Skip to main content

iPhone app for citizens to report highway defects

People in the UK county of Buckinghamshire can now use an Apple iPhone to photograph and report a pothole, loose paving, broken bollard or faulty street light. Developed by Masternaut for Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB), the app captures a digital image of the defect with its geolocation and transmits it back to highway maintenance teams. This gives highways managers important information direct from the scene, which helps with managing response levels and providing better service. "Using this app, i
April 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
People in the UK county of Buckinghamshire can now use an 493 Apple iPhone to photograph and report a pothole, loose paving, broken bollard or faulty street light. Developed by 748 Masternaut for 1880 Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB), the app captures a digital image of the defect with its geolocation and transmits it back to highway maintenance teams. This gives highways managers important information direct from the scene, which helps with managing response levels and providing better service.

"Using this app, iPhones provide much more detailed information than a standard telephone call or email. Buckinghamshire residents who have these smartphones are our eyes on the street. They help us to review the nature of the problem and see its location. We would normally have to visit the scene to get this level of intelligence before deciding on a course of action," says Marc Evans, ICT Systems Manager.

Transport for Buckinghamshire is a partnership between Buckinghamshire County Council and highway infrastructure services provider 4931 Ringway Jacobs. The app augments the TfB award winning online Service Information Centre, a special website that incorporates live data feeds from Masternaut's real-time vehicle tracking and mobile service management software

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Five ways data can reshape transit
    April 8, 2024
    Mass transit ridership is getting back onto its feet after the dent which Covid put into the use of public transport. Now we need to continue that momentum, says Miki Szikszai of Snapper Services – and the UK can learn from examples in the rest of the world
  • EU project to make urban freight management more sustainable
    February 1, 2012
    Urban freight policies are becoming more common in European cities and regions. However, it is still difficult to evaluate and transfer the knowledge gained from the different city logistics measures implemented by local authorities. The SUGAR project aims to tackle this by establishing a systematic approach towards best practices identification and assessment, and by developing urban freight plans and actions.
  • Machine vision offers new solutions to old problems
    October 28, 2014
    The transportation sector is set to benefit from a far wider range of machine vision technology. While machine vision techniques have been applied to traffic management applications for some years, in some areas there can still be a shortage of knowledge about what the technology can offer transportation professionals. The image processing and interpretation functions of machine vision enables control room staff to be immediately alerted to occurrences requiring attention which, in turn, enables each person
  • Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems
    April 10, 2012
    Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.