Since leaving Lancaster in June 2013 I have worked in two transport jobs, starting to specialise in Intelligent Transport Systems or ITS
In my second and third years I concentrated a lot on public transport, culminating in a dissertation based around the London Underground.
Between second and third year I did a placement at Transport for Greater Manchester and went back to work in the same department after I graduated.
Since then, after 6 months at TfGMs Highways Department working on projects within the Greater Manchester boundaries, I moved to Atkins to have the opportunity to work on large scale projects across the country. I’m hoping to show you some of the applied aspects of GIS from within the transport sector.
I’ll be happy to take questions at the end and I’ve got time to hang around and talk to anyone who might want to get some information to take away with them and go in to more detail about Atkins as a graduate employer.
A little bit about what ITS is generally and the future of it
The dictionary definition of ITS is the infrastructures and technologies used to allow controllers to add communications and information to both public and private transport users to allow them to make better informed ‘smarter’ choices, leading to improved safety, journey times, reduced congestion and better overall management of the network.
ITS is increasingly important as more and more pressure is put on the road network by increased car use, the need to encourage people in to using public transport and the need for increased efficiency with regards to freight transport, both from an environmental and economic perspective.
ITS uses GIS on a daily basis, whether through collecting and analysing TomTom data, monitoring journey times to using ArcGIS to map out locations for new infrastructure. It is obviously intrinsically linked to the road network and as such a lot of work is done using maps for both planning and implementation and monitoring.
Transport for Greater Manchester works with all 10 councils in the Greater Manchester district to work with bus operators, the Metrolink, and road users such as commuters from both inside and outside the area, freight and cyclists.
The main projects I was involved in were largely funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund and focussed on reducing congestion on Greater Manchester’s roads.
The main project I worked on involved the use of existing infrastructure and new Bluetooth technology to collect journey time data. The eventual aim of this was to show journey time options on Variable Message signs across the county to try to influence people’s travel choices.
My role involved the planning of locations for Bluetooth detectors – This meant choosing around 500 sets of traffic lights, street lights and roads signs to affix detectors to, to allow us to get good coverage of the local road network – For this I used a package very similar to ArcGIS called MapInfo to plot points.
These detectors pick up a Bluetooth signal from devices within vehicles and encrypt them. As you travel down a road you pass through several sets of sensors, allowing the database to build up a picture of the journey made and how long it took.
This data was then transferred into a database that had thresholds set for what was classed as a ‘normal’ journey time.
You can see from this screen grab the arterial roads into Manchester City centre and where the congestion is occurring – represented by yellow and red. It’s TfGMs intention for this map to be published to the public eventually but when I left it was still a bit of a work in progress! It’s this database that will be used to update the VMS signs in real time in the future.
My job also involved drawing the ‘routes’ between each set of sensors into this database, and going out onto site to tune the Bluetooth detectors themselves. Just before I left I spent a lot of time working on the site locations for the VMS signs and spent two or 3 days a week out on site measuring pavements and creating CAD drawings. For this I used even more GIS skills I learned at Lancaster – Travelling salesman analysis to get round the ten site visits a day in as little time as possible
Atkins is a company with many different business elements. I work in the Highways and Transportation sector in the Manchester office, as part of the Intelligent Transport Systems team. We work mostly on Highways Agency roads and the main projects I have been working on are the M62 and M25 Smart Motorway Schemes and some ramp metering schemes.
This involves the use of signs to set variable speed limits depending on the density of the flow of cars and the speed at which they are travelling. I regularly visiting Highways Agency control centres to monitor how effectively this is working. After the observations I monitor the plots on a bespoke GIS system which shows which signs were set, for how long, and for what reason.
As you can see here, white represents heavy congestion – This is an example of a particularly bad day where signals are in place to protect the back of the queuing traffic for the majority of the day. As you can see green and orange signals are switched on outside of the congestion, this is to try and mitigate the effects of increased traffic flow before it begins. Unfortunately Junction 30 is the end of the Smart Motorways scheme and the start of the Dartford tunnel, and so it is much more difficult to manage situations like this outside of the scheme. Some signals are triggered unnecessarily, like those in the middle of the day – this is why I monitor the schemes – I can now go away and alter the thresholds that set the signs to try and avoid them coming on unnecessarily. Without of course, causing more problems at other times!
Ramp metering helps to control the flow onto the main carriageway of the motorway in order to help reduce the likelihood of flow breakdown by setting traffic signals on the slip road. Considerations to the road network here include whether there is enough space to have a queue forming without affect the local roads by for instance, blocking up a roundabout and also things like the percentage of HGVs that use the ramp, and the amount of space left to join the motorway once you’re through the lights. For the signals to become active the traffic on the main motorway must be travelling at a safe speed, usually around 55 mph.
Both of these are controlled by roadside and under carriageway equipment as seen in the picture, which detect a vehicle passing over them, the speed and the axel length to determine the type of vehicle and how many vehicles pass over it in a set amount of time in order to determine the flow on the carriageway. The data this produces helps us to
Monitor, calibrate and plan new Smart motorways
Outside of my team – transport planners and the rail teams work on a multitude of projects that can be seen on the Atkins website, from designing car parks and bus lanes to the electrification of the rail network and the planning behind HS2.
ITS is a growing industry and an excellent one to get into if you are interested in transport and urban planning. Technology is progressing and there is plenty of talk in the industry about the ways in which it’s going to change our futures.
I’m sure you’ve all seen in the news recently about driverless cars being tested on Britain’s roads – This is the most advanced form of ITS but is still a few years away from becoming the norm. Until then, what can we expect?
Well in some ways we already have autonomous vehicles, sat navs that provide lane guidance, cruise control, alarms fitted with trackers. The next logical step is for those principles to start intereacting with the infrastructure around the cars, for instance, self adjusting speed limits, awareness in the vehicle of upcoming traffic signals and whether or not they need to adjust their speed to make the green light. This really isn’t that far away.
Vehicles that talk to each other rather than the infrastructure is the step following on from that – If every vehicle knows whats round the next corner and how fast an oncoming vehicle is approaching, will there remain a need for signalised junctions? Vehicles are also likely to start having some of the infrastructure we are used to seeing on the street onboard in the future – Traffic signals and speed limits will be displayed in cars rather than the roadside.
And finally, driverless vehicles – leaving you time to read, eat or nap between A to Z
Finally a little bit about Atkins.
There are many many opportunities available to Geography graduates such as yourselves and it isn’t too late to apply for the upcoming years intake. I myself am not part of the graduate scheme, I applied for a job I saw advertised on the website and used a contact I had at the company. I’m sure some of you will have decided you want to be part of a scheme, and some of you won’t. Atkins is recruiting a lot at the moment as the recession ends and clients start to get more confident in investing in large projects again. As you can see from the slide the work Atkins do is wide ranging, Highways and Transport is really just a small section of what is on offer.
The graduate scheme can offer you a 3 year focussed plan with the aim of working towards gaining chartership or membership of a professional body. When you join the company you’ll receive a settling bonus of 2500, followed by a further payment of 2500 pounds when you achieve your professional qualification. A pension plan and 25 days leave plus bank holidays and a flexi option to buy up to 15 more days is also rolled into the package.
The graduate brochure is an online document so if any of you are interested in taking a look at the kind of things the company can offer you, speak to me afterwards and I can arrange a copy to be sent to you. On a similar note, I have plenty of time to answer any questions before I head back if you’re not rushing off to another lecture. If you are, please feel free to note down my email address and I’ll do my best to answer.
