Skip to main content

TTF wins praise for Covid transport data

Work helped UK DfT to understand impact of 16 million lockdown movements
November 30, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Traffic data was usefully mapped, particularly on local roads (© Anizza | Dreamstime.com)

Transport Technology Forum (TTF) has been highly commended in a civil engineering awards ceremony for its work to assess UK travel patterns under Covid-19 restrictions.

TTF led the collation of transport data from local authorities into information used to understand changes in travel behaviour. 

Along with commercial data suppliers, this enabled the collection, processing and visualisation of more than 16 million travel movements during the lockdown period and beyond.

TTF worked with Arup and White Willow Consulting, supporting the Department for Transport (DfT) in understanding how lockdown had impacted traffic.

DfT is well informed about traffic on the Strategic Road Network through Highways England, but had limited visibility on other roads with much of the data being held locally. 

The work, which was Project of the Year at this year's ITS (UK) Awards, was highly commended recognition in the Covid-19 Response category at the New Civil Engineer British Construction Industry Awards. 

TTF is now able to publish outcomes from this data set for interested parties, "not least those bodies who went above and beyond the call to share their data with us", it says.

Related Content

  • UK transport planning not giving sufficient priority to air quality, say researchers
    August 31, 2016
    According to two university researchers, UK transport planning is not sufficiently taking into account the environmental impacts of transport choices. Their report, which is due to be presented at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference today, says that road transport is the principal cause of air pollution in over 95 per cent of legally designated “Air Quality Management Areas” in the UK. Current estimates are that over 50,000 deaths a year can be attributed to air polluti
  • OPINION: ITS must be included in EU Green Deal
    September 14, 2022
    To reach the objectives of the European Green Deal, a classification system has been developed to identify environmentally-sustainable activities. However, Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom is worried that it might not have the intended effect – and ITS could lose out as a result…
  • Swarco: ‘Everyone’s running after buzzwords’
    April 1, 2019
    The ITS world finds itself in a time of great change. Swarco’s Michael Schuch talks to Adam Hill about connectivity, the increasing importance of the end user – and why you shouldn’t leave your core business behind
  • California to reduce vehicle miles travelled 
    October 13, 2021
    CCTA hopes to mitigate environmental effects of transport projects