Introducing the Wellington Transport Analytics Unit

A Q&A with WTAU Unit Manager Andy Ford

What is the Wellington Transport Analytics Unit?
We are a group of highly skilled transport analysts and modellers who provide modelling and analytical services to our Wellington Region partners to support transport planning and analytics. 

How big is your team?
There are nine of us – you can read more about who we are what we do here: Wellington Transport Analytics Unit | Learn how we work and help 

Who are your stakeholders?
Our partners are Waka Kotahi, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, Kapiti Coast District Council and Wellington City Council, however we work with multiple local and national government agencies and are involved in multi-stakeholder projects across the sector. We are always open to collaborating with others, so if you think we can help your organisation please drop us a line!

What is transport analytics?
Good question. At its simplest transport analytics is the development of the evidence base – data, insights, model outputs  and most importantly interpretation – to support transport planning and decision making to ensure that investment decisions are well informed. 

What does this involve?
It consists of two components:
Modelling – We operate, maintain and run transport models large and small to help inform investment decision making
Analytics – we develop dashboards to monitor trends and derive insights across a broad range of metrics (car, PT, active modes, travel times, freight, safety) to provide the evidence base to inform project thinking and monitor progress.

Just transport?
No – long gone is the time when transport was thought of in isolation. It is now acknowledged that transport is an enabler of population growth, land use change and economic growth, so there is a lot of interplay in the work we do between transport, land use, growth and emissions. 

For example, the population of the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti has grown at a faster rate than Wellington City over the last 5 to 10 years – whilst not the only factors, the investment in roading (TG) and PT (rail improvements) have been two of the key drivers (excuse the pun) of this growth.

Land use is an integral part of a lot of the work we do nowadays. For example, the work we recently completed for the Future Development Strategy focussed on understanding what different urban forms could mean in terms of travel demand, VKT, emissions and enabling infrastructure, to inform the decision making process and development of the preferred scenario. 

We have developed a cool dashboard for the WRLC to provide information and data around housing to inform decision making in the public and private sector. This is very much a phase 1 products and we are working with the WRLC and stakeholders to add economic, environmental and transport data to tell a more complete picture and draw out the key insights. 

This is really cool stuff! When we can find out more?
Yes, it is!  We have some stuff on our website and will be looking to add more.  

This e-newsletter is the first of a series of monthly articles from the Unit. The next edition in March will focus on some of these projects to give you more of a flavour of what we do. In subsequent editions we will talk about some of the transport trends we are seeing and try to demystify modelling 

What is your unique selling point 
We are a trusted source of knowledge regarding transport data, trends and modelling advice and it is this combination of subject matter expertise and local knowledge that helps us provide value to stakeholders.

We’re in a unique position where we have oversight across all the major transport projects with a modelling / analytical component across the Wellington region. This means that we can ensure consistency of analysis between different projects, apply learnings from one project to others across the region and really influence and inform decision-making. 

And can we end with a modelling quote?
We sure can. One that stands out is George Box a British statistician who said “all models are wrong, some are useful”. 

His point was that we should focus more on whether a model can be applied to everyday life in a useful manner, as opposed to endlessly debating if any answer is correct in all cases… 

This quite neatly captures how the industry is evolving, focussing less on a singular forecast (one view that has a very small probability of eventuating) to multiple scenarios to help with planning.  

This is a topic we hope to visit in more detail in a future session! 

How do we find out more?
We have a website that contains some information on projects, technical notes relating to our transport models (warning: they are quite technical, but we like to be transparent and open around our models and the technical nitty gritty) and some mugshots of the team: Wellington Transport Analytics Unit | Learn how we work and help 

You can also contact us via our website Wellington Transport Analytics Unit, or contact: Andrew.ford@gw.govt.nz