The BT Active Intelligence roundtable at Interchange 2024 looked at the huge opportunities from data to support smart cities throughout the UK. These include uncovering deep insights to inform decision-making to reduce carbon emissions, enable the better movement of people and goods, make the right investments and more. However as the participants discussed, there remain considerable challenges in truly unlocking the potential.

lnterchange attracted attendees came from local authorities, transport operators, niche specialists, academia, data providers and others from across the industry, helping to shape a special event and generate some fascinating conversations. The roundtable took a deep dive into some of the challenges that the sector faces in using data to greater effect in an industry that is changing, and how we can better seize opportunities going forward.

For those unable to attend the event, a survey was conducted on LinkedIn to enable the conversation outside of the roundtable. The survey focused on understanding how location data providers can further contribute to the development and management of smart cities. Notably, 50% of respondents identified the provision of real-time data as a key area for improvement.

Roundtable participants

We had an excellent group of participants from across the sector:

• Steve Berry, ANGOKA

• George Cambanis, Mobito

• Nima Dadash-Zadeh, Huddersfield Business School

• Tim Danvers, AtkinsRéalis

• Paul Dart, WSP

• Patrizia Franco, Connected Places Catapult

• Craig Higgins, Jacbos

• Joe Mundy, Milton Keynes Council

• Robin North, Immense Solutions

• Tim Pope, PA Consulting

• Andrew Steadman, Road Haulage Association (RHA)

• Ben Taylor, Transport for the North

• Alex Walton, Arcadis

• Phil Webster, Arthur D Little.

Completing the roundtable was the BT Active Intelligence team of Isabelle Ferrigan, Philippe Perret, Sara Rodriguez Terres and Nathan Watt.

Nathan acted as the roundtable chair in a lively and enlightening conversation. Thankfully Nathan didn’t need to draw on his many years’ experience as a tennis umpire at Wimbledon! Thank you to everyone for their contributions.

The session covered a number of key topics, with the conversation turning to three main themes:

• Data challenges

• Data accessibility

• Driving deeper change

1. Data challenges

The roundtable explored the various challenges around the data that we currently use, while also covering some of the other datasets we can draw upon.

Gaps in the data

A recurrent theme was current data gaps, particularly across parts of the transport industry. As an example, Andrew from the Road Haulage Association explained that data on HGVs is less sophisticated than some other parts of the sector. There is no reliable information on fleet size. More complete data is needed on where fleets actually go to better plan the areas such as lorry parking, EV charging and intermodal changes.

Joe from Milton Keynes Council reflected that information such as understanding where freight traffic goes has real value, helping to inform the types of roads to construct. Roads built a few years ago now have significant number of potholes from heavy vehicles.

Robin from Immense Solutions pointed out that in planning for road investment and understanding what infrastructure is needed, the modelling is sometimes not based on enough evidence, having been built on small incidental datasets or only a dozen stakeholder interviews.

Patrizia from Connected Places Catapult said that the Internet of Things has enabled there to be a huge amount of data, but the level of connectedness in these datasets makes older and unconnected data redundant. She also reflected that while we have a lot of sensors to manage infrastructure, we have less in place to understand movement and the complex problems for transport.

Data consistency

Robin from Immense Solutions argued that data not only has to be high quality but must also be consistent so that it is truly comparable; consistency, both spatially and temporally, is often more important than quality. However, it’s very difficult to prove consistency as invariably data is just one version of the truth. For example, the industry has relied on traffic surveys that are a smaller sample size but do occur consistently right throughout the UK. This has proved a more comfortable approach for many than exploring a more detailed analysis of just one location where the consistency is less clear.

Opportunities using Mobile Network Data (MND) and other datasets

The conversation turned to the datasets that we can use to bridge some of the gaps in our understanding, particularly around the movement of people. Patrizia from Connected Places Catapult pointed out that Mobile Network Data (MND) can provide additional useful insights, for example around understanding “trip-chaining” with multiple purposes attached to one journey.

Robin from Immense Solutions agreed that the advantage of using MND is that you’re then modelling the actual movements of people. Philippe from BT Active Intelligence remarked that it is important to understand why people are travelling but also not travelling. Tim from AtkinsRéalis also added that some travelling habits had changed since COVID which was important context to understand the movement of people.

Philippe from BT Active Intelligence also mentioned the contribution that data about the first and last mile of a journey brings to understanding the context of the movement of people. Paul Dart from WSP in the UK suggested that there were other useful datasets that could be used, some of which are being captured through smart buildings, for example desk utilisation in an office.

Are we measuring the right things for success?

The discussion also turned to how we measure success. Craig from Jacobs pointed out that investing in transport is regarded as a safe and tangible way to boost economic growth, but wondered whether we need to review our measure of success and therefore the data that we use. Joe gave the example of whether aiming to reduce the overall number of trips was a good thing, and if we should be focusing on changing the type of trips people are making. For example, when people go out and interact with their community it is arguably better for mental health, so it’s potentially a type of journey we want to encourage.

2. Data accessibility

Another overarching theme from the roundtable was the accessibility of data in terms of it either not being shared, understood or put in an accessible format for it to be used, particularly relating to newer datasets. Nima from Huddersfield Business School even argued that “data is 30% of the problem” and “accessibility is 70% of the problem.”

Unfamiliarity with new data sets

One issue raised was that many people are less familiar with newer data sets. Craig from Jacobs pointed out there is more complexity in the high-quality data that is now available, and that this new data would benefit from new methods of analysis.

Alex from Arcadis stressed the importance of familiarity around using new data sets. We need to experiment with new datasets, ensure they are “pressure tested” rather than relying on older data; we also need to understand how new datasets interact with the older datasets, and whether this could change how we use older data.

Skills shortages

An issue raised by a number of participants was a skills gap in the sector, relating to both understanding and communicating data.

Joe from Milton Keynes Council pointed out the importance of being able to report on data in a way that is useful. He felt that we needed to find better ways to visualise data to present a strong story which can be understood by the general public and motivate them to take the necessary actions, for example around decarbonisation.

Robin from Immense Solutions said he thought it wasn’t easy to communicate about data in a transparent way, and the sector need to engage more with better communication. Nima from Huddersfield Business School reflected that they taught their students on how to visualise data, but limited background technical knowledge made that quite challenging.

Patrizia from Connected Places Catapult also felt there was a big skills gap, for example with transport modellers not having sufficient data science skills which can impact the reliability of the insights they draw from data. At Catapult when they have made free sample data available, they have subsequently found that potential users do not really know how to properly analyse the datasets.

The need for customisation

Participants also pondered how we can make data more usable for people. George from Mobito commented that as well as trying to identify the common use cases for data, we also need to think about data formats and reporting standards to make the data usable for most people. At the same time, we should enable some form of scalable customisation to meet the needs of different groups.

Robin from Immense Solutions said that there are usually common groups of users who want data in a different format with varying visualisations – stakeholders, subject matter experts and the general public.

Phil from Arthur D. Little suggested that stakeholder mapping is key to meeting the needs of different groups. Joe from Milton Keynes Council also pointed out that within a single council there are lots of different siloes with some business teams working on smart cities, but struggling to see the future of it.

People not sharing and using data

The roundtable also explored more deeply how data is not being shared, why this is the case and how this issue could be addressed.

Andrew from the Road Haulage Association gave the example of freight companies who are often reluctant to share information in an industry which is very competitive and would need to get immediate value in order to justify doing so. If there are not benefits, sharing the data will not be viewed favourably.

Ben from Transport from the North also pointed out the associated licensing around sharing data has many challenges, which impacts data accessibility.

Tim from AtkinsRéalis pointed out the importance of focusing on how we can use data to achieve the wider outcomes around creating a “healthier and wealthier” environment. By focusing on this, could we encourage people to be less precious about holding on to their data?

3. Driving deeper change

The roundtable also explored what we need to do to drive deeper change to unlock the full potential of data for smart cities.

How can we drive change?

Most of the roundtable felt that it would require a sustained effort to drive change. Alex from Arcadis said he thought the industry is going through a huge transformation. He felt we might know the use cases and we can start playing with the data, but at the same time we need to ensure we need to take people on the journey. This will require effort and change won’t happen overnight.

Tim from PA Consulting felt we need to not only improve data literacy but also democratise the data and make insights available to non-technical people. Ideally this should start happening from an earlier age to truly embed change.

Tim from AtkinsRéalis argued that we need a broader mindset change that working with this kind of data is often a learning process – failing fast, trialling and innovation need to be viewed positively. However, this mindset can be harder to embed in some sectors such as engineering where success is often dependent on “being right”.

What can mobile data providers do better?

Finally, the roundtable touched upon what mobile data providers can do better.

George from Mobito felt that mobile data provides providers like BT Active Intelligence have a clear position of providing the data to enable third-parties to use it to deliver particular use cases. He also reflected that while there are some tools that people can try to make data more accessible, sometimes pricing can be challenging.

Tim from PA Consulting thought the challenge is trying to get people talking to each other. Here establishing a better connection between datasets is important – for example through having common platforms for sharing data and establishing common boundaries.

The roundtable also considered the value of creating sandbox environments or related toolboxes as a way to help people experiment with datasets, and whether a “membership” model could work for this, although how the pricing for a sandbox would work would need to be clarified.

Alex from Arcadis reflected that if providers can get more data into the hands of more people it will create a positive ripple effect with the discovery of further use cases, and result in more data deployed and ultimately more intelligence.

Craig from Jacobs thought that providers have the power to challenge the norms that are proving to be prohibitors in making progress int the use of data. Tim from AtkinsRéalis felt that data provides need to come together with consultancies and end users to educate each other and open up a wider discussion.

A valuable conversation

This roundtable proved to be a very valuable conversation with many potential takeaways; the challenges of data, the topic of data accessibility and the need to drive deeper change. There are many challenges, but we also felt there are also many opportunities around smart cities data, and a recognition that data can be truly transformative.

We also sensed a real willingness to move things forward, making data more accessible and usable, upskilling those involved, and fostering more joined-up thinking. And that process starts with more discussions like this roundtable involving different stakeholders across the industry. We look forward to next year’s Interchange event.