Traffic Scotland Information Service Peter Cullen Travel Information Manager Transport Scotland

- Traffic Scotland Information Services Overview - Traffic Scotland Information Services - Traffic Scotland website usage - 3 Year TSIS development strategy - New technology opportunities - Traffic Scotland Radio Service

Traffic Scotland Information Service Hierarchy Ranked by Audience Reach Pre-Trip/On trip Web Site (desktop/mobile) On-Trip Internet Radio Service Mobile web application and Smartphone Apps (i-Phone, Android & Blackberry) Twitter/RSS feeds Traffic Customer Care Line VMS/Kiosks

Traffic Scotland Information Service Traffic Scotland Information Service Platforms Potential Audience Reach Websites (Desktop & Mobile) Traffic Scotland/Freight Scotland max delivered to date 115 m page impressions in month of Dec 2010 equates to 1.1m distinct IP addresses. Resilient to spike demand. Upgrades will also support this. Internet Radio Potential delivery to circa 1.5 million users over a 24 hour period Mobile Apps Currently 84,000 downloads for I-Phone and Android. Stats feed through to TS website usage No plans to expand Kiosk coverage Twitter Twitter has currently 6,200 followers and growing Traffic Customer Care Line A normal demand of 70 calls per day, however seasonal spikes in demand VMS/Kiosks 139 VMS and currently there are 3 kiosks: Gretna Green (A74); Ballinluig Services (A9) and Harthill Service (M8)

Timeliness of Travel Information Sources Platforms Timeliness Traffic Scotland Control Centre Trafficscotland.org Real-time & Regular Updates Trafficlink Traffic Scotland Radio Pre-recorded Regular Updates Customer Care Line Customer Care Line Real time & Regular Updates Traveline Scotland Mobile/Smart-Phone Real-time & Regular Updates Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) Twitter and RSS Feeds Real-time 3rd Party – Met Office; Further Event News

Provision of Variable Message Signs

Traffic Scotland Information Service Usage Page Impressions 2006: 31 m 2007: 35 m 2008: 58 m (40 m predicted) 2009: 137m (52 m December 2009) 2010: 328 m (113 m December 2010) - Q1: 115 m - Q4: 171 m - 06 December – 21.6 m

Traffic Scotland Page Impressions

Press Coverage

Events of Winter 2010 Traffic Scotland website usage during severe weather: Record daily highs - 29th November – 12.2 million page impressions - 6th December – 21.6 million Sustained period of high usage - > 3 million page impressions on 8 further days Twitter subscribers – grew by 150% in a few days To put in context: Previous one day highs - 8.6 million (January 2010) - 5.6 million (January 2009) Average daily use: - 2010 - 75k - 2009 - 31k

Traffic Scotland Performance Figures Percentage up time = 100% Percentage down time = 0% Average response time = 0.876 seconds Total comms usage December: 2,058GB (367GB - 6th December)

TSIS 3 Year Development Strategy

TSIS Deployment Strategy 2011-2013: Key Milestones

Traffic Scotland Information Service Implementation of series of Winter Projects to enhance 2011 response Website enhancements - Precautionary Treatment Plans - Weather Station Integration - Weather page updates - LEV professional user updates - Additional CCTV Hardware - New virtualised solution, will assist with TSCC migration; and in - disaster recovery / resilience Software architecture - Content Management System and web data layer re-architecture All this investment supports future development of TS Information Services Ensuring resilience and robustness – 100% availability when needed most by users and stakeholders Changing the way information is delivered to users

Changing the way information is delivered to users

Traffic Scotland Mobile Service Advent of “smart” devices offers chance to improve the way information is presented and delivered to users Decision to introduce new Traffic Scotland Mobile Service Push information, Alerts Harness functionality of smart devices - Personalisation: My Traffic Scotland - Key routes - Regions - Location based - What’s Near Me Traffic Scotland works in partnership with Traveline Scotland to expand existing “on the move” travel applications and ensure they cover both public transport and the strategic road network

TS Mobile Service - Phased Approach Phase 1 launch of new mobile TS website (July 2011) featured: - What's near me - Real-time information relevant to the users’ location and distances to events - Map based views - “quick wins” using existing PDA site data sets Phase 2: November 2011 new features: - Park and Ride facilities - Weather station data - Winter precautionary treatment plans - Campaigns (such as winter driving) - Personalised information - Links to other traffic / journey planning mobile applications - Social media integration - Internet traffic radio – Traffic Scotland Radio Subsequent Phases - Further personalisation, alerts and pushing information

Traffic Scotland Mobile Service

Traffic Scotland Radio Proposed service level of “dip in” Traffic Scotland Radio : Three bulletins per hour at peak times Two bulletins per hour during weekends and off peak times Planned (roadworks) bulletins Planned public transport bulletins (e.g. rail engineering works) Additional alert or event bulletins relating to weather warnings or major event information Campaign messages e.g. cross promotion of other journey planning service (Traveline Scotland), deer, eco driving, ready winter etc http://mtsdev.ibigroup.com/trafficradio/

Objectives of the new trial service is: to use technology to deal with the majority of public enquiries by getting information to a device the user has with them to reduce heavy load on the Traffic Customer Care Line during extreme weather and other events to complement and enhance existing live traffic information on the TS website content will be delivered 24 hours a day with increased frequency of updates during extreme weather conditions Available on multiple platforms: the Traffic Scotland desktop Website mobile phone applications including smart devices (iPhone/Android/ and soon on Blackberry) also via a standard telephone connection as an option on the Traffic Customer Care Line