APPYPARKING WORKS WITH LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO UNLOCK THE KERBSIDE IN PREPARATION FOR ROBO-TAXI FUTURE
- Ground-breaking solution ideally placed to enable rapid digitisation of the UK’s kerbside restriction data, unlocking greater opportunity for mobility-as-a-service innovation
- Innovative project has involved the participation of three local authority partners, Cambridgeshire County Council, Coventry City Council and Milton Keynes Council, in user research, process workshops and feedback from hands-on testing
- Empowering local authorities to manage Traffic Regulation Orders digitally is essential to deliver the Department for Transport Future of Mobility (FoM) objective of access to standardised kerbside data
LONDON, UK – 11 April 2019: AppyParking, the kerbside management and smart parking technology firm, has confirmed their next generation Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) management solution, developed in partnership with three local authorities as part of an Innovate UK funded initiative, is being used in a live environment as the project progresses to real-world testing.
Cambridgeshire County Council, Coventry City Council and Milton Keynes Council have collaborated with product developers at AppyParking over the past nine months to create a kerbside mapping and management software tool known as AppyMapper. The project has uncovered significant opportunities to both relieve the pain endured by Local Authority officers that manage TROs and deliver substantial operational efficiencies. Early feedback is suggesting the solution is already reducing time to edit and change TROs with significant savings compared to existing software solutions.
Sunil Budhdeo of Coventry City Council said, “We have identified real savings in the time is takes to upload and edit data in our zone-based parking approach. Work which used to take several weeks is now done in a few hours. This will allow us to be more flexible in the future and support our mobility projects.”
The work fully supports the Department for Transport’s discovery work in digitising TROs and also works with the Alliance for Parking Data Standards (APDS). Darren Capes of the DfT said, “People forget open data doesn’t just happen and needs updating and maintaining in line with policy and land changes.”
David Lines, Highways Engineer at Cambridgeshire County Council agrees, “We’ve been involved in this project to help support the innovative ideas we’re already deploying in Cambridgeshire, that all rely on high-quality digital TRO data.”
“The Smart Cambridge programme has been looking at how digitised TRO data can support future mobility such as autonomous vehicles and smart parking, so this is an important requirement for future parking management and we’re pleased to be helping make sure the service meets our needs.”
Steve Hayes of Milton Keynes Council says, “UK local authorities are the gatekeepers of parking, aligning it to local policies as new innovations emerge. If we want the benefits of mobility innovation to be felt across the UK – something the FoM Strategy requires – we need the tools to support our parking teams.”
Karla Jakeman of Innovate UK added, “This idea enables a vision for smarter parking for UK local authorities, future proofing them for connected transport and mobility as a service. Digital TROs are a core need for other projects Innovate UK is supporting and we are delighted to help bring this innovation to the market.”
Dan Hubert, Founder and CEO of AppyParking, summarises “This really has been a collaborative effort – Innovate UK funded three very different local authorities to work with us to develop our product. We’ve been able to listen to the current protracted paper based process of TRO management and mutually create a digitised solution that we can offer to other authorities very soon. Without Innovate UK support we wouldn’t have been able to invest in this ground-breaking development and gain the customer insight so vital to making a step change in kerbside management.”
The development of the solution is timely, with momentum continuing to build behind the standardisation of digital TROs in the UK, with the Department for Transport highlighting their important role in realising the objectives laid out in the ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy’ report. Dan Hubert added,
“The foundation of any intelligent transport solution that needs to interact with the kerb, be that the shared mobility services of today or robo-taxis of the future, has to be an accurate understanding of how to be compliant: is parking permitted, for how long, how much does it cost? Open access to accurate and standardised kerbside restriction data is essential if the UK is to fulfil its potential of becoming a world-leader in intelligent mobility and with our platform, we’re excited that we can empower local authorities to truly be in the driver’s seat on that journey.”
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Notes to editor
- Department for Transport’s ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy’
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-mobility-urban-strategy
About AppyParking
AppyParking is on a mission to make parking a truly forgettable experience. We understand how fragmented infrastructures and stand-alone solutions cause stress and hassle for the most mundane of daily tasks, like finding and paying for a parking space. We know there’s a better way of doing things and so we’re building innovative and future-ready solutions from the bottom up, to improve the way parking is accessed and managed.
We work collaboratively with local councils to understand the challenges they face and help them better manage traffic and the kerbside, enforce Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) and Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) and modernise their infrastructure. All the while taking the stress out of parking for their residents and laying the foundations for autonomous and electric mobility in cities.
Our kerbside management platform, or ‘air traffic control’ for cities, is the first web-based platform to consolidate parking and traffic management requirements into one easy-to-use system. It provides councils with:
- A modular system configured to their needs
- End-to-end, digital management of TRO/TMOs
- Standardised data ready for intelligent mobility applications
Our award-winning mobile app enables users to save time, money and hassle when parking in over 50 UK towns and cities by providing the most comprehensive source of on and off-street parking information.
