Alchera Technologies is an AI software startup providing real-time analytics to operate and optimise road infrastructure dynamically. As part of the infrastructure sector, we at Alchera wanted to ask how our approach of using large scale analytics using existing sensors can help uncover some of the finer details of the changes in transport and travel behaviour.
COVID-19 is disrupting every sector of the global economy in an unprecedented way.
Key to any response to the pandemic is the data which can help us understand how and why these changes
occur.
From Citymapper to Google, apps are giving us our first looks at some of the underlying behavioural changes
apparent in how our populations move around.
OUR ANALYSIS
In the graphs below, we have used our flagship product, Alpha, to analyse a subset of open source
cameras across greater London, using proprietary computer vision algorithms to count and classify vehicles,
pedestrians and cyclists travelling across key areas. All data1 and analytics shown here are from
measurements taken by our platform.
We are able to uncover some unique insights from the finer detail of our city-wide analysis of vehicle
traffic by type - a metric which is very challenging to access at low cost and scale. All of the source data
from this analysis come from open source cameras, and processed using our secure platform.
Video feeds represent a subset of the various data sources that Alpha integrates to form a real-time view of
mobility infrastructure. As time goes on, we hope to integrate air quality data amongst other sources to our
analysis to uncover further insights into how London is responding to Covid-19.
If our analysis, or the data we have generated has piqued your interest, feel free to get in touch
with the team for a demo and ways to integrate with and access Alpha, or to discuss how Alpha could help
you achieve better visibility over your infrastructure here.
Lockdown in the UK has had a significant impact on freight in the country.
We see that as the lockdown was approaching, there was an overall increase in freight across London.
After the lockdown was
announced, there was a sharp drop of both weekday and weekend freight.
The freight levels reflect the general level of consumption and demand in stores, shops and homes so
is
an important economic indicator for the city. We see now that the freight levels are slowly
approaching
the baseline levels from early in the year, which is signalling a slow return to normality.
We are building new insights on-demand. If this data is of interest please get in touch here
The buses on the roads is a slow indicator for the number of commuters that are travelling in the city.
We see that as the lockdown was announced the bus schedule was changed to reflect something more akin
to a weekend schedule and thus the weekday bus counts across London dropped significantly during
lockdown.
The Saturday and Sunday schedules were impacted less and some Sundays it has been almost same as the
baseline from January.
The overall bus traffic is slowly recovering now as some people are returning to work to their
offices.
The trend will also be impacted by the decisions made by the government and the London Mayor on
opening
up the tube and returning to a normal bus schedule.
We are building new insights on-demand. If this data is of interest please get in touch here
As the lockdown was announced, the traffic near Richmond Park was reduced significantly. We see that
the weekday traffic was not reduced as much as the weekend traffic, likely due to people still going
to
parks during their breaks on weekdays.
The car traffic around parks has recovered quicker than most other traffic in London, probably due
to
good weather and the possibility to be outdoors after a long period of spending time inside houses
and
apartments. As the lockdown is eased and summer weather picks up, we would expect the traffic to
increase even further, also for weekends.
We are building new insights on-demand. If this data is of interest please get in touch here
Vehicle traffic around Heathrow decreased 1-2 weeks earlier than air traffic.
We took a look at vehicle traffic around Heathrow airport and observed a drop of almost 90% in
vehicle
traffic following the lockdown announcement. This drop in traffic occurs before the drop in number
of
available flights - in week 12, a week early compared to the general reduction in road traffic from
the
lockdown. We can also see an initial decrease beginning from week 9 as the FCO travel advice was
becoming progressively more restrictive in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Both the air traffic and the vehicle traffic have remained below 20% of the pre-lockdown levels for
a
long period into the summer. This is likely to remain so until significant policy changes on travel
are
implemented at least in Europe, which will allow some travel to resume. The 14-day quarantine period
in
the UK and many countries in Europe is likely to act as a large deterrent on travel and until it is
eased, travel-related traffic is likely to remain low.
We are building new insights on-demand. If this data is of interest please get in touch here
As the lockdown was introduced we see traffic drop all across London and at all different times. We
see
that while the peak morning traffic was reduced all across London, the central London morning
traffic
remained consistently above the rest of Greater London. This is likely due to use of taxis and
ride-hailing and people in the outer areas remaining at home. We see now from the longer trend that
the
morning traffic in central London is nearing its pre-lockdown levels with the rest of Greater London
following suit.
The afternoon traffic didn't see big differences between central London and the rest of Greater
London
and we can see the traffic levels also nearing pre-lockdown levels. The afternoon traffic was not as
much impacted as the morning traffic.
The late evening traffic levels plunged to below 30% of the pre-lockdown traffic. This was mainly
because of the ordered shutdown of restaurants, pubs & clubs. This has been slow to recover, but as
restaurants are allowed to open, these traffic levels are picking up.
We are building new insights on-demand. If this data is of interest please get in touch here