For the next 2 weeks, 32 ANPR number plate reading cameras are being used to track traffic around Bath to better understand where people drive their cars from and to, and at what time of day. This is part of B&NES council’s project to try to reduce air pollution caused by road traffic. The data from the project will help the council understand why people our driving and the potential benefits of different measures they might introduce to reduce the need to drive.
Transition Bath has been asking for this to be done for some time, as we felt that would be difficult without the information to provide concrete justification for any transport related investment without a better understanding of the traffic flow patterns. We have also asked whether the resulting data could be added in an anatomised form to the Bath: Hacked data store so that the community can provide their own analysis of the data. We are however unhappy that the council didn’t start their survey last week during the school holidays which would have provided a much greater insight into the ‘School run’ problem and back up Transition Larkhall’s manual surveys which suggest 50% of Bath’s traffic might be caused by the school run.