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Dear Mr Clayton,
Many thanks
for your detailed response, it is not often that responses are raised by authorities
when criticised about apparently dubious operations.
Many frustrations
arise from the apparent lack of quick fixes to simple problems which could be made
and would bring rapid and significant improvements to road efficiency. This aside,
all those who have protested fully understand that there needs to be some long term
and broader planning also. If this involves planning major new routes, then clearly,
highly reliable and extensive data is critically important. I would be most concerned
if long term planning on this scale is based on one-hit, highly disruptive archaic
operations like this, where many drivers have said that they have been so frustrated
at the situation that they have deliberately provided false information. Surely,
no one involved in this operation truly believes that it has created a “true picture
of transport movements in this area” – if so, I’m even more worried than I was!
Surely, such
data should be “continuous”. It should be able to provide flow variations throughout
the day (not possible of course if it prevents flow!), and the week, even the year
to understand the changes in the holiday season, which must be significant in this
area particularly with the port in Poole. It should show what the peak requirements
are and when they are and identify pinch points and how these can be relaxed and
the results of such work. It should also show any trends over the years and into
the future. (Even if the data collected in the operation was good, it is likely
to be almost irrelevant in a few years, let alone 20.) It could ultimately be used
to dynamically control traffic lights, provide real-time continuous data of traffic
flows, and assistance in managing hold ups, and immediate measurable feedback when
road changes are made. Of course, it should be entirely transparent, so that what
is being measured is not effected by the measuring process, one of the most basic
rules for scientific analysis and software modelling.
Such a system
is of course entirely achievable with ANPR. With the additional benefit that untaxed
/ uninsured vehicles / clones could be identified almost wherever they go. If a
proportion of individual questionnaires need answering, these can of course be sent
by post to the registered keeper to fill in at their leisure, not while they are
trapped, late and fuming. We already even have boxes all over the place with cameras
in them – why not put them to a good use??
The technical
aspects are straightforward – it’s simple these days to run remote data systems
over gprs / 3g etc (or if the costs for this are too high, store the data in non-volatile
memory collected by a bloke on a scooter). Number plate recognition is a simple
image processing task. I don’t know how much the Spur road operation cost but it
should be possible to get the cost of an ANPR system down below £800, if you just
installed 40 at key points in the area you’d be getting great data, forever, with
no disruption and you’d be reducing crime. The network could easily expand as required.
This is the
way that transport planners should be thinking these days. I urge you to consider
this, traffic in this area is becoming unbearable, and we need the best solution,
at least one likely to work. With the data collection phase of your project so completely
and obviously off-track, I also worry about your back-end systems (data processing
/ analysis) and how well (or badly) these might be implemented.
I’m even happy
to help with any of the technical aspects – I’m an electronics / software / computer
vision / artificial intelligence / robotics designer with over 30 years experience
– I do know what I’m talking about above. I’ve always worked in small companies
where things have to work properly, quickly, or you don’t survive. Extending timescales
and budgets, which seems so normal in the public sector has never been an option
for me.
If you are
in any doubt about the perception of the public about this, you should read these
articles, and the comments:
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2449069.mostviewed.traffic_census_misery.php
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/display.var.2449882.0.why_do_we_get_in_a_jam.php
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/display.var.2449719.0.drivers_have_to_come_to_their_census.php
I really do
hope you can see that what I’m suggesting really is the way forward. Better to take
a couple of steps backwards before going forwards now, than in a few years time
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