UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) 
TRO data model alpha
Background – Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are the orders behind restrictions on the road network, giving legal force to temporary closures for roadworks or permanent changes. In an ongoing review of how to simplify and improve the processes behind making a TRO, the Department established the TRO Discovery Project – contributing to the Grand Challenge to make the UK a world leader in shaping the Future of Mobility.
The Future of Mobility prioritises the use of data to support more effective operation of our transport system. TRO data is essential for digitising the highway; providing real-time changes for digital map providers and sat-navs; and enabling connected and self-driving vehicles on our roads.
Further work – data users told us that they need TRO data to be accurate, available, timely, open and high quality so that they can make effective use of the data for purposes such as navigation. A key element of the TRO Discovery is the development of a world-leading draft TRO Data Model which will enable local authorities to provide the data that is essential for digitising the road network.
| Background – Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are the orders behind restrictions on the road network, giving legal force to temporary closures for roadworks or permanent changes. In an ongoing review of how to simplify and improve the processes behind making a TRO, the Department established the TRO Discovery Project – contributing to the Grand Challenge to make the UK a world leader in shaping the Future of Mobility.
The Future of Mobility prioritises the use of data to support more effective operation of our transport system. TRO data is essential for digitising the highway; providing real-time changes for digital map providers and sat-navs; and enabling connected and self-driving vehicles on our roads. Local authorities and statutory undertakers are TRO makers but our discoveries (see below) concluded that this data is not open and available. Further work – data users told us that they need TRO data to be accurate, available, timely, open and high quality so that they can make effective use of the data for purposes such as navigation. A key element of the TRO Discovery is the development of a world-leading draft TRO Data Model which will enable local authorities to provide the data that is essential for digitising the road network. Early consultation with leading local authorities (eg, TfL) has demonstrated that the model is understood by the data modelling community but TRO makers (typically, local authority engineers) faced challenges accessing it. The Department has agreed to work with Hull City Council, Manchester City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to pilot the draft model. Further agile research is required to develop a Minimum Viable Product which will: 1) support accessibility of the model for all TRO makers 2) provide a conformant means of inputting TRO data 3) enable publication from the pilots of data in a common format for onward use To test the hypotheses that: – – The data model is capable of providing sufficiently high-quality, consistent, and open data to meet the needs of data users and, indirectly, the public. – Additional support is required to make the data model and data entry accessible to those who make orders Developing solutions across multiple authorities – the Department is currently undertaking a TRO Policy Alpha to consider legislative, or other proposals, for streamlining the process of making TROs – including considering how legislation can meet the user need for standardised and open TRO data at a national scale. |
| Background – there are over 400 authorities across Britain that use the TRO statutory function to manage traffic in their areas. The current process includes informing the public of changes to the road network consulting about the change, and publishing information about changes to the road (often on paper or as PDFs).
The Problem – TROs describe the location and impact on traffic in their text based schedules. Current legislation does mandate how this information should be made available and there is no technical approach or standard to make the data available in a consistent format. This fractured approach does not support the provision of data to meet the needs of digital map providers nor the innovative transport data market. Changing hypothesis (discoveries) – we commissioned North Highland consultancy to discover whether local authority transport data is open and shareable. Their full report concluded that: •TRO data is difficult and time consuming to access, clean and process, •TRO data is not in a standardised, machine readable format, and •Private sector organisations are being forced to collect TRO data manually The Department for Transport supported by GeoPlace, the British Parking Association and Ordnance Survey conducted the further discovery into the process by which TROs are made, and how TRO data is made available (link below): The data section (p12-18) and recommendations (p32) demonstrates the how this user-centric research has brought much further insight and detailed responses for improving the user journey, specifically by the creation of the TRO data model. Improving the user journey – at present, it would not be possible to provide a single user journey capturing the provision of TRO data. As noted above, the TRO Discovery and Local Authority Data Discovery have found a fragmented landscape for TRO data that lacks accessibility and openness. The current legal minimum for data provision is a Local Authority publishing a text-based notice in a local newspaper and providing certain documents at their head offices during opening hours. In such scenarios, the user journey for the provision of usable data does not, in effect, begin. At the opposite end of the scale, some local authorities with greater digital maturity may share geospatial representations of their orders. However, data users told us that this data requires cleaning, is not provided in a consistent format, does not use consistent definitions, and is not necessarily sufficiently timely to meet their needs. |
The DfT/Geoplace TRO discovery highlighted that 400 authorities across Great Britain create an estimated 53,300 TROs annually to manage their road network at a projected cost of £126.4 million. This is a significant national cost.
The value is in making the data shareable, machine readable and to a consistent standard. The North Highland report emphasised the importance in focusing on high value local authority data sets – it concluded that TRO data is one of these value sets.
The DfT will work with its analysts to value the benefit of the data – and the value of the data model, as part of the pilot process. The impact of the TRO Data Model Alpha will be to provide a consistent, accurate, high-quality data to address the user frustrations outlined above, and we will evaluate its impact with users as part of the Alpha.
The selected contractor will need to demonstrate that alpha provides a prototype/MVP that is sufficient to justify the decision about whether to move on to the beta phase or not. This will include the costs and benefits identified with the MVP.
To move on to the beta, we expect to be able to provide the prototype and TRO accessible data model, with conformity of data input and consistency of data output, which can demonstrate that meets users’ needs and is cost-effective.
On this basis, the DfT will determine whether to allocate the budget and resource necessary to deliver the beta stage.
Managing separation – we will take a collaborative approach to producing the procurement documents to achieve a common collective purpose from the start.
We will ensure that collaborative journey mapping is initiated from the outset as the most efficient way to improve these user journeys.
We will also make use of existing tools such as the chat program Slack to communicate and ensure that all relevant documentation and recorded discussion is searchable for partner dissemination. Weekly (and daily, if required) stand-ups will be held, making use of collaborative tools such as Trello for backlog management, to achieve ongoing engagement and accountability.
We will also conduct other agile ceremonies every sprint. This will include retrospectives so that our collaborative working is iteratively improved. We will also hold ‘show and tells’ every sprint to ensure members of the agile board (including the contractor, DfT, and the three local authorities) are kept up to date. In addition, the contractor will provide written reports to the project partners every sprint, outlining progress
The Department will provide specialist graduate resource who will regularly liaise with both partners and the contractor, and who can co-ordinate mitigations and solutions where issues and risks are recognised.
Governance Structure – will be light and sufficient to enable the agile team (for the most part, the contractor/faststreamer/technical expert) to work with the partners and other stakeholders to ensure that decisions are made at the right level.
The agile team will work with the Local Digital Collaboration Unit to ensure that the alpha provides delivery that is both consistent with the Local Digital agenda and the GDS Manual.