How can Open Data increase quality of life?
Publication Date/Time
2017-06-14T09:15:00+00:00
Some practical examples of Open Data and leisure
While for some of us life in a city is associated with diversity,
liveliness, and fast pace, for others living in a city can represent a
real stress factor. This is an aspect that many local governments are
trying to tackle in their quest to increase the quality of life of the
city inhabitants. Where does Open Data come in in this scenario and
how can it help make life in the city more pleasant?

When we look at the most popular categories in terms of page views on
the European Data portal, the categories 'Regions & Cities
[/data/en/dataset?groups=regions-and-cities&q=]' and 'Transport
[/data/en/group/transport?q=&sort=score+desc%2C+metadata_modified+desc]'
rank highest in terms of page views. The latter category offers
practical information for city inhabitants including public transport
schedules [/data/en/dataset/public-transport-schedules-gtfs],
information on disruption of public transport
[/data/en/dataset/sl-storningsinformation-21] and planned road works
[/data/en/dataset/highways_agency_planned_roadworks]. This is an
example on how Open Data can make life in cities more pleasant by
helping commuters plan alternative routes for their journeys to avoid
unnecessary waiting time on the road. As shown by the Creating Value
from Open Data Report
[/sites/default/files/edp_creating_value_through_open_data_0.pdf],
using Open Data in traffic can save 629 million hours of unnecessary
waiting time on the road in the EU.

A great example of citizen-friendly approach is given by the City of
London Transport Agency (Transport for London - TfL) that for example
provides Google with data regarding planned road works and disruptions
in public transport before the datasets are published on the TfL
website, in order to ensure a timely embedding of such information
into the Google maps service. In addition, for those cycling through
the big city, London also made its data on road inclination available,
thus enabling cyclists to plan their route while having all the
information they need.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/featured-data_20170614_image_1.png]
 

The same citizen-friendly approach can also be observed in the German
city of Wuppertal, which not only opened up its data regarding cycling
lanes, pavements and road inclination, but is also providing
information on lighting on given routes. This data
[/data/en/dataset/bf7e8103-59c6-46d6-8a39-29118f84a3f5] is being
harvested by the European Data Portal and is being updated on a
monthly basis. Going one step further, the data was picked up by
applications such as mapmyride [http://www.mapmyride.com/] which
provides cycling 'aficionados' with various cycling routes in
Wuppertal, including information of the soil elevation, the difficulty
of the route and also introduced gamification elements to its website
by providing challenges, badges and awards to the application users.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/featured-data_20170614_image_2.png]
 

With summer knocking at the door in many cities, Open Data on lakes
and ponds in cities also provides a great source of recreation from
the stress of the city life, especially to those new to a city who are
in search of a (sun)bathing spot nearby. The city of York leads by
example in this regard by opening up its data on lakes and ponds
[/data/en/dataset/lakes-and-ponds].
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/featured-data_20170614_image_4.png]
 

Do you want to explore what data your city has made available so far?
Then visit the European Open Data portal
[/data/en/dataset?q=&_groups_limit=0&groups=energy] and discover the
available datasets. Want to find out more on how cities across Europe
use Open Data to improve life quality of their inhabitants? Then check
out the recently published European Open Data report on Open Data in
Cities
[/sites/default/files/edp_analytical_report_n6_-_open_data_in_cities_2_-_final-clean.pdf].
