Reading Borough Council has opened up all its travel and transport data to help guide local drivers and public transport users.
It is inviting interested app developers to register for a free user interface access licence.
The central server uses data from the council’ urban traffic management and control (UTMC) and real-time passenger information (RTPI) systems to make available guidance on traffic and roadworks conditions, bus timetables and live expected arrival times for every stop in the town, and current and predicted parking space availability.
In piloting the scheme, the council has already integrated its data into the websites of its two main business clusters, Green Park and Thames Valley Park, and an app independently created by a recent Reading University graduate.
It has also inputted into a local trial for the Cities Unlocked initiative for visually impaired travellers, run by Guide Dogs for the Blind, Microsoft and the government-backed Future Cities Catapult innovation centre.
Council transport lead, Cllr Tony Page, claims the move as ‘one of the first in the UK’s public sector’. He expects to add live journey times for key traffic routes ‘over the next couple of months’.
Reading was one of the four original government UTMC test bed locations, the others were Preston, Stratford-upon-Avon and York.
