Laura is studying for a Masters in Environmental Science at the University of Sheffield and undertook an internship at BOM in the summer before her fourth year of study.

Introduction

Laura has completed the third year of her Environmental Science Masters course at the University of Sheffield and will be returning for her fourth and final year at the end of September. Laura first contacted BOM back in March requesting an internship in order to gain some practical work experience with GIS mapping. Following a trip to Japan over the summer, and before returning to university, Laura spent five weeks with BOM in August and September and kindly shared her experience through this blog:

Weeks One and Two

I’ve finished my first two weeks as an intern at Buchanan Order Management. I was hoping for some hands on experience and that’s exactly what I’ve got. Day one I was trained on ParkMap data entry. ParkMap is a GIS Traffic Order management system, which holds records of all Traffic Orders effective throughout a local authority area. BOM had recently completed on-street survey work and I was trusted with work that was contributing towards this project, which was really rewarding. I was entering data to include the side of the road and the street name for various restrictions within ParkMap, starting with the simple double yellow line restrictions. This gave me the chance to familiarise myself with the ParkMap system, finding out how it worked and the various tools and functions within it. Danny and Andy, BOM’s Mapping and Survey Managers, both provided guidance and helped to ensure that I carried out my tasks correctly. These tasks really emphasised the detailed and intricate nature of the ParkMap system and the care that the other employees take when entering data. Once I was a bit more confident with the system, I began working on more complex restrictions on the same project, such as parking bays, and it felt good to be making a positive contribution. For these restrictions I needed to enter data on the side of the road, street name, and the restriction descriptions described by the relevant signage. My training taught me the need to be really precise and has shown me how specific the wording on signs needs to be in order to be enforceable. 

During my second week I visited London with two members of the BOM team in order to record speed restrictions. This is part of an ongoing contract which BOM have been working on for several years. Despite the early start, this was a great day and I really got a feel for how data is collected on-street. The data is entered into the London Digital Speed Limit Map system, which is loaded onto impressive tablets and it’s nice to see it working in an out-in-field situation. The surveying was particularly quick paced and covered a wide area, partly because we had to keep up with the London traffic. After trying the surveying, I was also shown how to plot the speed restrictions. I decided that I needed a lot more practice at using a stylus pen on the tablet before being able to do this on the move - it is far harder than it looks!

Towards the end of my second week I started a new task; I used ParkMap to produce implementation plans for another current project commissioned by a London borough. The implementation plans were to be sent to contractors in order for them to paint new lines on the road. I found this interesting to produce, not only because I go to master new drawing, measurement and text tools on ParkMap, but also because it was great to see how ParkMap could be used in an everyday situation. I had to be particularly careful producing these plans when it came to angle and scale because they would be handed to contractors with no access to the ParkMap system and it was important that they had a clear idea of where to paint lines on-street when in-situ.

Overall, I think I’ve seen and learnt a lot in my first two weeks, spurred on by chocolate biscuits, and I’m looking forward to my remaining three weeks at the company.

Weeks Three and Four

At the start of week three, BOM moved into its new offices at The Barn in Enborne Gate, Newbury. So Monday consisted of a lot of arranging of furniture and what I’d describe as organised chaos. I enjoyed learning how to put a computer back together and I found the entire experience was a good team working exercise. Once we were all settled and for the remainder of the week, I continued producing the implementation plans, which were needed by the client as a priority. This gave me experience of working to a deadline, something I’ve done a lot of at university, but not within a more formal job setting. All 199 implementation plans (containing some 1,290 restriction items) were completed by the Monday of my fourth week and within the timescale required by the client, which felt like a great achievement. These plans have really taught me the need for precise formatting so that the printed output is clear to the reader.

After completing the implementation plans, I moved onto data entry for permit bay, back on the original project I started on. By now I was beginning to realise the enormity of GIS data systems, especially when they relate to Traffic Order items across an entire local authority area. This task gave me practice on editing “shared use” parking bays. These are bays which are used for more than one purpose, for example, Resident Permit Parking bays combined with Payment Parking between certain days and times. In this instance the bay would have to be cloned and data entered for both uses. These took quite a long time to edit and, as such, I continued with this task until Thursday. However, on Wednesday, the entire BOM team visited Thorpe Park for their summer event. It was a great day out in beautiful sunshine and really allowed me to get to know my colleagues in the office - especially which ones scream the loudest!

Once I’d finished entering data for all the permit bays, I started entering information for single yellow lines, which meant that I had been given training and experience on almost all of the different restriction types for this project. In addition to the street name and side of the road, I also had to determine the No Waiting times specific to each line. This was interesting because Danny and Andy explained Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) and how they operate to help me to achieve this task. There is one large CPZ in the centre of the client area with a default No Waiting between 8am and 6pm on Monday to Saturday. This meant that I had to find our if each line was within the CPZ boundary before entering the appropriate No Waiting times, either those dictated by the CPZ, or those specified by the nearby road signs if the line was found outside of the CPZ. By now I was beginning to fully appreciate the need for attention to detail and accuracy, which had been a message given to me from the outset.

Again, I’ve had a great two weeks, completing a variety of tasks, as well as helping with the office move and visiting Thorpe Park. I’m really looking forward to what my last week with the company has in store for me, before I return to University. 

Week Five

At the start of my final week I was shown how to run a query on all restrictions that currently had a blank street name. This is part of BOM’s QA process to avoid omissions and gave me a great varied list of restrictions to be filled in, from taxi ranks to motorcycle parking. This was great because it allowed me to get training on all the restrictions that I had not previously seen. It also felt rewarding to see almost all the data entry complete for this project, which I had been working on for most of my internship. It emphasised how quickly BOM were able to develop a system for clients and the details that goes into this. 

Once all the restrictions were complete I was taught how to label map schedules. These map schedules are the final product sent to clients and will ultimately be published for public use, and so, once again, major emphasis was placed on formatting and clarity. I was given a list of all the restrictions to label and shown how to make the labels for each item. The ParkMap authority area was then split into tiles; these tile boundaries show where the map would be split up to create a map schedule for a Traffic Order. I went through each of the 242 tiles and labelled the appropriate restrictions. Although only the first stage of producing map schedules, it was rewarding to see the final product coming together. 

Once the labelling was completed, I was trained to complete a “signing required” check. This is where BOM completes a review of the survey data and provides the client with an idea of where signs are required on their roads to meet the Regulations and signing requirements. BOM also provides details on the restrictions description that would be required on these new signs. These details are placed in the maintenance comments incorporated into the client’s ParkMap system. When I found a location on the road which required a sign I was shown how to map a signing required line in ParkMap and how to complete the information required to record it so that this requirement would become apparent to the client. 

My final task was to complete a general check and to edit any of the restrictions which looked at all unusual. This included small gaps in double yellow lines and improving restriction mapping where they turn around corners, amongst other things. These tend to only be visible when viewing data at a very high zoom level on the ParkMap system, but checking at this zoom ensures a high quality final product. This allowed me to practice editing restrictions using the drawing tools. 

Having now come to the end of my five-week internship, I have found that this blog has really helped me to reflect on how much training I’ve received from the BOM team and, thus, how much I’ve learnt in such a short time. I really appreciate the broad range of roles I’ve been given and would like to thank everyone in the team for their help and support. 

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