Transport for London (TfL) releases new open data feeds to help Londoners find station parking spaces and avoid congestion

Live information on the number of parking spaces available in London Underground car parks, as well as improved traffic camera information that will help drivers avoid disruption, are the latest open data feeds to be released by TfL to help make journeys easier for customers.

The data, available free of charge at http://tfl.gov.uk/developers, is being released as part of TfL’s commitment to make the information it holds openly available to create better products and services that can be brought to customers quickly. They join an extensive range of TfL data feeds already available, such as live travel information for all TfL services and details of planned roadworks and live road incidents, which help millions of people plan their journeys around London each day.

Almost 500 mobile phone and online apps are already powered by TfL’s open data, providing up-to-the-minute information about London’s public transport and road networks. The new data feeds will further help drivers better plan their journeys and contribute towards reduced congestion. They include:

• London Underground car park data: Information about all 61 London Underground station car parks is now available online, including location, cost and the number of spaces. For 23 of these, a dynamic feed is available to inform people how many spaces are currently being used. TfL is working with its contractors to investigate expanding the feed to cover all London Underground car parks in the future.

• Video Jam Cams: As well as static images from TfL’s “JamCams”, which provide regularly updated images of the TfL Road Network across London, developers can now also access five second looped videos – similar to a Vine – from available TfL cameras. This allows people to see how traffic is moving along particular roads to help better understand live traffic conditions. The videos have also been incorporated into [TfL’s live traffic website–>www.tfl.gov.uk/trafficnews]

• Further improvements and data feeds are planned throughout this year: These include simpler access to the annual road safety data, improvement work on tunnels and further data on schemes which are modernising the road network. TfL is also investigating how to make complex fares information more accessible for developers.

Future plans also include using historic and real-time data to provide more information on the predicted status of the public transport and road networks to provide customers with alerts in advance.

Francisca Delgadillo, Transport for London