Information notsosuperhighway

I wrote recently about service failures in extreme conditions – and that it’s generally more useful to try and understand where systems have gone wrong than to point fingers. But I concluded by saying that I’d found a public service example where one could stand on safer ground and say “this was done badly”.

A few commenters have observed that in times of disrupted service communication and good quality information become more important than ever. This is an example of an information and communication failure.

I set out very early on Wednesday morning to drive to London. Conditions were atrocious, and the news had reported multiple tailbacks on the motorways. I needed to know where they were, as I faced a straight choice between M25/M40, or going straight up the A roads, to get to West London. I could guess which would be worse, but why should I have to?

I have an app on my iPhone – a wonderful looking thing from the Highways Agency (HA), called “Live Traffic Info”. Now I’m well aware (from a previous job with one of the big systems providers) of the detail and quality of the information collected in real time by the HA on traffic conditions. I’ve been round the big centre in Birmingham where it’s all analysed and mapped in real-time. Roadside sensors and other technologies give a very detailed picture of what’s going on. Sophisticated comparisons are done with average operating conditions to give accurate estimates of the delays likely on any particular route. It’s good stuff.

I know this data also supplies a feed to the telephone service, which tends to perform well, and the web service, which I haven’t used. So this app should be great, shouldn’t it? This is exactly the type of high-utility data we’re all trying to get released and mashed-up, isn’t it?

I fired up the app. I navigated to the Motorways section and hit the first problem straight away – due to some glitch the same information was showing for every motorway – to wit, a big long list of all ‘incidents’ on the entire motorway network. And when I scrolled down to the information on the motorway I was interested in, things got even worse. This wasn’t real-time ‘incident’ information as such – this was planned roadworks and lane closures. There was nothing in this app that reflected the real conditions out there. I was listening to the radio telling me that the M25 in Kent was virtually impassable, and seeing the app tell me that everything was fine.

I didn’t take screen shots then, but I did have another try this morning – and found things had changed. And not for the better. Almost all motorways were showing no incidents or planned roadworks at all. The M6, with no planned roadworks. Fancy that. I hoped the “BREAKING NEWS” banner seen on opening the app might be a bit more useful. This is what it contained:

Yes, folks. That was the summary of England’s disruption at that point. Now, I don’t know what time window “Breaking news” is judged to fall within, but going straight to the M20 section, I’d expect to see something about that closure, no? And it’s there, sort of, but there are a few distinct oddities about the language. “Coastbound” has become “Eastbound” and there’s no mention of Operation Stack, just an “incident”.

Whoah, hang on: this screen shot is taken on Friday at 0753 and the incident time is given as 0938…YESTERDAY. So it’s all cleared now, isn’t it? (Note: I have pasted the sub-information on the M20 incident in the centre of the screenshot below, to save space)

Filled with confidence? No, me neither. On all the other motorways (and A roads), blankness. Nothing happening.

So I judge this to be a very poor piece of work. It’s bad on several levels: I know the data exists, somewhere – it’s just not feeding this app. If the app isn’t working properly, there’s no attempt to indicate data problems within it. And if it is, it’s putting off a whole sea of drivers who will think twice before trusting in what they’re told by a smartphone about traffic. And who might be put off for quite some time, even when good apps are produced.

I suggest that this app shouldn’t be available at all – not in this condition. It is literally worse than useless. I’ve written to the Highways Agency with this view (and popped in a hard copy of this post). Let’s see if they respond.