3.2 Motion Map

We're all used to driving ourselves - getting lost, getting frustrated. But the IT revolution is opening up a whole load of new possibilities. In Milton Keynes self-driving pods will soon be providing short distance travel around the centre. Such driverless designs offer the potential to entirely reinvent public transport systems.

MK:Smart is an Open University led 16 million pound initiative involving a consortium of local and national partners.

The transport work in MK:Smart seeks to support all sorts of initiatives to address our transport problems.

Radically improving the city's transport system requires real time access to a lot of data. Like it or not we live in a big data society, but can we have big data without big brother?

What we are exploring at The Open University is more of a Wikipedia type approach where users call the shots and have more say. This is the approach that we're adopting from a motion map here in Milton Keynes. This provides real time travel information for residents in the area. A motion map will combine data from transport operators with information people provide themselves. All this can be customised to individuals and trips. And here's how it will look on a smartphone giving you information about how busy the shops are, where you can park, and perhaps if you're going back on the bus whether the bus is rather full and you prefer to wait to have a coffee in the meantime.

But what is really important is the motion map provides a database which other people can use to develop new transport services and systems. It's a real platform for innovation. So, for example, motion map could provide information to design services for those with special needs, set up a cab sharing app, or work out the best places to extend the driverless pods. It’s an open and democratic data system to enable people, community groups, and innovative businesses to develop new services. So rather than big data being authoritarian and controlling, we're looking at how it can be designed to liberate new thinking and new ideas.

That fits with the core values of The Open University and is the sort of smart city we really want.