycle Network (the national sustainable transport charity) and AMV BBDO (a major creative advertising an brand management agency) working on Arla’s (the dairy company behind Cravendale and Lactofree milk) Kids Closer to Nature campaign (an effort to bring as many children closer to nature as they can).
Our GeoVation tackles two major problems. The National Cycle Network is made up of over 20,000km of signed routes along traffic free paths and quiet roads and lanes. The first problem is that while this massive piece of integrated infrastructure is reasonably well used by commuters and long-distance cyclists it is neglected by families for specific activities such as exploring nature. The second problem, and one that is frequently in the media, is that children are experiencing nature less.
GeoVation supported Mission:Explore in 2010. We want to build on our experience and use the successful platform that we have already created to increase the desire, improve the perception and develop the habits which will lead to more children and families using the National Cycle Network to experience nature. Through the use of QR and other codes, gaming and a range of incentives our GeoVation will create new kinds of journeys that will change experiences, destinations and habits.

OurMeetingPoint
Face to face meetings will always be important, but there is still much scope to reduce business travel. In a nutshell, OurMeetingPoint is an accessible tool for managing meetings that integrates the calendar element of meeting making with journey planning. It is designed to identify the most suitable location to hold a meeting based on the originating location of participants and criteria such as time, mode, cost or carbon. Business travel represents a massive cost to companies, yet is often hidden, non-transparent or taken for granted. No-one has yet produced a tool to streamline the complex process of organising meetings and business travel, with the added twist of finding more cost-effective geographic locations to hold meetings. The meeting organiser is able to select suitable meeting location subject to criteria that can be set by company policy. Each time the tool is used, the trade-offs between time, cost and carbon become more transparent, helping businesses to meet CSR and environmental management targets and control meeting costs. The tool will incorporate links for venue finding, ticket purchase or virtual conferencing, enabling organisers and participants to retain control and preferences whilst providing subtle nudges to behaviour. For small and medium sized businesses the tool the benefits of using travel agencies and meetings management providers at much lower cost.

OurMeetingPoint has been developed by Kate Pangbourne, a post-doctoral research fellow in Geography and Environment and associate of the Centre for Transport Research at the University of Aberdeen. Kate collaborates closely with Computing Scientists on the PolicyGrid project, experience which coupled with her knowledge of geography and transport issues inspired her GeoVation entry. In Kate’s team is talented student Angela Curl (also Centre for Transport Research at Aberdeen). Angela’s PhD is researching how individual perceptions of accessibility may differ from official measures.

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By viv, 5 April, 2011 10:31 am

Over the next week or so we are posting up some information on the ideas that were chosen to go forward to the GeoVation Showcase on 4 May.

Today, we have more from Ben Irvine of London Cycle Map Campaign, Luke Landers of  Personalised Travel Plans for Business and Abby Couriers with their parcel delivery idea.  There will be more ideas on the blog tomorrow.   If you want to see these and other ideas pitch for a share of £150 000 funding from Ideas in Transit plus an award for the best use of OS OpenData Register here for the GeoVation Showcase to be held at Ordnance Survey on 4 May.

London Cycle Map Campaign

Cycle Lifestyle’s campaign and petition promises to change the capital forever, by giving more people the confidence to cycle and to do so in safety. The big idea is to create a single ‘London Cycle Map’ that’s clear and easy to use and corresponds to a unified network of signed cycle routes throughout Greater London: the cycling equivalent of the London Underground map.

A London Cycle Map would make cyclists much less vulnerable, because its network of routes would mostly use quieter roads, with signs telling drivers to what to expect. And navigating by bike would become so much easier, with the signs guiding cyclists unerringly to their destination just like on the Tube. Wherever you were in London, you’d be within minutes of a cycle network that could lead you wherever you wanted to go.

Decent cycle routes already exist in the capital, but there’s no consistency in their signage, and you need bunches of different maps to cover Greater London. In 1931, Harry Beck’s famous Tube map succeeded in taming a chaotic system of underground lines. Something similar is needed today for the capital’s cycle routes, and that’s just what inventor Simon Parker has created with his amazing design for a London Cycle Map.

London would be transformed by a London Cycle Map – into a greener, cleaner, quieter and friendlier city. To lend your voice to the chorus, please sign the petition .

Cycle Lifestyle is a free magazine that promotes cycling in the capital. It’s the first magazine in the UK to appeal to potential as well as regular cyclists. Visit www.cyclelifestyle.co.uk to get a copy or read one online.

Personalised Travel Plans for Business (myPTP)

PTP for business is a web based application that can provide solutions to the transport related problems caused from employees commuting to work.

Businesses are finding themselves under increasing pressure to reduce their negative impact on the environment, tackle the congestion their sites cause, and ultimately cut costs. However their employees remain uninformed of the travel options that exist in getting to work, and nor are they encouraged to change their behaviour.

The solution is to provide the business with the tools to inform their employees and begin to start changing their travel behaviours through highlighting the alternatives that exist to single occupancy car travel. Through the collaboration with established transport data providers PTP for business can integrate public transport data, real-time updates and the current liftshare membership, to really provide the information needed to change the way people travel to work.

Transportdirect makes an attempt to provide all of the information needed to change behaviours but has found itself being utilised for one-off journeys. Whereas the greatest impact can be made on a twice daily journey that takes place over 200 days of the year – the commute.

Furthermore the application will allow data to be collected upon the journeys being registered, which in the first instance means that further contact and follow up can be initiated to assess the level of behaviour change. Additionally this data can be used to inform transport operators of areas where bus services for instance should be ran, as both beginning and end of journey location are known.

In summary, PTP for business can help employees make smarter travel choices, benefiting individuals through reduced costs, less carbon intensive or possibly healthier travel. For business it begins to become a valuable item in the work place travel plan and begins to solve the numerous transport related problems encountered by businesses. PTP for business – improving transport for Britain as a whole.

Abby Couriers

Abby Couriers are a local courier SME with big ideas.  Working with partners from across the Essex region as part of the Supply Chain Innovation and Excellence partnership, we have already succeeded in gaining funding to develop an online system to allow customers to refine the time, date and delivery location of their parcels (for more details click here).  It was only when the GeoVation Challenge came along that we realised that we could take it even further.

Over 30% of home deliveries are not delivered first time leading to additional road or other transport journeys by customers to retrieve their parcels.  Not only is this frustrating for customers, but it also means wasted journeys, fuel and money for our business, and unnecessary carbon emissions for the planet (especially as customers then have to make another journey to pick up their parcel).

Our initial project focuses on allowing customers to more precisely define when and where they want their parcels delivered.  However, the GeoVation challenge allowed us to think about the next stage of the project’s development.  We wanted to use geographical information and mapping technologies to allow customers to follow their parcel in real time, so that they know even more accurately when their parcel will be delivered.

As well as giving the customer more detailed information about their deliveries, it will also allow us as a business to further optimise our routing selection, as we would also like to develop the GIS component to integrate with the traffic information from our local transport authority.  In this way customers could be assured that their parcel was still arriving on time, despite any traffic problems they may have heard on their local radio.