UrbanTide is one of 32 projects granted funding from the Department for Transport to drive innovation and revolutionise the UK transport sector.
For the last decade, the Department for Transport (DfT) has been providing early-stage funding to innovative transport research and service projects through the Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG). Since its inception in 2014, TRIG has backed more than 400 projects.
This year, UrbanTide has been awarded TRIG to develop our new AI-powered active travel data insights platform, AIctive Routes.
Focusing specifically on the city of Edinburgh, this new tool will use AI and data analysis techniques to uncover how people are really cycling around the city. By revealing patterns in travel behaviours for commuter and leisure cycling journeys, this will provide invaluable insights about what Edinburgh's cyclists really need, how effective current infrastructure is, and support better strategic decision-making for cycle route planning in the future.
Why we need tools like AIctive Routes
Transport is the largest emitting sector of greenhouse gases in the UK, producing 26% of global emissions in 2021. The government's Department for Transport has set forth some ambitious sustainable transport objectives to ensure the transport sector is playing its part in carrying the UK towards our 2030 net zero targets.
Part of these plans is to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030 in Scotland, facilitating around half of all urban journeys to be made by active travel means.
But in 2023, a National Audit Office (NAO) report revealed that the government’s own target of 46% of urban journeys being walked, wheeled, or cycled by 2025 is now impossible to reach.
According to the report, these goals have been unattainable because the DfT has insufficiently influenced local delivery of active travel schemes, resulting in patchy implementation.
There’s one major barrier that gets in the way of effective delivery and implementation of these sorts of active travel projects - and that’s not having a true understanding of how people already travel around a city, why and when they choose active travel modes and what routes they choose.
This is where data and AI can be used to massively improve the planning and delivery of active travel projects. The aim of AIctive Routes is to provide a reliable picture of how people are already cycling around Edinburgh so that cycling infrastructure strategy can be built around what resident actually need.
What is uMove - AIctive Routes?
uMove - AIctiveRoutes is an AI-powered data insights solution that aims to reveal patterns in travel behaviours for commuter and leisure cycling journeys in Edinburgh.
Leveraging AI and advanced data analysis techniques, the tool will provide new insights into travel behaviours and prove how this unique analysis technique can aid strategic infrastructure decisions. Working closely with Edinburgh University's School of Engineering, and using Edinburgh as a pilot city, our vision for AIctive Routes is that this project - which will be fully funded by the Transport Research and Innovation Grant - can be replicated in cities across the UK.
This approach will ultimately reduce car dependency, mitigate environmental impact, and help the DfT towards it's ambitious active travel targets by supporting better decision-making and effective implementation of active travel schemes across the UK.
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