Transport planners in Cambridge are launching ‘innovative’ journey planning tools using real-time data to help people make more sustainable journeys.
Smart Cambridge’s new MotionMap travel app is free to download to smartphones and brings together real-time and local timetable information to more accurately predict travel times and suggest the best routes using a mix of buses, trains, walking and cycling.
The city’s first digital wayfinding screens (pictured) will also be officially launched on Wedneday, providing signposting, travel times and other information.
Smart Panel lobby screens are also going up in the foyers of public buildings and large employers, including Cambridgeshire County Council’s Shire Hall and AstraZeneca’s Academy House offices, offering specific travel and other information for staff and visitors.
The tools are being developed by Smart Cambridge, led by Cambridgeshire County Council with support from the Greater Cambridge Partnership.
Cllr Lewis Herbert, interim chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Leader of Cambridge City Council, said: ‘The new app and screens at the station and other city locations will be further developed and the data expanded, but we want these tools in use now – so residents, commuters and visitors can test them out and tell us how they can be made even better.
‘This is yet another Smart Cambridge project contributing to keep us at the top, by using data and emerging technology to help people and the city tackle our massive congestion challenge and cut vehicle pollution.’
The app and screens are use real-time travel and other transport data collated through the Intelligent City Platform (iCP) and LoRa network, developed by the University of Cambridge, together with other data sources such as Google Transit, Twitter feeds and weather reports.
The thousands of pieces of data being processed and analysed daily to predict traffic movements and provide real-time information include bus and train times, traffic monitors, air quality readings, and cycle sensors.
The MotionMap app also has a carbon counter, and will be refined and improved using feedback from users.
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