As executive general manager for business technology at Auckland Transport, Roger Jones is responsible for making sure technology is central to transport solutions in New Zealand’s most populated region.

Jones and the team have delivered a number of initiatives in the past two years to help improve how Aucklanders get around the region safely.

Personalised active mode journey planner

During the year, AT has developed and implemented the ability to include walking and cycling into its journey planner for transport journeys.  The unique feature allows the end user to set the average speed that they walk or cycle into their preferences, and the results of a journey planner using walking and cycling components will reflect the correct timing based on those speeds, as well as highlighting how cycle-friendly each option is.  This is unique to AT, and not available on other journey planners worldwide, says Jones.  It has received positive feedback from users of active modes.

Using CCTV data to detect dangers

During the past year, AT has designed, implemented, and built a system with CCTV analytics that looks into vehicles’ windscreens at intersections with high-crash rates.  Using analytics, the system can detect if the driver is wearing a seatbelt, whether they are holding something in their hand, and whether that item is a cellphone or something else.  This was trialled at five intersections, which produced a number of incidents and learnings of this technology, which is helping Auckland Transport to refine it further. 

"The resulting data and insights will enable AT to target locations for safety campaigns and interventions.  In future, this data will be summarised and fed to enforcement agencies to assist with policing the intersections at the right times of the day to enforce the relevant offences and deter drivers.  Not only does this collaboration with police help police to more efficiently use their resources, but it will also lead to a direct reduction in deaths and serious injuries to road users due to inattention at intersections.  The data also helps AT to prepare policy and positioning papers for government on this issue, again with the direct intent to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads," says Jones.

Using CCTV analytics technology, the team is now able to detect buses that run red lights.  "Historically, there was no measurement of the size or impact of this problem, and it was difficult to educate bus drivers who believed there was no problem," says Jones.  "Problem and problem size identification is critical to changing the culture of red light running in Auckland. This is measured by how many milliseconds between lights changing to orange and red that the bus enters the intersection.  This information is used to inform bus companies of the size of the problem, problem intersections, and problem bus routes.  Reduction of red light running will directly reduce the number of accidents and serious harm injuries at intersections."

Replacement of 'report a problem'

Until recently, any Auckland citizens and users of the transport network wanting to report any issues / problems on the network had to use a basic webform which was not very user friendly and had no assistance or drop-down lists.  Accessing it from the website was tricky, with prohibitive and unnecessary processes to follow in order to begin providing feedback.  It was difficult to use, which was reflected in only about 500 cases being raised each month. 

AT’s Customer Central innovation and user experience hub worked with real customers to design and trial a new, more intuitive, and user-friendly Dynamics CRM portal interactive form.  Removing the previous barriers to access has resulted in 1000 cases per month being raised for the first two months; this number is expected to grow as this communication channel is promoted to customers.

This new approach extended and leveraged existing AT technology to meet a wider functional purpose, reducing our number of apps, and moving the solution to SaaS. It also allows greater self-serviceability for customers online.  Data verification and validation has been incorporated, meaning information is more accurate, and issues/queries are now able to be automatically routed to the relevant support teams to address / resolve.  

This automation has significantly improved business response times, reduced wrong routing, and streamlined the process for staff at the back-end.  Staff time has been freed up to focus on more value-add work rather than just assigning tickets.  Customer service has been improved, as customers are able to link cases to their AT account (creating a history of their cases, able to be accessed online via their web login), and cases now send acknowledgements, providing customers with better case details (including case numbers), and leading to more efficient follow-up activity.  The user can also track where their case is at and what the resolution is from their mobile device.  Introducing a quick and simple method of contacting AT online reduces the need for customers to email or ring the call centre.

The new system collects more statistics which will help AT to understand the user experience, locations, and issues, which will enable proactive future enhancements, says Jones.