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The Context

One of the world’s great urban areas, London represents one of the most dynamic and complicated transport systems in the world. Transport for London, an agency of the Greater London Authority, is responsible not only for the city’s iconic double-decker bus lines and sprawling Underground system, but for high priority surface streets.

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Since adopting a Vision Zero objective in 2018, Transport for London has worked diligently to improve progress on its road network. Though only 5% of the roadways in the metropolis, TfL’s “red routes” represent nearly 30% of vehicle volume.

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These roads are some of the most iconic in London, but also the most dangerous- with conflicts between vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, alongside heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses and vans. Additionally, TfL supports the 32 boroughs of London in improving outcomes on local roads by providing financial resources and technical assistance.

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Given this massive purview, TfL has been eager to find ways to collect information about traffic operations and traffic safety at scale. The “Vehicle as a Sensor” workstream in TfL’s Open Innovation team was established to explore how connected vehicle data could help compliment existing data collection efforts like sensors and traffic cameras while adding new insights and faster time to value.

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The Challenge

When it comes to Vision Zero- like most cities, TfL is fighting the last war. TfL’s existing harm reduction strategy focuses on a subset of the London network with high numbers of serious collisions, normalized for the volume of vehicles and the size of the road. This approach is effective, but it results in a backwards-looking approach which waits for a sufficient volume of collisions to act.

Additionally, when evaluating the success of a safety intervention such as a low traffic neighborhood, speed reduction strategy, or traffic calming improvement, TfL has limited resources at its disposal. Success is determined either by limited evaluation periods over small areas through the use of cameras at key junction, or over a long time frame by evaluating the change in the number of collisions.

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If TfL and its partners in local boroughs were able to prioritize interventions by relying not only on what has happened in the past but also what may happen in the future, and if they were able to expand the evaluation of projects, it could reshape the organization’s approach to Vision Zero.

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The Solution

Vianova partnered with TfL to provide the city’s Road Safety team and project managers with a new lens on traffic safety thanks to the combination of unique data products and the Vianova Intelligence Platform (VIP).

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Partnering with our data providers in the fleet management industry, as well as vehicle manufacters, Vianova was able to build a risk model which incorporated more than 250 million unique observations- covering not only the roads that TfL is directly responsible for, but virtually every road in the city.  With thousands of observations on each road segment, patterns of risky driving behavior such as heavy braking and overspeeding became more evident.

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The addition of new data about harsh braking and overspeeding both validated certain risky hotspots (locations which had both high numbers of collisions and large quantities of risky behavior) but it also highlighted a number of areas with “below predicted collisions”- ie, areas with high number of risky behaviors but a lower than expected number of collisions. These area represent a prediction of risk-  red flags for the city to prioritize.

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Brixton: Monitoring a Low Traffic Neighborhood

In South London, the Brixton was the site of a new Low Traffic Neighorhood, which combines multiple different intervention types to reduce the volume of traffic and slow the speeds on the streets. Vianova’s platform was useful for helping TfL evaluate the before-and-after affects of the interventions.  The VIP permitted a quick and painless dashboard for project monitoring, displaying a 25% reduction in near-miss harsh braking activity.

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The project evaluation period can be shortened considerably, and also each and every street within the Low Traffic Neighbohood can be evaluated- not just the ones with cameras or sensors.

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Speed Reduction Program

With over 200 miles of road scheduled to be reduced to 20 or 25 miles an hour, TfL is interested in finding new opportunities to work. Moreover, TfL identified "halo" corridors adjacent to improved roads, where negative spillover effects were a concern. Leveraging Vianova's connected vehicle data, TfL could dynamically evaluate the impacts of changes, even on streets initially overlooked.

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The early results of the 2023 improvements indicate the program’s success. In 85% of the project areas, speed reductions were observed over 2023. In several corridors, an increase in traffic along “halo” roads was identified, helping TfL work with local borough councils to identify better traffic diversion techniques.

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Over the 16 corridors installed in 2023, Vianova was able to identify those where speeds actually increased after intervention, suggesting the need for more substantial engineering or enforcement techniques to reduce risk to travellers. Vianova was also able to identify the times of day and days of the week with the highest share of speeding and harsh braking events, leading to targeted enforcement plans.

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Next Steps

Vianova and TfL will work together to support not only the strategic planning of new road safety interventions, but their real-time monitoring. Using data which updates on a daily basis, TfL will be able to set custom alerts which trigger when projects fall below performance thresholds (a significant change in the average road speed, for example).

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The combination of an intuitive visualization and unique data allows the city to identify new safety insights and accelerate progress toward Vision Zero.

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About Vianova

Vianova is the data analytics solution to operate the mobility world. Our platform harnesses the power of connected vehicles and IoT data, to provide actionable insights to plan for safer, greener, and more efficient transportation infrastructures.

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From enabling regulation of shared mobility to transforming last-mile deliveries, and mapping road risk hotspots, Vianova serves 150+ cities, fleet operators, and enterprises across the globe to change the way people and goods move.

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Ready to learn more?  Visit our page to get in touch.