Skip to main content

UK government to open up roadworks data

The UK government plans to open up roadwork data to tech companies with the aim of reducing traffic jams. The Department of Transport (DfT) says companies could potentially develop navigation apps powered by artificial intelligence that can warn drivers up to months in advance of planned disruption to routes and offer alternatives. George Freeman, minister for the future of transport, says the announcement will “help open up data, reducing congestion, pollution and frustration for road users”. The
September 2, 2019 Read time: 1 min
The UK government plans to open up roadwork data to tech companies with the aim of reducing traffic jams.


The Department of Transport (DfT) says companies could potentially develop navigation apps powered by artificial intelligence that can warn drivers up to months in advance of planned disruption to routes and offer alternatives.

George Freeman, minister for the future of transport, says the announcement will “help open up data, reducing congestion, pollution and frustration for road users”.

The move is also expected to aid the development of route planning systems for connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs).

Working with local authorities and the C/AV sector, the DfT will look at introducing legislation to make it easier to access data around 5,000 yearly road closures.

Related Content

  • ITS in the Baltic States: on the rise
    August 12, 2020
    In the Baltic states, on north-east Europe’s border with Russia, the ITS sector is on the verge of big growth, finds Eugene Gerden - but more
  • Renovo launches platform for AV products
    July 10, 2019
    Software company Renovo has launched a data management platform to aid the development of autonomous and advanced driver assistance systems products. Speaking at the TaaS (Transportation as a Service) Conference in the UK city of Birmingham this week, Dennis Hamann, head of Europe at Renovo, says the Insight platform is targeted at the developers and data scientists in charge of “bringing these fleets to fruition”. “There's benefits of faster access to AV data, minimal error rates, complete traceabi
  • An innovation lab – not a burden
    June 27, 2018
    Travellers want to be able to book multimodal journeys easily – and to be informed of problems and alternatives as they go. Adam Roark might just be able to help, finds Ben Spencer. The global shift in transportation towards members of the public wanting access to multimodal journeys is rapidly changing how people pay and plan ahead. Buying tickets from a machine and dealing with the frustration of discovering your train is cancelled is a scenario commuters want to avoid through technology’s ability to
  • Darwin shuttle utilises satellite tech 
    December 9, 2021
    Shuttle will transport more than 6,000 passengers around the campus