Silverstone Circuit pilots smart transport service at 2016 British MotoGP

Silverstone Circuit has conducted a successful trial of smart transport data analytics project, oneTransport, to manage traffic flow around the race circuit at the 2016 British motoGP motorcycle race, which took place over the weekend of 2 and 3 September 2016.

OneTransport is a major smart city initiative focused on using internet of things (IoT) technology and data analytics to improve transport networks around the UK.

Built by IoT and mobile specialist InterDigital, it is backed by a consortium of public sector organisations, including Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire County Councils, along with Highways England, Imperial College London, and a number of industry partners, as well as Innovate UK.

Because Silverstone straddles the border between Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, the circuit was an ideal location to use the oneTransport project to provide intelligence on traffic flow to improve the experience for racegoers, who are often frustrated by delays reaching the circuit.

“Silverstone Circuit attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year who arrive at the venue utilising a number of transport modes, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our visitor experience, which includes the journey to and from the venue,” said Silverstone events head Alex Lacey.

By breaking traffic data collected by Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire Councils out of its respective silos, oneTransport was able to generate a holistic picture of movements in the area around the circuit for Silverstone and the councils to analyse and react to.

“To improve the customer experience, and as part of our evolving traffic management plan to accommodate customers and provide accurate travel information, it is vital that we have the latest transport data available to us and our partners,” said Lacey.

“Silverstone recognises the value that the oneTransport project will bring in the future, enabling strategic and local transport data to be made available on a single data platform,” added Lacey.

The potential to build on this platform and create tailored transport information solutions is of interest to Silverstone, and we look forward to continuing our participation with the project in the future.”

The various datasets compiled by oneTransport can include, but are not necessarily limited to, visual data from automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) and traffic cameras, and more static, unchanging data on aspects of transport management, such as the location of bus stops or parking spaces.

Buckinghamshire County Council is using some of its datasets in a smart suburbs project, and has been running hackathons for developers to discover and create useful applications for it.