EDINBURGH: FESTIVAL MOBILITY
WHAT IS IT?
The Festival Mobility project is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh’s Data Driven Innovation programme, Edinburgh Futures Institute, EPCC, along with Transport for Edinburgh, The List and a variety of festival organisations and regional transport providers. The project is bringing together event and transport datasets to better understand festival-related traffic and congestion, using data integration and analysis to produce a data ‘product’ that transport providers, city authorities and festivals can use to collectively plan for next year’s festivals.
WHY IS IT NEEDED?
Every August, the Festival season has a significant transport impact on Edinburgh for residents and visitors alike. Transport providers attempt to address the need for extra capacity, but this is often based on ‘best guesses’ and past experience. Within the transport companies, festival organisations and local authority, there is a wealth of data that could be shared and used to make more informed and collective decisions about where and how to plan events to minimise congestion and adjust transport services to meet demand.
WHAT IMPACT DOES IT HAVE?
The data product will help transport providers, festival organisations and the local authority to understand and visualise the connections between their decision-making processes and the impact on transport. This allows for more targeted decisions about where to put on extra seats; the adjustment of locations and timing of high volume shows to minimise conflicts with commuters; as well as adjusting road works. This in turn allows for tailored information to go to residents and visitors to help them select the best transport options.
HOW IMPORTANT IS DATA TO THE PROJECT?
The provision of data sharing by both transport providers and other stakeholders is vital for the success of the project. The work that took place to assess, extract and share data to create the first prototypes in turn generated considerable interest and support for future collaboration, and enabling this understanding around the importance of data sharing has been a key first step.
WHO TO CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION?
For more information contact:
Brendan Miles: brendan.miles@list.co.uk
Catherine Magill: C.Magill@ed.ac.uk
Joshua Ryan-Saha: Joshua.Ryan-Saha@ed.ac.uk
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