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Active Travel England has commissioned the Alan Turing Institute to create software and data science techniques to support local authority delivery of walking and cycling schemes. The institute, based out of the British Library in London, is the UKs national data science and artificial intelligence institute.

The collaboration will run for two years at a total cost of $250,000 and enable the development of new functionality in the Active Travel Infrastructure Platform (ATIP), which helps councils to map out proposed schemes and see the impact they could have locally.

These new tools will be paired with existing data sources, such as OpenStreetMap, to create solutions that will help build the evidence needed to meet the national governments stated objectives on active travel, including for 50% of short trips in urban areas to be made by walking, wheeling and cycling by 2030.

The new software engineering and data science techniques will complement data collection and analysis work done by Active Travel Englands head of data Dr. Robin Lovelace.

The partnership with Alan Turing Institute is hugely important, Lovelace told Forbes.com.

Transport models and datasets represent leverage points in the transport planning system, he stressed.

The lack of data and robust analysis of active modes has led to them not being taken seriously. New datasets can ensure that investment goes where its most needed.

Active Travel Minister Jesse Norman said the partnership will enable local councils to draw on the latest technology and maximize active travel's environmental, economic and health benefits.

Meanwhile, the government he represents last month revealed swingeing cuts to Englands active travel budget.

According to the Walking and Cycling Alliance (WCA), a body made up of cycling and walking organizations including British Cycling, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans, the cuts means a two-thirds cut to promised capital investment in walking and cycling.

It is heartbreaking to see vital active travel budgets wiped away in England, at the exact time when they are most essential to U.K. economic, social and environmental prospects, said a WCA statement.

It is incredibly disappointing that the active travel budget has seen such extensive cuts at a time where we need to really make progress on decarbonisation and when people need cheap transport choices, said a joint statement by Conservative MP Selaine Saxby and Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, co-chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling and Walking.

They added: We understand that there are pressures on the public purse but active travel schemes frequently have much higher benefit:cost ratios than road building schemes, many of which are still going ahead despite falling value for money for taxpayers.

I was Press Gazette's Transport Journalist of the Year, 2018. I'm also an historian my most recent books include "Roads Were Not Built for Cars" and "Bike Boom", both published by Island Press, Washington, D.C.

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Active Travel England Partners With Alan Turing Institute To Leverage Data Into Investment - Forbes