Free tools to visualise service levels

DfT Connectivity Tool :

Connectivity Tool Lite: The Connectivity Tool Lite measures how well connected local authorities are. It scores accessibility to education, health, leisure, residential, shopping, and workplaces by location and using different transport modes including active travel, public transport and private cars. Connectivity Tool Full: Professionals working for local authorities can also request access to the full version - instructions here.

Carbon & Place :

Carbon.place hosts a great collection of free tools for communities, planners, and policymakers in the UK to understand their local carbon footprint. The tools are produced by the Energy Demand Research Centre (and formerly by CREDS). There are a number of fascinating maps and tools, however the ones that are particularly useful for the transport community are:

• Transport and Accessibility tool: This looks at how well-served people living in each LSOA are by different forms of transport, it includes car ownership rates and also the change in bus services between 2008 and 2023.

• Place-based Carbon Calculator (V2): This looks at the total carbon footprint of areas, with separate layers for cars, vans and flight emissions. It is useful to compare with the original version, and also contains a layer showing progress.

You can also follow the team behind Carbon.Place via their account on Github and download the source data here. Please ensure you use any attributions required.

Campaign for Better Transport & Podaris Bus Service Standard :

The Bus Service Standard shows a combined score for access to bus stops and frequency of services by local authority ward. It was created to help understand how much investment is needed in the bus network to ensure that people have access to functional public transport. The standard is customisable so users can assess how much of an area meets frequency and access levels they deem acceptable for their local authority. The Bus Service Standard is a good way to get an overall idea of the level of bus services and the areas that need improving - particularly when combined with local knowledge.

Data shine commute :

An interactive map of commuter origins and destinations based on the 2011 census created by Oliver O’Brien at UCL. This is now a little old (although the 2021 census data was collected during the COVID19 pandemic restrictions so will have anomalies). If you want to make your own map for 2021 you can download travel to work data from the ONS (links below).

Office for National Statistics :

The ONS produces its own interactive maps of areas. Some useful ready made ones are:

• Population density

• Work which includes distance travelled and methods of travel to work (note this is 2021 data so affected by the COVID19 restrictions)