Investigating freight rest stops across an entire network

Transport for London (TfL) wanted to understand where Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) stopped within and around London. Specifically, they wanted to know:

• Locations where LGVs and HGVs stopped, to help identify hotspots and possible rest facilities.
• The type of location (i.e. is it public or private land, and the road type).
• How long vehicles spent at a location, to help identify areas to implement possible re-charging and re-fueling infrastructure.

Compass Data Science team built a dashboard to help TfL identify where freight were stopping across the London LGA (and 10km beyond).

Of all recorded trips, the average stop time was 76 minutes, with the minimum being 10 minutes and maximum being 12 hours.

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The most common rest stops were made along:

• Church Hill Road, Sutton where most stopped vehicles were HGVs stopping for a short time (average of 14 minutes). Vehicles stopping here had travelled an average 21km;
• Vulcan Way, Croydon where most stopped vehicles were also HGVs stopping for a short time (average of 18 minutes). Vehicles stopping here had travelled an average 52-64km;
• Thurston Road, Lewisham where stopped vehicles were only HGVs, stopping on average for 35 minutes.

TfL are using this dashboard to understand how freight are behaving across their road network, and to identify where clusters were beginning to develop to notify and share with respective boroughs.

This dashboard is part of the RILM project is supported by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. To read more about the RILM project, visit https://www.compassiot.com.au/uk/ri-for-london-mobility.