Newcastle City Council has launched a website to indicate the density of people in one of the city centre’s main streets.
It said the site, named howbusyistoon.com and focused on Northumberland Street, will help to maintain social distancing around the city centre.
It has been developed by the council with the National Innovation Centre for Data at Newcastle University the NE1 business improvement district.
The website uses real time information from sensors and a traffic light system: green indicates that football is low and there is sufficient space to safely social distance; amber shows it is average and may be getting close to capacity; and red shows it is high and it is better to delay entering the area.
It also provides real time information on car parking spaces.
A spokesperson for the council said there is no immediate potential for expanding the service into other streets as there is no other real time footfall data. There had been plans to install sensors elsewhere but these have been placed on hold by the coronavirus pandemic.
Image by Christopher Down, CC BY 4.0
