Traffic Scotland Information Service

Peter Cullen

Travel Information Manager

Transport Scotland

Overview

• - Traffic Scotland Information Services

• - Traffic Scotland website usage

• - 3 Year TSIS development strategy

• - New technology opportunities

• - Traffic Scotland Radio Service

Traffic Scotland Information Service HierarchyRanked by Audience Reach

Pre-Trip/On trip

Web Site (desktop/mobile)

On-Trip

Internet Radio Service

Mobile web application and Smartphone Apps (i-Phone, Android & Blackberry)

Traffic Customer Care Line

Twitter/RSS feeds

VMS/Kiosks

Traffic Scotland Information Service

Internet Radio

Websites (Desktop & Mobile)Traffic Scotland/Freight Scotland

Twitter

Mobile Apps

Traffic Customer Care Line

Traffic Scotland Information Service Platforms

Potential Audience Reach

max delivered to date 115 m page impressions in month of Dec 2010

equates to 1.1m distinct IP addresses. Resilient to spike demand. Upgrades will also support this.

Potential delivery to circa 1.5 million users over a 24 hour period

Currently 84,000 downloads for I-Phone and Android. Stats feed through to TS website usage

Twitter has currently 6,200 followers and growing

A normal demand of 70 calls per day, however seasonal spikes in demand

VMS/Kiosks 139 VMS and currently there are 3 kiosks: Gretna Green (A74); Ballinluig Services (A9) and Harthill Service (M8)

Sources

Trafficscotland.org

Traffic Scotland Radio

Mobile/Smart-Phone

Customer Care Line

Twitter and RSS Feeds

Platforms Timeliness

Traffic Scotland Control Centre

Trafficlink

Customer Care Line

3rd Party – Met Office; Further Event News

Traveline Scotland

Multi-Agency Response Team (MART)

Real-time & Regular Updates

Pre-recordedRegular Updates

Real-time

Real-time & Regular Updates

Real time &Regular Updates

Timeliness of Travel Information

Provision of Variable Message Signs

*139 Variable Message Signs

Traffic Scotland Information Service Usage

Page Impressions

2006: 31 m2007: 35 m2008: 58 m (40 m predicted)2009: 137m (52 m December 2009)2010: 328 m (113 m December 2010)

- Q1: 115 m- Q4: 171 m- 06 December – 21.6 m

Traffic Scotland Page Impressions

Press Coverage

Events of Winter 2010Traffic Scotland website usage during severe weather:

Record daily highs

- 29th November – 12.2 million page impressions- 6th December – 21.6 million

Sustained period of high usage

- > 3 million page impressions on 8 further daysTwitter subscribers – grew by 150% in a few days

To put in context:

Previous one day highs

- 8.6 million (January 2010)- 5.6 million (January 2009)

Average daily use:

- 2010 - 75k- 2009 - 31k

Traffic Scotland Performance Figures

• Percentage up time = 100%• Percentage down time = 0%• Average response time = 0.876 seconds• Total comms usage December: 2,058GB (367GB -

6th December)

TSIS 3 Year Development Strategy

TSIS Deployment Strategy 2011-2013: Key Milestones

Traffic Scotland Information Service

Implementation of series of Winter Projects to enhance 2011 response

Website enhancements

• - Precautionary Treatment Plans• - Weather Station Integration• - Weather page updates• - LEV professional user updates• - Additional CCTV Hardware

- New virtualised solution, will assist with TSCC migration; and in- disaster recovery / resilience

Software architecture

- Content Management System and web data layer re-architecture

All this investment supports future development of TS Information Services

• Ensuring resilience and robustness – 100% availability when needed most by users and stakeholders

• Changing the way information is delivered to users

Changing the way information is delivered to users

Traffic Scotland Mobile Service

• Advent of “smart” devices offers chance to improve the way information is presented and delivered to users

• Decision to introduce new Traffic Scotland Mobile Service

– Push information, Alerts– Harness functionality of smart devices– - Personalisation: My Traffic Scotland

• - Key routes• - Regions

- Location based– - What’s Near Me

• Traffic Scotland works in partnership with Traveline Scotland– to expand existing “on the move” travel applications and ensure they

cover both public transport and the strategic road network

TS Mobile Service - Phased Approach

Phase 1 launch of new mobile TS website (July 2011) featured:

• - What's near me• - Real-time information relevant to the users’ location and distances to events• - Map based views• - “quick wins” using existing PDA site data sets

Phase 2: November 2011 new features:

• - Park and Ride facilities• - Weather station data• - Winter precautionary treatment plans• - Campaigns (such as winter driving)• - Personalised information• - Links to other traffic / journey planning mobile applications• - Social media integration• - Internet traffic radio – Traffic Scotland Radio

Subsequent Phases

• - Further personalisation, alerts and pushing information

Traffic Scotland Mobile Service

Traffic Scotland Radio

Proposed service level of “dip in” Traffic Scotland Radio :

– Three bulletins per hour at peak times– Two bulletins per hour during weekends and off peak

times– Planned (roadworks) bulletins– Planned public transport bulletins (e.g. rail

engineering works)– Additional alert or event bulletins relating to weather

warnings or major– event information– Campaign messages e.g. cross promotion of other

journey planning service (Traveline Scotland), deer, eco driving, ready winter etc

– http://mtsdev.ibigroup.com/trafficradio/

Objectives of the new trial service is:• to use technology to deal with the majority of public enquiries by getting information to a device the user has with them• to reduce heavy load on the Traffic Customer Care Line during extreme weather and other events• to complement and enhance existing live traffic information on the TS website• content will be delivered 24 hours a day with increased frequency of updates during extreme weather conditions

Available on multiple platforms:

• the Traffic Scotland desktop Website• mobile phone applications including smart devices (iPhone/Android/ and soon on Blackberry)• also via a standard telephone connection as an option on the Traffic Customer Care Line