LONDON, Aug. 17, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An innovative smart city initiative focused on addressing the challenges in transportation systems with Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been awarded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK to a consortium of leading European industry, academic and transport authority partners.
The project, oneTRANSPORT, is an integrated transport initiative targeted at transport authorities. Totaling approximately £3.5 million (with co-funding by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK provided as a result of a successful competition bid), the collaborative research and development initiative will span two years and lay the basis for smarter transport networks in the UK, as well as setting an example of the kind for transportation networks worldwide.
The oneTRANSPORT two-year commercially-focused project was proposed by a consortium that consists of eleven partners comprising Arup, Buckinghamshire County Council, Clearview Traffic Group, Hertfordshire County Council, Highways England, Imperial College London, Northamptonshire County Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Traak Systems, Worldsensing and InterDigital Europe.
The project aims to enable multimodal transport information to be published by data owners (e.g. transport authorities and new third parties) and accessed nationally by transport authorities, application developers and others. The goal of oneTRANSPORT is to deliver a superior travel experience as well as fueling the exploration of new revenues for local authorities, in-journey travel optimization and added value services that travelers desire and ultimately improve the travel experience on a truly nationwide basis.
“oneTRANSPORT is a future-proof strategy that can be leveraged to position the transport industry in a strong position rolling into the Internet of Things future,” said Alan Carlton, Vice President, InterDigital Europe. “InterDigital is thrilled to be a member of this exciting Innovate UK-supported project and looks forward to bringing our IoT expertise to this collaborative initiative.”
“This is an exciting time to be bringing forward innovation and developing enhanced services for the transport sector,” said Tim Gammons, global Intelligent Transport Systems leader at Arup. “Whilst there is still much that can be done to improve transport connectivity, oneTRANSPORT will enable an important step-change in how data is shared and used by travelers and transport operators. We are delighted to be involved in this project which challenges conventional data use in a growing digital age.”
“Buckinghamshire County Council and its partnering local authorities see oneTRANSPORT as a key enabler in helping to address many of their transport challenges in the near future, specifically around encouraging inter-modal shifting and easing congestion across the network. By opening up local authority transport data through oneTRANSPORT, there is an opportunity to help residents get from A to B more effectively, as the oneTRANSPORT platform will enable the development of more effective transport apps and web experiences,” said David Trousdale, External Funding Projects Lead Officer, Buckinghamshire County Council.
“oneTRANSPORT offers a unique opportunity for researchers to accelerate and extend the application and impact of their work in practice,” said Professor John Polak, Director of the Urban Systems Laboratory, Imperial College London. “Imperial is delighted to be part of this highly innovative project, which brings together the worlds of transport and IoT, and we look forward to contributing to its success.”
About InterDigital
InterDigital develops technologies that are at the core of mobile devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry’s most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks and a richer multimedia experience years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world's leading wireless companies. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400® index.
InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc.
For more information, visit: www.interdigital.com.
About Arup
Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world’s most prominent projects in the built environment and across industry. We offer a broad range of professional services that combine to make a real difference to our clients and the communities in which we work. We are truly global. From 92 offices in 40 countries our 12,000 planners, designers, engineers and consultants deliver innovative projects across the world with creativity and passion.
For more information, visit www.arup.com
About Buckinghamshire County Council
Buckinghamshire is a large county of approximately 156,500 hectares (1,565 km2) and a population of over 500,000 in the South East Region of England to the immediate northwest of London. Buckinghamshire has a number of key connections to the national road, rail and London underground network. The M40 passes through South Bucks, Wycombe and the western edge of Aylesbury Vale. It is linked to Aylesbury by the A418 and A41. The M1 runs north-south just to the east of the county, connecting Buckinghamshire to the wider motorway network. The national rail network in Buckinghamshire includes the Chiltern rail line, Great Western line and the West Coast Mainline. Amersham, Chesham and Chalfont and Latimer are served by the London Underground network. East- West rail is also in construction and will see the connection of Oxford to Bedford running through Buckinghamshire and enabling better linkages between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. Crossrail will also run through part of the south of the county.
For more information, visit www.buckscc.gov.uk
About Clearview Traffic Group
Clearview Traffic (Golden River Traffic Ltd) has over 40 years’ experience in the collection, manipulation, aggregation and analysis of both real-time and historic traffic data. With a strong track record of continuous innovation and enviable experience in the deployment of sensors at scale across the globe, we bring to the project unparalleled real-world experience of the practical challenges involved with designing, implementing and maintaining traffic technology on the road network, backed up by a highly skilled field service workforce that is uniquely qualified to support these demands.
For more information, visit www.clearviewtraffic.com
About Highways England
Formerly the Highways Agency, Highways England is the new Company set up by Government to operate and improve the motorways and major A roads, known as the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in England. Despite only being a small fraction of all the roads in England the SRN is at the core of our national transport system, carrying a third of all traffic and two-thirds of all freight. Its many arteries connect our major towns and cities, ensure commuters make it to work every day, help millions of us visit our friends and families and provide business with the means to get its products and services to their customers.
For more information, visit www.highways.gov.uk/highways-england
About Hertfordshire County Council
With an area of 634 square miles Hertfordshire is a county of contrast, with an urban south and rural north. If you include the M11, Hertfordshire is the only county to be dissected by 4 motorways (M25, M1, A1(M), M11) with 3 major airports on its borders (Luton, Heathrow, & Stansted) making Hertfordshire a critical transport hub for the south east. Rail connectivity includes the Thameslink service taking residents directly into central London, East Coast services & London Midland.
For more information, www.hertsdirect.org
About Imperial College London
Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities, consistently ranked in the world’s top 10. The College's 14,000 students and 7,500 staff are expanding the frontiers of knowledge in science, medicine, engineering and business, and translating their discoveries into benefits for society. Founded in 1907, Imperial builds on a distinguished past - having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics - to shape the future. A blend of academic excellence and its real-world application feeds into Imperial's exceptional learning environment, where students participate in research to push the limits of their degrees.
For more information, visit www.imperial.ac.uk
About Northamptonshire County Council
Northamptonshire is the largest single growth area outside London and has one of the fastest growing populations in England with a current population of about 700,000. The county is well located, at the crossroads of the national road and rail network and with strong international links: five international airports within 1.5 hours drive, three hours to the Port of Liverpool and Haven Ports, mainland Europe accessible in two hours via Eurostar. We have excellent road connections with the rest of the UK, including London, Birmingham and Manchester, via the M1, M6, M40 and A14 and direct access to the Midland Main Line, the West Coast Main Line and the Chiltern Line, as well as being home to the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal which links Britain to mainland Europe. Through the Northamptonshire Arc strategy and A Smart Move for Northamptonshire concept the County Council has set out ambitions to be at the forefront of activities supporting the digital economy and smart living.
For more information, visit http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk
About Oxfordshire County Council
Oxfordshire is the most rural county in the South East. It has a population of around 635,500, over half of which lives in towns or villages of less than 10,000 people. Being at the heart of England, Oxfordshire is very well provisioned for transport, with excellent rail links to London, Birmingham and Manchester from Oxford station; and with Didcot serving as the junction of north-south and east-west rail services across the UK. East-West rail is also in construction and will see the connection of Oxford to Bedford, including improvements to the existing line between Oxford and Bicester, introducing a new service to London Marylebone. It will see the introduction of ‘Oxford Parkway’ station, and work between this and Bicester town station is due for completion in September 2015, and work between Oxford and Oxford Parkway due by spring 2016. The M40 runs through the north-east of the county, linking Banbury, Bicester and Oxford directly to London, Birmingham and the North. It meets the M25 London orbital motorway at its junction 16. The major north-south route through the county is the A34 dual carriageway. The A34 links the Midlands and the North with Southampton, crossing the M4 at junction 13. The A420 road provides a fast link to Swindon and the M4 at junction 15. The A40 is the major western route to Witney, Gloucester, Cheltenham and the M5. Oxfordshire also houses the Oxford-London Airport, and has excellent coach services linking Oxford to Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
For more information, visit www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
About Traak Systems
Traak Systems is a private equity backed company based in Edinburgh, providing real-time predictive analytics for Intelligent Mobility solutions. From the beginning, Traak’s ethos has been “enhance enrich enable” – enhance raw sensor data, enrich with historical data, enable new real-time applications & insights. From origins in the University of Edinburgh working with sensor and RFID data it has grown into the Intelligent Mobility market, offering core Analytics, comprising mathematical modelling, Complex Event Processing and streaming analytics.
For more information, visit www.traak.com
About Worldsensing
Worldsensing, founded in 2008 and based in London & Barcelona, is a market leader in innovative wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Worldsensing's Traffic Division holds a unique smart traffic management portfolio that includes Bitcarrier, a real-time intelligent traffic management and information solution, and its smart parking system Fastprk. The company has deployed projects in 15 countries. Worldsensing's CEO, Ignasi Vilajosana, was named the first Spanish Endeavor Entrepreneur (2014) by prestigious international non-profit organization Endeavor.
For more information, visit www.worldsensing.com