It may not be a huge amount, but £7 million can do quite a bit in an area where the real need is for smart ideas rather than lots of shiny hardware. So anyone interested in bringing 'information and communications technologies' (ICT) to travel might benefit from the latest initiative from the Technology Strategy Board. Through the new Informed Personal Travel initiative, the TSB wants to invest government money in research that can "pave the way towards alternative methods of planning travel".
There are already ways to ease travel using ICT. For example, on-line train timetables and 'live departure boards' can ease the sometimes fraught business of rail travel. How about some smart ICT to unravel the mess that is the train system's fare structure? Or how about connecting the railway's information services to bus timetables? And why not have GPS on every bus, telling the world where it is and feeding information to displays at bus stops and on mobile phones?
Such services seem to come and go in London. Bus stops on some routes in the capital display details of when the next bus should arrive, a great way of calming the blood pressure of waiting passengers. The web site of Transport for London (TfL) has a whole section of "Live travel news" – on the day that I looked the Circle Line was "Suspended in both directions due to a signal failure at Baker Street".
TfL makes a lot of information available in various ways through the mobile telephone system. Throw in the likes of Google Maps, maybe even the Ordnance Survey if it can overcome it desire to charge an arm and a leg for any use of its data, and you have all manner of possibilities.
The TSB has already started to invest in some of the possibilities through an earlier round of its work on intelligent transport systems. In March, the board announced another £8 million join initiative with the Department for Transport and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Through the Future Intelligent Transport Systems initiative, the money is going to three projects.
One project, dubbed Freeflow, is about "improving the use of transport data". Another project "will investigate how transport users are already using existing forms of information communication technology (ICT) to enhance transport systems - such as workers using email to organise and manage car-sharing clubs".
Freeflow brings together a whole raft of organisations, including TfL and City of York Council as "demonstrators of innovation". Along with three universities and a bunch of companies, including some heavyweight players in telematics, the project will spend around £5.5 million. Add this to the more recent activity and it begins to look like a reasonable amount of money.
There will be a chance to learn more about the new Informed Personal Travel initiative at an information meeting in London later this month. There may also be an opportunity to learn a bit more about the TSB's broader plans at Innovate '08 on 7 October. As well as such technology giants as Kirsty Wark and Jon Culshaw "of TV's Dead Ringers," an exhibition and opportunities to "get one-to-one advice and network," there is a session on "The Business of Shaping the Way We Travel".
Transport, especially personal travel, has to be an area where real revolutions are possible. It isn't just the technology that is changing rapidly, so is the economic picture. With recent rises in oil prices causing dramatic short-term changes in the habits of motorists and car buyers in the USA and encouraging people in the UK to abandon their cards in favour of public transport, the TSB's intervention seems to be timely, which makes a change when it comes to government support for R&D.
Further information:
www.innovateuk.org/content/news/steering-towards-smarter-travel-choices.ashx
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/default.html
http://www.innovits.com/showdoc.asp?doc_id=530
http://www.innovate08.co.uk/home.aspx
Research funds on offer for smarter travel
Business opportunities in better travel
Categories: Commentary ,
Comments
All comments
You need to be registered with the IET to leave a comment. Please log in or register as a new user.