Introduction
The Smart Places - Data for Places guidance methodology was utilised aiming to enhance the measurement and evaluation of the impacts of interventions at selected locations with the following Program partners:
- Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct
- Central Coast Council
- Cumberland City Council
This project aimed to demonstrate a standardised data-driven approach through a trial that would enable:
- An understanding of how places are being used, compare interventions and identify trends for place partners
- Efficient measurement and enriched datasets, which complement and enhance qualitative capture for the place partners’ Safer Cities program evaluation
- Showcase the Smart Places Data for Places methodology process and build awareness for place managers
Challenge
Research and findings from the Safer Cities survey conducted as part of the program found that people’s sense of safety in public spaces influences the routes they choose to take, and if they felt safer, they would be more likely to walk, catch public transport and go out after daylight more often. People also feel safer in activated public spaces with plenty of people around. Place managers such as local councils implement initiatives to activate and improve public spaces for the community. However, it's often challenging to measure how changes to public spaces can impact people’s perception of safety.
Traditionally, qualitative data is gathered through community engagement activities such as surveys, workshops and on-the-ground walkshops to gain feedback and assess the impact projects or initiatives have had on the community. This data is highly valuable, however, using data for people movement, travel routes, dwell time, economic activity and sentiment can help gain deeper insights into how people use public spaces and how this can impact the perceptions of safety. Quantitative data can be sourced from public or private datasets or by using smart technology such as sensors installed locally.
Following the methodology set out in the Data for Places guide and combining quantitative and qualitative data sources is an effective, evidence-based way to measure the impacts of place-based interventions. This approach also supports place managers to promote the benefits to the community and decision-makers, and builds a strong case for change, based on real impacts and insights.
Solution
Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct (RHIP)
RHIP is a State partner on the Safer Cities program. As 80% of the workforce at RHIP are women, RHIP embedded the program priorities into initiatives into public places across the health campus.
RHIP’s Safer Cities initiatives included community engagement and consultation, a lighting strategy and night-time master plan as well as a range of creative placemaking initiatives to activate public spaces and better connect pedestrian routes in the precinct from day to night.
The three main interventions were:
- 24-Hr Tea Break: A 24-hour activation outside the entrance to the Prince of Wales Hospital. The event ran from 14-15 December 2023, with the aim to encourage and welcome frontline health staff and shift workers to drop by for conversation, music, tea, coffee and food
- ‘When do I breathe?’ art procession: A free public event held on 24 April 2024 that commenced at UNSW's Scientia Lawn, led by a group of dancers and musicians, moving through RHIP at sunset into twilight, stopping at three locations across UNSW and the hospital precinct
- Lunar Sway lighting installation: A permanent lighting art installed on 4 September 2024 that illuminates a corridor in the health campus and enhancing feelings of safety and wellbeing for local workers and the broader community at night. The installation features glowing spheres with a changing composition of coloured light, inspired by lunar cycles, lights up each night with special sequences at sunrise and sunset.
In collaboration with RHIP, the Smart Places team applied the Data for Places methodology to develop a data initiative plan, which included developing a problem statement and identifying, exploring and assessing place-based data sources.
To answer the problem statement, nCounter sensors were installed at selected locations across the health campus to count the number and measure the movement of people. The data collected by nCounters measures count, movement and dwell time by picking up Bluetooth, WiFi and cellular signals from people’s mobile devices.
This data was analysed to draw out relevant insights to input into the evaluation of the impact of RHIP’s interventions and provide an understanding of current state of people movement in the precinct.
Central Coast Council
Central Coast Council trialled a combination of public space improvements and activation initiatives through the collaborative partnership Safer Cities: Her Way Program with Transport for NSW. Most notably, this included revitalising laneways, improving wayfinding signage and uplifting and enhancing Burns Place Park, William St Plaza and Kibble Park.
Council also held the Good Times Summer event program which was a vibrant family-oriented initiative aimed at promoting the place upgrades with activities and events happening in Gosford over summer of 2023-24. The events and interventions ran from Saturday 16th of December 2023 to Sunday 28th of January 2024, and included weekly twilight markets in Kibble Park, a city-loop shuttle bus, decorative lighting installations, projections and light shows, public art installations, live entertainment for children and adults across the CBD and a coffee cart activation in Burns Place Park to invite the community into the refreshed space.
The Smart Places team, in collaboration with Central Coast Council, applied the Data for Places methodology to develop a data initiative plan which included developing a problem statement and identifying, exploring and assessing place-based data sources. Datasets on digital activity, people movement, public transport patronage and economic spend were then acquired and analysed to draw out relevant insights to input into the evaluation of the impact of Central Coast Council’s interventions.
Cumberland City Council
Cumberland City Council participated in the collaborative partnership Safer Cities: Her Way Program with Transport for NSW. As part of the Program, Cumberland City Council implemented a combination of public space improvements and activation initiatives. This included upgrading a laneway in Guildford with new street furniture, lighting, public art mural, as well as installation of smart technology such as multi-function pole, a new CCTV camera, a free wireless phone charging station, a smart bin and provision for GPO and 3 Phase power. The Council also held the Back to Guildford Festival on 25 May, 2024, which included live entertainment, children’s activities, arts and crafts, food and market stalls to showcase the completed works to the community.
In collaboration with Cumberland City Council, the Smart Places team applied the Data for Places methodology to develop a data initiative plan which included developing a problem statement and identifying, exploring and assessing place-based data sources. Suitable datasets were then acquired and analysed to draw out relevant insights to input into the evaluation of Cumberland City Council’s interventions. A public facing data dashboard was also developed as part of this project, where the data was visualised in the form of charts, graphs and insights.
Outcomes
Smart Places outcomes areas:
- Collaboration and connection
- Equity, accessibility and inclusion
- Safety and security
Project outcomes
This project was successful in demonstrating the application of the Data for Places methodology and resulted in the following overall outcomes:
- the partners gained a detailed understanding of how their places are being used, the impact of their events and interventions and the ability to identify trends from a range of data sources, analysis and insights
- efficient measurement and enriched datasets, which complemented and enhanced the qualitative capture of data for the partners’ Safer Cities program evaluation and future planning
- a successful showcase the Smart Places Data for Places methodology process which has built awareness and confidence for place managers to adopt this approach on future place-based projects and interventions.
Key intervention outcomes
Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct
Quantitative data was collected using nCounter sensors installed across the precinct for data on people count, movement and dwell time before, during and after the Safer Cities program interventions implemented by RHIP.
Through the insights from this data, RHIP and Transport can effectively and accurately measure the impact of the Safer Cities interventions. It also helps to provide an overall understanding how people are moving in and around the precinct, including the most common routes taken, which supports RHIP’s future strategies and planning.
Based on the sensor data:
- there was a 77% increase in visitors and people stayed nearly 4 times longer during the 24hr Tea Break activation
- there was an increase of approximately 150 people during the ‘When do I breathe?’ art procession
- on average, there was 10% more people moving through the area after the Lunar Sway lighting art was installed.
Central Coast
Based on the quantitative data procured and the qualitative data from Council’s community engagement activities, Central Coast Council’s Safer Cities interventions led to an overall increase in people movement and activity as well as improved perceptions of safety in the Gosford study area.
This included:
- a significant increase in activity along Mann Street and the upgraded laneway, as well as in Burns Place and Kibble Park, which were key sites of activation, compared to the previous year
- the activity level in the late afternoon and early evening increased in both Burns Place and Kibble Park during the Good Times Summer Program period
- there was 11% increase in people arriving by public transport to Gosford during Good Times Summer Program compared to the previous year, based on Opal tap on/off data
- there was a 60% improvement in perception of safety overall, based on the community engagement activities
- there was an increase in the economic spend during some weeks of the Good Times Summer Program period but not an overall increase. This may be attributed to factors such as high cash-based sales, which are not captured in the dataset, low retail offering in the activation sites, free events organised for the festival program, and/or the high cost of living experienced by families.
Cumberland
The insights from the quantitative data support the findings from the qualitative data collected by Council’s community engagement activities overall. The Safer Cities interventions had a positive impact in improving the perceptions of safety in the Guildford laneway by revitalising the area into an inviting and welcoming place that attracted more people to use and spend time in the area. The data initiative will also help inform economic development and data driven planning for Council.
- based on the sensor data, the number of visitors increased by 5-6 times during peak hours (8.30am-5.30pm) in the period immediately following the laneway upgrade
- the average dwell time after the upgrade increased to over 1 minute from 16-30 seconds before
- on the day of the Back to Guildford festival (May 25, 2024), there were approximately 12,000 visitors recorded in and around the laneway and foot traffic remained high into the late evening, coinciding with the festival time from 3pm-9pm. The average dwell time in the laneway during the activation was over 11 minutes
- the anonymised transaction data showed an overall increase in economic spend in the post-upgrade period and particularly on the day of the Back to Guildford festival, notwithstanding that Guildford is traditionally a cash economy
- the responses from the surveys of local women and girls conducted by Cumberland City Council showed that in the daytime, the participants were five times more likely to feel safe after the upgrade, and feelings of safety after dark increased from 0% to 14.3%.