autobinggis (abg)

AutoBingGIS (ABG)

A Transport Planning Mapping App for

Windows 8.1 & 10

Developed with Newcastle City Council

in association with

The North East Combined Authorities

Automatica Limited

ABG Windows 8-10 OverviewV2 10 December 2015 Page | 1

Overview

ABG is a Microsoft store App that can be run on any Windows tablet, and PC operating Windows 8.1 or 10.

It can also be run on a Windows Server 2012 R2 with Remote Desktop1 licences that enable access to ABG

from any device that runs a Remote Desktop connection, including iPad Air2. In addition it will work on

Windows 7 using Oracle VM (requires a licenced copy of Windows 8.1/10). ABG relies heavily on transport

planning data such as accidents, networks etc. stored in SQL databases. The source of the SQL database

can be a local server, Microsoft Azure2 (a cloud environment), or even local to the tablet/PC.

The backbone of ABG mapping environment is Bing Maps3 (road, aerial and bird’s eye); in addition ABG

also supports OpenStreetMap4 (road), Google Maps5 (road and aerial). However Google Maps is only

available when ABG is displaying public data.

The data displayed by ABG can be public (usually stored on Microsoft’s Azure cloud), meaning anyone with

the ABG app can display the information; or private, in this case the information is restricted to users that

have been granted the necessary privileges by an ABG Simple Web Token6 (SWT); this data can be stored

anywhere.

In addition to displaying static data ABG utilises a number of web services, and web APIs (Application

Program Interface), that enable complex accessibility statistics and routing information to be extracted from

highway and public transport networks as well as accessing realtime information, such as roadside CCTV.

Windows 8 and 10

The first version of ABG was developed for Windows 8, and upgraded to meet the requirements of 8.1

including a major upgrade of Microsoft’s Bing mapping engine, which, unfortunately, was not compatible

with 8, but is fully compatible with 10.

There are major differences in style between 8.1 and 10, as Microsoft addressed the various concerns

about 8 that users had raised, in particular, that it had tried, unsuccessfully, to be both mouse and touch

friendly. In 10 a start button is back and it can operate in either tablet or desktop mode making it easier to

operate with a mouse whilst maintain the touch environment when operating in tablet mode. ABG operates

well in both modes; however getting to grips with the more sophisticated options associated with snapping

two (or even more) apps together, such as ABG and a PDF reader, takes a little bit of patience, particularly

as this functionality operates subtlety differently in tablet and desktop modes. Once this expertise is

acquired 10 does provide an enriched environment for ABG, with or without touch.

Should users upgrade to 10, as far as ABG is concerned, it makes little difference other than in the way

snapping, as mentioned above, operates. However, given that 10, as of 1 September 2015, overtook 8 and

Vista to grab 5.2% of the PC market in just 4 weeks and is likely to overtake 8.1 by Christmas, certainly 10

is the way forward. Hence it would be sensible for any 8 or 8.1, and even 7, users to take advantage, if

offered, of the free upgrade to 10.

Azure

Microsoft’s Azure Cloud offers a vast range of services and facilities in its 200 or more datacentres

throughout the world. From ABG’s viewpoint it enables vast quantities of data to be made available through

the use of SQL Azure and data analysis engines (web services and APIs) hosted in virtual machines at

1 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc753650.aspx

2 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb

3 http://www.bing.com/maps

4 https://www.openstreetmap.org

5 https://maps.google.com

6 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/hh781551.aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc753650.aspx

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb

http://www.bing.com/maps

https://www.openstreetmap.org/

https://maps.google.com/

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/hh781551.aspx

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extremely low prices. For example, a 250GB database can be hosted on Azure7 from as little as £10 per

month with a powerful virtual machine (VM) costing around £70 per month when permanently on. However

if a VM is powered down there is virtually no cost while it is in that state; note: database storage cannot be

powered down.

ABG Mapping

ABG supports the following mapping environments:-

Bing Road

Bing Aerial

7 https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/pricing/

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Note: not all areas have the higher quality resolution.

Bing Bird’s Eye

The view point can be rotated successively by 900 to give 4 different view angles. Not available

everywhere.

OpenStreetMaps

Unlike Bing maps this map can be faded and this can be useful when highlighting a plotted layer,

such as Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs)

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Google Road (public data only)

This map can be faded.

Google Aerial (public data only)

This map can be faded.

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Bing Traffic

All maps other than Bing Bird’s Eye support the Bing near realtime traffic layer; below is OpenStreetMaps

with traffic:-

The same map with fading

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Locating an Address

ABG uses Bing’s address finder as shown below. First tap/click on Find Address then enter an address or

postcode in the box.

Tap/Click Go to pans/zooms to the location and marks it with a +

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Display an Address

Tap/click the Display Address button, then tap/click on the map and the address will be displayed in the

Cyan coloured box.

Bing - Traffic and Journey Time

Using current traffic conditions ABG can display a journey time and route between two points, the example

below shows the route and journey times.

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Census 2011

Overview

Automatica has created Azure SQL tables containing a subset of the 2011 Census for England, Wales and

Scotland. England and Wales are contained in the same tables, with Scotland having separate tables as

the spatial units are subtlety different north of the border.

The following tables are available:-

English/Welsh regions, age, car ownership, road traffic collisions

English/Welsh MSOAs, age, car ownership, journey to work modal split

English/Welsh LSOAs, age, car ownership, journey to work – origin, destination

English/Welsh OAs, age, car ownership

English/Welsh wards, age, road traffic collisions

Scottish regions, age, car ownership, road traffic collisions

Scottish intermediate zones, age, car ownership

Scottish data zones, age, car ownership

Scottish OAs, age, car ownership

On the next page there are a number of examples:-

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Regional Analysis Cars per Person

Regional Analysis by Age

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Journey to Work LSOA (Lower layer Super Output Area)

Journey to Work – Home to Work

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Journey to Work – Modal Split

Output Area Analysis by Age

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Ward Analysis by Age

Road Traffic Collisions - Analysis with Polygon

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Regional Analysis by Age Scotland

Road Traffic Collisions Trend Analysis by Scottish Wards

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Cycle Road Traffic Collisions in a Scottish Ward

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Realtime Data Tyne and Wear

Overview

On behalf of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority8, Newcastle City Council commissioned

Mott Macdonald to provide an open data service9 (ODS) to give third party access to transport datasets

sourced from Tyne and Wear’s urban traffic management control (UTMC) system. Mott Macdonald’s role

involved delivering the ODS platform, application programming interface (API) and public website.

Automatica has exploited this ODS by way of a set of APIs hosted on Azure that interface with ABG. The

realtime data that is currently available from within ABG is:-

Carparks

Currently there are only 3 carparks that report realtime information, but others are expected to come online

shortly.

8 The powers of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority passed to the North East Combined Authority on 1 April 2014.

9 https://www.mottmac.com/article/6034/the-north-east-combined-authority-open-data-service-uk

https://www.mottmac.com/article/6034/the-north-east-combined-authority-open-data-service-uk

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Journey Times

CCTV Still Pictures

Images will automatically refresh every 10 minutes or so.

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Delays associated with Road Traffic Collisions

Incidents

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Roadworks

Weather

Other data sources such as variable sign messages will be coming online shortly.

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Accessibility

Overview

ABG has access to two powerful web services, developed by Automatica, one for the highway network and

one for the public transport network. These web services not only produce routeing and journey time

information but also accessibility mapping and statistics.

Highway

Currently ABG supports two types of highway network:-

Ordnance Survey’s ITN10 (Integrated Transport Network) in association with Trafficmaster speed

data11. These are commercial products and can only be used in association with appropriate

licenses from Ordnance Survey and Trafficmaster (a division of Teletrac). Automatica uses SWT

tokens and other methods to control access to this data type when it is stored on Azure or

elsewhere.

Ordnance Survey’s Open Roads12. This network, although simpler than ITN in that, for example,

there is no direction associated with a link, is robust enough to provide an excellent data source for

providing basic highway accessibility statistics. Automatica has estimated average link speeds

based on link type and length. ABG’s network date, April 2015, can be used without any licence.

The example, below, shows an accessibility plot for Boldon, South Tyneside, and identifies 6665

Output Areas (6302 with jobs plus 363 with only population and workers) that can be reached in 45

minutes by car. The accessibility statistic13 of 81.8% reflects access to Jobs, Workers, Population,

stations and airports.

Highway Accessibility

10

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/itn-layer.html 11

http://www.teletrac.co.uk/trafficmaster 12

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-open-roads.html#Technical-specification 13

email: [email protected] for a spreadsheet example.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/itn-layer.html

http://www.teletrac.co.uk/trafficmaster

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-open-roads.html#Technical-specification

mailto:[email protected]

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Public Transport

ABG utilises the Traveline National Dataset14 (TNDS) plus the Association of Train Operating Companies15

(ATOC) datasets; these datasets provide a comprehensive view of the vast majority of public transport

services in England, Wales and Scotland. There are some weaknesses in the use of this data in ABG, as a

very small percentage of routes have some invalid properties and have had to be disregarded; most

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) entries have been excluded as, in general, they only have a notional

representation in TNDS, and not all specialist services such as work/school/etc. are in TNDS. It is,

however, estimated that over 99% of services are correctly represented within the various databases used

by ABG. The current data used by ABG was imported at the beginning of October and has been filtered to

represent active services in the week beginning 28 September 2015.

Below are a couple of examples, the first is a simple route analysis between Edinburgh and Portsmouth,

and the second is an accessibility analysis for the centre of Gateshead.

Public Transport Route Analysis

14

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/traveline-national-dataset 15

http://www.atoc.org

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/traveline-national-dataset

http://www.atoc.org/

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Public Transport Accessibility Analysis

Web Services

Access

The highway and public transport web services, mentioned above, can be accessed independently by ABG

by way of a web API utilising a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)16. The output of this process is

spreadsheets, or files, in CSV format.

16

email: [email protected] for further information

mailto:[email protected]

autobinggis (abg)

Documents