Minutes:
David Ayton-Hill (Assistant Director – Communities) stated that this work focused on the reallocation of road space that was done during the pandemic to create more space for social distancing in town centres. Part of this process included new monitoring measures and work will be done to improve monitoring equipment on the transport network. Artificial intelligence monitoring equipment within town centres was used to get this information. In early summer 2020, central government wrote to local highway authorities asking them to see if they could take urgent steps to improve social distancing space within town centres and provide space for active travel. People went back into town centres and shops in the summer of 2020 which would have caused crowds; central government asked for this space to be created within six to eight weeks of local authorities being asked in line with lifted restrictions were being lifted. The Road Safety and Road Engineering teams came up with temporary plans for the town centres to effectively create more space for pedestrians and cyclists. The district, borough and town councils were engaged for this to agree on what should be done to provide space. When installed these measures were monitored to see if they worked and adapted if they needed changing. In Stratford a one-way system was implemented on Bridge Street with a cycle lane cycle and a 20mph speed limit. There was a part-time closure of Holly Street in Rugby to increase cycling and walking space, but this was criticised by the residents, so this was quickly changed. A similar incident happened in Atherstone as it did not work for the area. Kenilworth had a small closure and a temporary 20mph limit as did Nuneaton and Bedworth which did not need any roads closed. Warwick needed several road closures and cycle lanes were implemented. Opinions of these measures were diverse with residents liking the closures and businesses not due to the lack of through traffic; these different views would happen with every scheme. The AI monitoring equipment was brought in before the road closures to help with other work. The cameras were small and put in areas like Leamington to monitor issues; sensors were put on the parade which was completely pedestrianised during the project. The sensors monitored how people used the space, interacted and whether social distancing was being observed; the sensors did not take any personal data. The equipment could tell if people were in groups and monitored the areas for four weeks. The sensors showed that people moved more freely and interacted more when the roads were closed/the area was pedestrianised. Weather condition did not affect these interactions and people mainly stayed on the pavement even when the road was closed. The AI could also monitor footfall and how many pedestrians come through a space in a set amount of time which would help resolve town centre issues in the future as the AI sees how space is used. In Leamington when the roads reopened, footfall and cycling on the parade, and other town centres, drastically decreased on weekends and weekdays. This AI monitoring was more accurate and cheaper than other methods. Providing these spaces was a good trial for towns that want these areas who want their town centres pedestrianised permanently; but there was the clash of interests between residents and businesses. A levelling up bid was put in for Stratford to install a scheme that was like the Bridge Street closure. Work was done with the Stratford Strategic Partnership to implement this. The AI monitoring was being invested in to work on safer sustainable active travel around schools; schools are worked with to try to encourage students and parents to use a more active and sustainable mode of transport. Schools are given guidance, information, and training education to encourage this behaviour change; the monitors were being used to see if they were successful in changing this travel behaviour and what needs changing/improving if they were not. The monitors also showed the routes pupils and parents used and whether they used designated crossings or not. Jaguar Landrover (JLR) did a lot of work to increase their employment space and they had several section 278 agreements to make changes to the road network because of their impact on the local road network. They contacted the council regarding transport movements and the sections 278 agreements as they were now ‘hybrid-working’; the council were using the AI monitors to measure road movements to create an evidence base to see what an appropriate mitigation approach with the developer was. The council’s capital schemes were being used to try and reduce congestion and improve active travel and the AI sensors were used to monitor the success of this. ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) was being deployed to monitor air quality and car emissions in areas.
about how people use spaces
The Chair noted that every town centre was different to road space allocation was tailored for each area. He reiterated that the monitors cannot pick up personal information.
In response to Councillor Sinclair, David Ayton-Hill stated that they struggled to get data from businesses because the views were so differing. Moises Muguerza Espino (Senior Transport Planner) added that they were going to start analysing the impact on businesses by cross-referencing the collected data and ask big businesses directly how the road closures impacted them so the council can correlate this data. For health data, the team analysed car emissions which reduced during road closures so this would have positively impacted resident’s health; this data could be provided if requested.
Following a supplementary from Councillor Sinclair, David Ayton-Hill stated that road closures were removed when there were excessive complaints and when the increasing traffic was causing hazards or excess congestion.
In response to Councillor Fradgley, Moises Muguerza Espino stated that cyclists used the pedestrianised areas when the roads were closed e.g. on Leamington Parade, cycling increased by 35% during the road closures.
In response to Councillor Chilvers, David Ayton-Hill confirmed that JLR was helping the council build an evidence base for the road usage agreements with the new technology. Anecdotally the hospitality and leisure industries were against the road closures as this affected their deliveries as well as independent businesses, however, this data needed to be cross-referenced. The team will share bid information and they found out that if people are cycling/walking in town centres then they were 12 times more likely to spend money in businesses there. Moises Muguerza Espino added that the AI systems could also calculate journey times over 24 hours which will be used to inform future schemes e.g. section 278 agreements. Discussions with businesses and the correlated data will be shared with town councils.
Following a question from Councillor Sinclair, David Ayton-Hill stated that central government gave local authorities temporary traffic regulation orders so they would have the power to implement these road closures. These plans were worked on and assessed before a short-term implementation to see if the plan worked. The AI technology would be useful to help improve the plans before the trial implementation.
Following a supplementary from Councillor Sinclair, Moises Muguerza Espino confirmed that the technology could monitor pedestrians and cyclists separately as well as different types of vehicles, it will soon be able to classify e-scooters and mobility scooters.
In response to Councillor Pandher, David Ayton-Hill stated that as the collected data was anonymised it would be difficult to use it to enforce parking regulations outside schools to stop congestion. However, they could use the new civil parking enforcement contract to try to tighten parking regulations outside schools, as well as cameras on cars who monitor parking issues.
In response to Councillor Baxter-Payne, Moises Muguerza Espino stated that data already provided a sample to calibrate microsimulation models and predicthow schemes and development mitigations would pan out. The new AI technology provides a more accuratecontinuous data over a longer period that will help to calibrate the microsimulation models more accurately. After five years, the developers’ implications can be assessed to see if they came true to their assumptions and recalibrate the models accordingly. Air Quality models requires ANPR data and is calibrated with emissions information from the districts and boroughs. Air Quality can be forecasted depending on the mitigation scheme.
The Chair noted that this information would be useful to resolve future issues in town centres. In response to the Chair, Moises Muguerza Espino stated that they were using AQMAs data for their modelling, but the information was slightly outdated. They were working with the districts and boroughs to be able to get “real time” collection of data.