Better Public Services article: Smart Dublin's Active Travel Dashboard
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From: Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
- Published on: 4 March 2024
- Last updated on: 19 March 2025
The Smart Dublin transformation team have launched an exciting new tool, called the Active Travel Dashboard. The Dashboard illustrates how evidence-informed services, using open data, can be used to deliver better public services and improve the lives of our citizens and our environment.
Smart Dublin brings together technology providers, academia and citizens to transform public services and enhance quality of life. Founded by the four Dublin local authorities, their goal is to future-proof the region by trialling and scaling innovative solutions to a wide range of local challenges.
In February 2024, Smart Dublin hosted an active travel & data workshop. They brought together key stakeholders from the four local authorities, academia and the National Transport Authority to explore a common challenge - open access to active travel data in Dublin.
The outcome of this workshop was to create a ‘one stop shop for active travel data’ in Dublin, highlight the impact of platform data such as Google Environmental Insights Explorer and demonstrate the positive impacts of active travel data, for example health impacts. Additionally, an active travel and data forum was established in order to share learnings and assist with the development of a new active travel dashboard. This culminated in February 2025 with the launch of Active Travel Dashboard.
The dashboard showcases valuable data from the CSO, EcoCounters, Google, the Canal Cordon Count and Strava Metro. Additionally, it highlights the positive health and climate impacts of active travel in Dublin, by linking existing data to peer reviewed studies.
Smart Dublin was able to tackle a common data issue across Dublin. They plan to continue to incorporate new datasets into the dashboard as they come on stream. This will ensure that they have reliable data on active travel and help sustain investment in active travel in Dublin going forward.
In November 2024, the dashboard won the prestigious Mobility Award at the Smart City Awards in Barcelona. Smart Dublin Open Data Lead Jack Kavanagh expressed pride in the achievement, stating:
“This prestigious award recognising our collaborative efforts to develop innovative solutions for Dublin is very encouraging. Advancing active mobility means shaping a future that is more connected, inclusive, and sustainable. I am inspired to continue this work, knowing that each step brings us closer to real data-driven decision making, improving quality of life and reducing carbon emissions in Dublin”.