Oxfordshire Council partners with Alchera Technologies on £500k project to drive smart transport revolution
Oxfordshire County Council has partnered with Alchera Technologies to develop a system fit for the introduction of connected and autonomous vehicles as well as other new transport options, such as electric vehicles.
The partnership, worth £500,000, marks the launch of phase two of the GovTech Catalyst initiative in Oxfordshire, with plans for new traffic management technology solutions to be developed and completed by June 2022.
Alchera was selected as one of two winners by Oxfordshire County Council after bids submitted by five suppliers. Alchera impressed the council with its approach to integrating multiple data sources. Their work will be focused on developing a proof of concept that bring together a variety of transport data sources held by the county council.
The systems developed will lead to a prototype system that will be capable of offering transport data to technology development companies and the public.
As well as work to enable connected and autonomous vehicles on our roads, other developments that could emerge from the research are live data apps on transport flows and patterns. The research involved and the final product will also enable better collaboration within the council on data sharing work on transport.
Tim Spiers, Director of IT, Digital and Transformation at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “The challenge is to be ready for the new wave of transport. That means different and cleaner power sources and brand-new technology such as computer assisted transport.
“Oxfordshire is also the first council to include connected and autonomous vehicles in its local transport plan. These vehicles can be anything including cars, bicycles, e-scooters, vans and buses.
“As challenge owners, we look forward to working with both suppliers over the next few months to develop proof of concept products that will help the county council as the highway authority to meet our obligations under the Traffic Management Act and be ready to support all forms of new mobility from active travel to autonomous vehicles.”
Anna Jordan, Head of Operations for Alchera Technologies, said: “We’re excited to work with Oxfordshire County Council to enable more data-driven mobility infrastructure and provide the tools to deliver its game-changing smart transport programme. Data will play a key role in the future of transport and how we move around, especially as lockdown restrictions begin to ease and activity across cities, towns and transport networks surge back to pre-COVID rates.
“To manage this change, making dynamic decisions while adapting to new travel patterns and co-ordinating growing networks of new and existing mobility options will be key. Public and private transport authorities can now rely on Alchera’s tools to interpret and react to data from multiple sources, for accurate, real-time decision making. Ultimately, this will enable transport networks to become more seamless, sustainable and resilient than ever before.”
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