Plotting the route from research engineering to policy: a Quarto geospatial analytics toolkit built with and for local government

Local authorities hold a wealth of geospatial transport data that has the power to provide critical insights intotransport networks in their constituencies. However, this data may not be research-ready or maximised to thefull due to constrained resources.Urban Ride Research is a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the West of England CombinedAuthority (WECA) to tackle this gap. We developed a Quarto toolkit for transport data analysis, including adashboard with interactive plotting that draws on both WECA data and open-source demographic data to provideanalytical insights. The toolkit is designed to be flexible to meet WECA’s needs: it is written in Python, andQuarto was chosen so that R developers can extend the work in their preferred language. It also supports easycustomisation of analysis depending on the policy use case. To support longevity, we are developing trainingand documentation, so WECA has autonomy over the code and future development.A central use case has been WECA’s Kids Go Free scheme, that delivered over 910,000 free under-16 bus journeysin summer 2025, and which the toolkit allows analysts to interrogate by comparing usage patterns across holidayand term-time periods. Beyond data science, this collaboration has opened channels between local governmentand researchers, through a data sharing agreement and developing reusable analysis tools.The talk will explore the role of RSEs in working with local government to understand their needs, ambitions andpolicy landscape, to provide tools that empower policy makers in data-driven decision making.