Dublin City Council was struggling to effectively manage traffic congestion due to an inability to integrate and visualize their large transport data sources in real-time. They partnered with IBM Research to develop a solution using IBM InfoSphere Streams. This solution overlays real-time GPS data from Dublin's 1,000 buses on a digital map, allowing traffic controllers to monitor the entire network and identify emerging congestion issues more quickly. This has helped DCC improve transport planning and implement measures to reduce delays. DCC and IBM are now exploring ways to further enhance traffic control by integrating additional real-time data sources.

1. Travel & TransportationLet’s Build A Smarter Planet
Employing 6,000 people, Dublin City Council (DCC) delivers housing,
water and transport services to 1.2 million citizens across the Irish
capital. To keep the city moving, the council’s traffic control centre
(TCC) works together with local transport operators to manage an
extensive network of roads, tramways and bus lanes. Using operational
data from the TCC, the council’s roads and traffic department is
responsible for predicting Dublin’s future transport requirements, and
developing effective strategies to meet them.
Like local governments in many large European cities, DCC has a wide
array of technology at its disposal. Sensors such as inductive-loop traffic
detectors, rain gauges and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras
collect data from across Dublin, and each of the city’s 1,000 buses
transmits a GPS update every 20 seconds.
Tackling traffic congestion
In the past, only a small proportion of this Big Data was available
to controllers at Dublin’s TCC – reducing their ability to identify,
anticipate and address the causes of traffic congestion.
As Brendan O’Brien, Head of Technical Services – Roads and Traffic
Department at Dublin City Council, explains: “Previously, our TCC
systems only offered a narrow window on the overall status of our
transport network – for example, controllers could only view the
status of individual bus routes. Our legacy systems were also unable
to monitor the geospatial location of Dublin’s bus fleet, which further
complicated the traffic control process.”
He continues: “Because we couldn’t see the ‘health’ of the whole
transport network in real time, it was very difficult to identify traffic
congestion in its early stages. This meant that the causes of delays had
often moved on by the time our TCC operators were able to select the
appropriate CCTV feed – making it hard to determine and mitigate the
factors causing congestion.”
Dublin City Council
Leveraging the leading edge of IBM Smarter Cities
research to reduce traffic congestion
Smart is...
Integrating data from a city-wide
network of sensors with geospatial
data for 1,000 buses in real time
– enabling traffic controllers to
identify and solve the root causes
of congestion in the city’s bus
transport network.
Dublin City Council (DCC)’s roads and
traffic department wanted to improve
the efficiency of the city’s bus transport
network by gaining deeper insight
into bus congestion, and deploying
the appropriate calming measures. To
achieve this objective, the city needed
to implement a public transport control
solution that integrated GPS data and
timetabling information. The city made its
data available to the IBM Smarter Cities
Technology Centre, and IBM Research
– Ireland developed an innovative
public transport awareness, prediction,
and alerting solution based on IBM®
InfoSphere® Streams software. The
solution displays a city-wide view of the
public transport system, with predictions
of bus arrivals, transit times and route
congestion on a digital map of the city.

2. Travel & TransportationLet’s Build A Smarter Planet
DCC wanted to ease traffic congestion across Dublin. To achieve this,
the council needed to find a way to integrate, process and visualise large
amounts of structured and unstructured data from its network of sensor
arrays – all in real time.
Becoming a Smarter City
To help develop a smarter approach to traffic control, DCC entered
into a research partnership with IBM Research – Ireland.
Francesco Calabrese, Research Manager – Smarter Urban Dynamics
at IBM Research, comments: “Smarter Cities are cities with the tools
to extract actionable insights from massive amounts of constantly
changing data, and deliver those insights instantly to decision-makers.
At the IBM Smarter Cities Technology Centre in Dublin, our goal is
to develop innovative solutions to enable cities like Dublin to support
smarter ways of working – delivering a better quality of life for their
citizens. ”
Today, DCC makes all of its data available to the IBM Smarter Cities
Technology Centre in Dublin. Using Big Data analytics technologies,
IBM Research is developing new solutions for Smarter Cities, and
making the deep insights it discovers available to the council’s roads
and traffic department.
“From our first discussion with the IBM Research team, we realised
that our goals were perfectly aligned,” says O’Brien. “Using our data,
the IBM Smarter Cities Technology Centre can both drive its own
research, and deliver innovative solutions to help us visualise transport
data from sensor arrays across the city.”
Business benefits
• Enables traffic controllers to
identify and visually monitor public
transportation issues as soon as they
emerge.
• Accelerates decision-making
processes for traffic controllers, helping
them to clear congestion more quickly.
• Improves planning, helping the city
to create optimal bus routes and
schedules to reduce delays and
maximise coverage.
Smarter Traffic Improving public transport using real-time geospatial data
Instrumented Real-time geospatial data from 1,000 buses across Dublin and
their timetables are integrated with a digital map of the city.
Interconnected Dublin’s traffic controllers use digital maps and dashboards to
monitor the status of the entire bus network at a glance.
Intelligent Traffic controllers can see congestion forming in real time, and
instantly snap to CCTV feeds to identify the root cause. The
council can then react in real time to deploy traffic-calming
measures effectively.

3. Travel & TransportationLet’s Build A Smarter Planet
Analysing the transport network
As a first step, IBM integrated geospatial data from buses and data on
bus timetables into a central geographic information system. Using
IBM InfoSphere Streams and mapping software, IBM researchers
created a digital map of the city, overlaid with the real-time positions of
Dublin’s 1,000 buses.
“In the past, our TCC operators could only see the status of individual
bus corridors,” says O’Brien. “Now, each TCC operator gets a twin-
monitor setup – one displaying a dashboard, and the other a real-time
map of all buses across the city.
“Using the dashboard screen, operators can drill down to see the
number of buses that are on-time or delayed on each route. This
information is also displayed visually on the map screen, allowing
operators to see the current status of the entire bus network at a glance.
Because the interface is so intuitive, our operators can rapidly home in
on emerging areas of traffic congestion, and then use CCTV to identify
the causes of delays before they move further downstream.”
Taking action to ease congestion
By enriching its data with GPS tracking, DCC can produce detailed
reports on areas of the network where buses are frequently delayed, and
take action to ease congestion.
“The IBM Smarter Cities Technology Centre has provided us with a
lot of valuable insights,” says O’Brien. “For example, the IBM team
created trace reports on bus journeys, which showed that at rush hour,
some buses were being overtaken by buses that set off later.
“Working with the city’s bus operators, we are looking at why the
headways are diverging in that way, and what we can do to improve
traffic flow at these peak times. Thanks to the work of the IBM team,
we can now start answering questions such as: ‘Are the bus lane start
times correct?’, and ‘Where do we need to add additional bus lanes and
bus-only traffic signals?’”
O’Brien continues: “Over the next two years, we are starting a project
team for bus priority measures and road-infrastructure improvements.
Without the ability to visualise our transport data, this would not have
been possible.”
“Working with IBM
Research has allowed us
to take a fresh look at
our transport strategy.
Thanks to the continuing
work of the IBM team,
we can see how our
transport network is
working as a whole – and
develop innovative ways
to improve it for Dublin’s
citizens.”
— Brendan O’Brien, Head of Technical
Services – Roads and Traffic Department,
Dublin City Council
Solution components
Software
• IBM® InfoSphere® Streams
Services
• IBM Research – Ireland

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Produced in the Republic of Ireland
July 2013
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Planning for the future
Based on the success of the traffic control project for the city’s bus fleet,
DCC and IBM Research are working together to find ways to further
augment traffic control in Dublin.
“Our relationship with IBM is quite fluid – we offer them our expertise
about how the city operates, and their researchers use that input to
extract valuable insights from our Big Data,” says O’Brien. “Currently,
the IBM team is working on ways to integrate data from rain and
flood gauges into the traffic control solution – alerting controllers
to potential hazards presented by extreme weather conditions, and
allowing them to take timely action to reduce the impact on road
users.”
In addition to meteorological data, IBM is investigating the possibility
of incorporating data from the under-road sensor network to better
understand the impact of private motor vehicles on traffic congestion.
The IBM team is also developing a predictive analytics solution
combining data from the city’s tram network with electronic docks
for the city’s free bicycle scheme. This project aims to optimise the
distribution of the city’s free bicycles according to anticipated demand
– ensuring that citizens can seamlessly continue their journey after
stepping off a tram.
“Working with IBM Research has allowed us to take a fresh look at
our transport strategy,” concludes O’Brien. “Thanks to the continuing
work of the IBM team, we can see how our transport network is
working as a whole – and develop innovative ways to improve it for
Dublin’s citizens.”
For more information
To learn more about how IBM and its customers are building a Smarter
Planet, contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner,
or visit us at ibm.com/smarterplanet
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