Motion in the Name of Cllr. Janet Horner on behalf of Walking & Cycling Sub-Committee
This committee requests the traffic and transport division to investigate and bring forward a proposal on how to receive, prioritise, coordinate, implement and respond to data submitted by community groups and individuals using walking and cycling auditing tools in an efficient and effective manner. Several of these tools have been developed by partner organisations of DCC e.g. the NTA, Green Schools, Dublin Cycling Campaign and Disability Federation of Ireland and it is important that the data is gathered and effectively responded to. The system provided by DCC should set a protocol for how responsibilities will be assigned within the traffic and transport section and how the section will coordinate with other relevant sections within DCC or relevant external bodies.
Reply:
The request is to investigate how we would provide a portal to allow different groups to submit information to DCC and then how the information gathered can be effectively responded to.
In the first instance we have looked at how we currently compile data and whether any of the existing systems can be utilised to provide this function.
The Traffic and Transport divisions of DCC utilise a number of different systems in order to allow us to utilise data collected at junction and street level. In the first case of junction information there are two main systems in use namely the SCATS Traffic control system which provides aggregate data for each junction on the SCATs system and this is organised via a combination of it’s Traffic Reporter software and Scats data base. A junction is uniquely identified by its junction number and all reports regarding traffic information and layout of the junction can be accessed in this way. While it is a very good system for what it is intended to be it is not able to ingest the data being prepared by third parties and particularly non structured information.
The second system is our AFMS (Asset and Fault Management system) which is an on line real time system for automatic fault reporting across all of the traffic signal equipment that DCC use. This system does have the ability to upload data from third parties, however when this was analysed the drawback of using this system is that again it is junction based and there would be considerable work to turn this into a usable tool from it’s current configuration.
Another system is the rate my signals application which allows users to register issues with traffic signals and which does provide a good way of enabling the public to raise issues with DCC.
However none of the above current systems are in their current versions will provide a system which meets the requirements as set out in this motion.
Therefore we have reached out to the internal Transformation Unit and also our Smart City to determine if they can assist us in the specification and procuring of a system to meet the requirements. Initial discussions are ongoing.
Brendan O’Brien
Acting Executive Manager (Traffic)