The Alan Turing Institute has been commissioned to create new
software and data science techniques to support local authority
delivery of walking, wheeling and cycling schemes, Active Travel
England announced today (31 March 2023).
The collaboration, which will run for 2 years at a total cost of
£200,000, will support Active Travel England and councils to
deliver schemes that are strongly evidence-based and will deliver
the most benefits for residents. This will enable the
development of new functionality in the Active Travel
Infrastructure Platform (ATIP), which helps
councils to map out proposed schemes and see the impact they
could have locally.
These new tools will be paired with existing data sources such as
OpenStreetMap, to create innovative solutions that will help
build the evidence needed to meet national government’s
objectives on active travel, including for 50% of short trips in
urban areas to be made by walking, wheeling and cycling by 2030.
The investment will demonstrate how new software engineering and
data science techniques can support evidence-based planning and
support Active Travel England’s mission.
To launch this new collaboration, Active Travel Minister recently attended an event at
the Alan Turing Institute. He was able to test the technology
that Active Travel England’s head of data Dr Robin Lovelace and
Alan Turing Institute developer Dustin Carlino have been working
on.
Active Travel Minister, , said:
I hugely welcome this new partnership, which will enable local
councils to draw on the latest technology and maximise the
environmental, economic and health benefits of active travel.
Active Travel England’s CEO, Danny Williams, said:
This exciting new collaboration will help to accelerate progress
towards our vision of making walking, wheeling and cycling the
natural choice for short trips nationwide.
The Active Travel Infrastructure Platform is going to save
councils’ time, improve local decision-making and enable
evidence-based decisions to be made that will have maximum
impact.
The Alan Turing Institute’s Chief Scientist, Professor Mark
Girolami, added:
We are excited to be partnering with Active Travel England to
develop new data science tools and software that will support the
shared mission to make active travel more accessible and
enjoyable for everyone.
Open-source software developed through this collaboration will
enable the UK to set the
agenda internationally.
