In the midst of great disruption can come an even greater opportunity. Covid-19 has created a massive disruption in how we use the UK's buildings (the 'built environment'). Thousands of businesses have closed their offices -- either temporarily or permanently. People 'forced' to work from home have found they are as productive as when they were in an office and their employers are rethinking their need for office space (size, location, facilities). In some cases, no office at all; in others, an office for occasional team meetings. Retailers, restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops are closing outlets as shoppers and diners opt for online and home delivery, and there are fewer office workers for lunchtime purchases. The opportunity within this is that many organisations (including the UK Government) who own or operate the UK's built environment are rethinking what they now do with the office blocks and business parks that companies don't want to lease, and the high streets and shopping malls that losing more tenants by the day. The opportunity is to literally to 're-imagine how we use the UK's built environment' This project will deliver a tool to quickly and easily display the potential uses for any building or area in the UK. It will help answer the question, 'what can we do with this building/space'. And that's our proposal. We'll build a clickable map to 'score' every location in the UK on a range of user-selected criteria. It'll combine (for example) the current and planned Broadband speeds for every location, combined with Office of National Statistics, Land Registry, and Local council info, as well as our own TravelTime catchment areas (both 'normal' and 'covid safe' journeys). The tool will be easy to use, thus available to more than just Geographic Information Specialists and it'll be possible for users to select / deselect different data sets guided by an algorithm we'll create. It will turn a mass of data into actionable information. We call this project 'Re-Imagining the UK's Built Environment' (or RIBE) because that's what it will enable. For example, the owner of two empty shopping malls could see that one site might be best re-purposed as affordable housing (the tool displayed the site's proximity to schools, health facilities and the shortage of affordable housing in the area); the other site might be best suited as a warehouse (the tool displayed its travel time catchment area and proximity to main road / rail /airports and the availability of a nearby suitable labour force). A business rethinking their need for office space could find a site for a new / smaller venue that all the team can reach occasionally (but not daily) with fast broadband and accessible via covid-safe forms of travel. Their staff could see new areas to live, maybe further away if they only have an occasional commute. Such a tool doesn't exist today -- but with this grant, we can build it and enable the reimagining of how to use the UK's built environment.

TravelTime Technologies have already built and commercialised a technology platform, accessed by API, that enables clients in 40 countries to analyse their own data by travel time, not distance. As one example, the NHS use our platform to determine where to locate health facilities within reach of an optimum population. However, Covid has changed travel times dramatically as mainline and underground stations have closed, bus and train timetables have changed, and road speeds have increased. This means that when planning the location of Covid testing centres (for example) 'Covid travel times' mean far more than 'normal travel times'. We've had multiple requests for a 'Covid TravelTime API' from government departments, NGOs, charities, health services and other organisations who are on the front-line tackling Covid. In response we have already mirrored our existing platform and in early May we will start testing our 'Covid TravelTime API'. We will deliver it free of charge to these front-line services, irrespective of their API usage. We believe this will be the only such API in the world and it will, without doubt, save lives. After Covid, when travel times return to normal, we will repurpose this 'mirror' API so that transport planners can use it to model the impact of proposed new transport infrastructure on the existing road, rail, bus and subway networks. What's innovative about this proposal is; 1) it builds upon an already patented, innovative and existing TravelTime platform without which the 'Covid TravelTime API' could not be built. 2) There is no equivalent 'Covid TravelTime API anywhere in the world. 3) our current API already is, and the Covid TravelTime API will be, available as a plug and play solution within the dominant GIS (Geographic Information Services) of Arcgis from ESRI, Alteryx, and the opensource QGIS -- there are few data planners in the front line teams battling Covid who don't use one (or more) of these GIS services. It means our API will instantly be available at a click of a button (literally) for just about everyone in the front-line organisations asking for it. And 4) post covid, when we repurpose the API for future infrastructure planning, again, nearly all transport planners use one or more of these GIS applications and we will have a ready route to market.

"This project is to radically improve the store locator pages that generate a vast number of inefficient journeys to local retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues. Every single second, there are 20,000 searches on Google for local information - it's over 1/3rd of all web searches. Most go to the store locator pages of 'bricks and mortar' venues; 76% result in a journey to a related store within 24 hours; 28% result in a purchase (www.thinkwithgoogle.com). The humble store locator page is one of the most trafficked pages on the web, and generally sourced from specialist store locator suppliers such as Bridge, Yext, Storemapper, Bullseye et al. However, nearly all store locator pages return results by distance (this store is 5.2 miles away, that one is 6.4 miles, etc), which is a highly inefficient way to plan a journey. Urban areas are home to 50%+ of the world's population and frequently plagued by congestion, pollution and scarce parking availability. Public transport, walking and cycling are often much faster, cheaper, healthier alternatives. iGeolise have built the TravelTime platform to rank and sort locations by the travel time and transport mode of the user's choice. This project will enable us to change how the TravelTime platform returns results, so that; 1\. it seamlessly integrates with existing specialist store locator providers so users can find venues by their available traveltime and transport mode. Deployed this way, TravelTime can quickly become available to many retailers. And 2\. the TravelTime platform will also power our own store locator page that any retailer can quickly and easily add to their web or mobile site (within 30 minutes, without great technical knowledge). The 'big vision' is to radically improve one of the most used yet inefficient pages on the web and mobile sites of every 'bricks and mortar' organisation in the world, and as a result to make local travel more efficient. To show where public transport is a better option than driving. To schedule several destinations (e.g. multiple shops, then a cafe) into an efficient route. To show locations (e.g. restaurants) convenient for several people to meet up - with their routes there and back. On a human level, the vision is to enable a chemist's store locator to answer this question for a mum whose child is ill, 'I don't have a car, which chemist can I reach before they close, using public transport and walking'?"

The market for fleet management software is worth about $8bn a year (source: Berg Insight 2013); Vehicle Routing and Scheduling is an inherent part of such software, but is just for routing vehicles - it is for road use only. There is no equivalent multi-modal routing software for commercial use. We propose to develop a fully multi-modal routing software for commercial use by extending the feature set within our existing TravelTime routing platform. The opportunity is significant. There were 310 billion road miles travelled in GB in 2014 (Source: Dept. for Transport) and 80 billion of these miles (25%) were for commercial purposes - HGVs, vans and cars being used for business. iGeolise believe that c.5% of the total road miles could be switched to public transport (around 16 billion road miles). Clearly 'switchable miles' are not HGV miles, nor vans delivering or picking up goods or carrying heavy / bulky equipment - but it could be vans currently just carrying people to jobs, and cars conveying people to meetings where they are need little more than a laptop. For this to happen there are 3 pre-requisites;1)Adequate public transport alternatives for the required commercial journey (which is why our estimates above are only for urban areas, where good public transport is generally available);2)Continued development and imaginative deployment of the Internet of Things, and ICT (such as tablets and augmented reality to demonstrate products) so reducing the need to transport carrying bulky / heavy items;3)And commercial routing software that is truly multi-modal and real-time. iRoute can be that software. iGeolise have already built the TravelTime platform that makes maps and data searchable by traveltime. It includes all transport modes (road, buses, trains, walking, cycling, ferries, trams ). The platform does 3 things. A) It can determine a travel time area from an origin (the area that can be reached within a given time using a given transport mode or modes. B) it ranks & sorts thousands of destinations by their travel time from an origin. C) it calculates the turn by turn, door to door route to each location, using all travel modes and returns the time, the true distance, and the travel cost to each. These 3 features are used by Zoopla, Countrywide and Foxtons (search for properties by their travel time from the office), and Jobsite (search for jobs within a commuting time), amongst many other clients. We propose developing iRoute by using our existing routing capability and adding the additional features required for commercial routing and scheduling. iRoute will be the equivalent of the best Vehicle Routing software but will include ALL transport modes. This will mean commercial organisations can route and schedule their staff using all transport modes and gain efficiencies by switching some of their road miles to public transport. In context HGVs drive nearly 16 billion miles a year - virtually the same as the van and car miles that could potentially be switched.

This project will develop iTravel, a smartphone-based interactive travel assistant, or "virtual journey assistant", providing end-to-end routing and proactive contextual information to the traveller, whether they are commuters or tourists. iTravel aims to bridge the gap between textual/map-based navigation and visual navigation/real-time interaction. iTravel will achieve this by combining (i) seamless multimodal routing and real-time traffic updates with (ii) automatically generated visual routes and automatically selected and location-sensitive visual checkpoints displayed on the smartphone's screen and (iii) real-time visual search through the smartphone's camera, allowing users to get a visual fix on their position and see an augmented view of their surroundings on the smartphone's screen, including travel information, directions, local landmark information, and local advertisements and offers. iTravel aims to provide a personalised, intelligent, proactive and interactive journey planning and mobility solution, offering seamless routing across multiple travel modalities to deliver a unique consumer experience.

The market for fleet management software is worth about $8bn a year (source: Berg Insight 2013); Vehicle Routing and Scheduling is an inherent part of such software, but is just for routing vehicles – it is for road use only. There is no equivalent multi-modal routing software for commercial use. We propose to develop a fully multi-modal routing software for commercial use by extending the feature set within our existing TravelTime routing platform. The opportunity is significant. There were 310 billion road miles travelled in GB in 2014 (Source: Dept. for Transport) and 80 billion of these miles (25%) were for commercial purposes - HGVs, vans and cars being used for business. iGeolise believe that c.5% of the total road miles could be switched to public transport (around 16 billion road miles). Clearly ‘switchable miles’ are not HGV miles, nor vans delivering or picking up goods or carrying heavy / bulky equipment – but it could be vans currently just carrying people to jobs, and cars conveying people to meetings where they are need little more than a laptop. For this to happen there are 3 pre-requisites; 1) Adequate public transport alternatives for the required commercial journey (which is why our estimates above are only for urban areas, where good public transport is generally available); 2) Continued development and imaginative deployment of the Internet of Things, and ICT (such as tablets and augmented reality to demonstrate products) so reducing the need to transport carrying bulky / heavy items; 3) And commercial routing software that is truly multi-modal and real-time. iRoute can be that software. iGeolise have already built the TravelTime platform that makes maps and data searchable by traveltime. It includes all transport modes (road, buses, trains, walking, cycling, ferries, trams …). The platform does 3 things. A) It can determine a travel time area from an origin (the area that can be reached within a given time using a given transport mode or modes. B) it ranks & sorts thousands of destinations by their travel time from an origin. C) it calculates the turn by turn, door to door route to each location, using all travel modes and returns the time, the true distance, and the travel cost to each. These 3 features are used by Zoopla, Countrywide and Foxtons (search for properties by their travel time from the office), and Jobsite (search for jobs within a commuting time), amongst many other clients. We propose developing iRoute by using our existing routing capability and adding the additional features required for commercial routing and scheduling. iRoute will be the equivalent of the best Vehicle Routing software but will include ALL transport modes. This will mean commercial organisations can route and schedule their staff using all transport modes and gain efficiencies by switching some of their road miles to public transport. In context HGVs drive nearly 16 billion miles a year - virtually the same as the van and car miles that could potentially be switched.

When you board a train today it is noticeable that travellers are occupied with their connected devices in some way. What if their interaction included instant, useful and personalised travel information about their journey, whilst helping the travel operator to gain valuable personalised feedback data at the same time? In this project a unique platform will be designed, created and tested that helps a user to customise their travel experience based on large-scale data analysis of real-time information from data feeds, end user community contribution, transport systems and sensors.

At heart, the objective of this project is to get people back to the High Street; we propose to deliver this objective by building an application to help citizens and High Streets rediscover each other. iGeolise has already built the unique Travel Time Platform that searches maps by travel time - that platform makes this proposed Application possible. 1. We will build a ‘HIGH STREET SEARCH, ROUTING & DISCOVERY APPLICATION'. The key features are that a user can; a) SEARCH for location-specific information using the travel time they select (so, ‘shoe repairer within 20 mins’). By default, our demo application will use all transport modes simultaneously so at a glance, the user can see & compare the merits of each modes’ travel time, CO2 emissions and indicative cost. The application will automatically generate mixed mode journeys – so ‘drive / park & ride / walk the last leg of the journey’. b) See ROUTING to a destination (e.g. shoe repairer) – door-to-door, turn-by-turn, real-time updates as available. c) DISCOVER events, offers, exhibitions, fairs etc within a few moments’ walk of their destination, or their route. The DEMONSTRATION APPLICATION that we build will showcase the Search, Routing, and Discovery features (above) and work over an API to link to our Travel Time Platform. This is exactly how we envisage the UK’s top 10 local & regional press groups will use these features when we commercialise our solution (Phase 2). 2. MODELLING TOOL. Within this Phase 1, we will also conduct a feasibility study to determine whether we can build a modelling tool for transport planners so they can model changes to the transport infrastructure and guage the impact on the travel time catchment area of a High Street. If this tool is possible to build, we would do so in Phase 2. So - we will build a demo application based on our Travel Time Platform API, to showcase these 'search, routing and discovery' features. And then also conduct a feasibility study into building a modelling tool for transport planners. Each part of the application will help deliver more people to the High Street, as follows; SEARCH. Many shopping journeys today start with research on-line before buying off-line - this application conforms to that behaviour. Searching with all transport modes simultaneously means the user sees the merits of each and all modes (travel time / CO2 / cost); e.g. public transport to the high street vs driving to the retail park. ROUTING. The Application reinforces the ease of using public transport by showing the door-to-door route (useful since infrequent public transport users may not know the right bus number or stop). DISCOVERY. The High Street does (or must) offer more than retail; the discovery feature shows the user what else is going on within moments of their destination or route and since most town centres have a range of nearby activities while most retail parks have none, this feature highlights the attractiveness of the High Street. MODELLING TOOL. Sometimes adding bus stops / routes / frequency can dramatically increase the catchment area of the High Street, and this tool would allow the transport planners to model the impact of proposed changes.

We are applying for challenge 3 - 'developing a scalable on-demand mobility solution to help employees or visitors reach businesses within a city'. Our project uses travel time to enable employees and visitors to find businesses; so travel time rather than distance. City businesses include for example shops, restaurants, offices, garages, gyms, and cinemas - these are all locations that residents and visitors will travel to, and when traveling, time is more important than distance. The only way to filter location-specific content currently is distance - the 'within X miles' search box used by most web sites - but distance simply isn't very helpful. A location 5 miles away might take 10 minutes if on a fast connection, but 2 hours if it's not; it might take 1 hour on a weekday morning but 5 minutes on a Sunday morning. Travel Time typically doubles the number of relevant results compared to distance, but its usefulness extends far beyond searching for those places we want to visit; it can also (for example) a) compare all different transport modes for the journey (so contrasting cars to public transport); b) provide optimum routing - both direct to the destination, but also routing via other specific points if required. c) define catchment areas for councils when considering business planning applications; d) help businesses to plan office relocations by analysing the impact on their staff's commuting time; e) simplify and optimise car-pooling and car sharing schemes; f) improve mail order delivery services, and the increasingly popular 'click collect' schemes run by many retailers. Our project is to enable cities (the residents, employees, visitors, and the city administrators) to plan their travel by time rather than distance, and this will save time, congestion, cost and CO2 emissions. What makes this project possible is that iGeolise have already built the Travel Time Platform which makes location-specific content searchable by travel time. The platform is unique, is patent pending in the UK and USA, and has been built to scale (currently live across the UK, USA, and Thailand; goes live on 2 of the UK's largest websites in Q4 2013). This project will enable us to add three new features to the Platform which will deliver great value to a 'smart city'. 1) calculate CO2 emissions for a journey; 2) calculate the cost of a journey; and 3) update and refresh results based on real-time information (i.e. X bus route is closed, don't show results that rely on using that bus route). The Travel Time Platform is accessed via an API - which means that developers can include Travel Time into existing applications / websites / mobile applications as well as into new ones, which greatly reduces the time to market.

iGeolise has built the Travel Time Platform; it ‘turns distance into time’ and is live across GB. There is great value in the difference between distance and time - for example, by licencing Travel Time to a community business directory, their users can search for (say) chemists within ‘a 15 minute walk' (or drive, cycle, bus, etc.) rather than 'within X miles' as now. Travel Time typically doubles the number of relevant results displayed; it works on any web enabled device (PC, smartphone, tablet etc). This project adds two fundamentally valuable elements to the Platform; searching by 'time of day' and 'click to see the fastest route' to any selected content. It requires integrating all public transport timetables and road traffic flow information, but the core Platform was been built with this development in mind. The benefits that will accrue for the UK are economic, social and environmental. Travel Time is a unique search facility, developed in the UK, and with global potential.