The feasibility study focused on the assessment of computing and telecommunications
infrastructure needed for the implementation of a comprehensive and accurate traffic
and travel information system that promotes urban sustainability and social inclusion.
Using the developed infrastructure we have demonstrated the feasibility of the information
granulation methodology in the context of traffic and travel data processing. An important
practical objective of this research was the development of a prototype advanced travel
information system (ATTAIN).
The theoretical and practical objectives of the feasibility study have been fully
achieved and indeed exceeded, in that the original proof-of-concept ATTAIN system has
been shown to be sufficiently robust and efficient that it could be released for use by
general public in Nottingham in December 2001. Consequently the ATTAIN became the first
system of its kind that has proven its ability to handle thousands of complex travel
enquiries by general public in the context of a relatively large multi-route transportation
system. The system has now been adopted by the Nottingham City Council as a standard
wireless travel information system in Nottingham and will also provide real-time bus
travel information.
Following the Government’s White Paper it is argued that better information about
urban transport alternatives, as afforded by the ATTAIN system, will contribute to the
reduction of the use of private vehicles (thus contributing to cleaner air and enhancing
the sustainability of city centres) as well as the overall increase of mobility and
accessibility of people to services (social inclusion).
The research also contributed to the improvement of understanding of the role and
potential of granular computing as a means of deriving and manipulating information
abstractions. The granular computing approach represents a novel and very promising
development in computer science.
This EPSRC funded project led to a successful
technology
transfer