Smart City Connectivity within the Arc

Key to this is an adaptable and responsive urban infrastructure, sustainable development and environmental initiatives, advanced telecommunications and cloud networks, and, crucially in our case, a highly interconnected, effective and functioning transport and travel network. It’s a variety of complementary components that can help make cities more efficient and socially and economically inclusive.  

For this to function, a huge range of technology needs to work in tandem to communicate problems and solutions and gather wide-ranging data to both facilitate and improve efficiency and sustainability. As is the case with Vivacity Labs, developing a strong relationship and collaboration between public and private sectors is crucial for smart cities to fully thrive.  

The evolution of the smart city, with regards to travel specifically, revolves around three key areas: better data about roads, real-time control systems for existing infrastructure, and the future intersection of vehicle and fleet technologies with infrastructure. And this is what Vivacity Labs is working with cities to achieve, creating a future urban infrastructure today.    

Vivacity’s sensors use artificial intelligence and machine learning to capture accurate, detailed and anonymous traffic counts of different travel modes across a selected ‘count line’, in real-time and 24/7. These counts can show the interactions between pedestrians, cyclists and cars, for example, and provide insights on factors such as number, pathways, speed and median journey times. The data is completely anonymised and presents no privacy or personal data risk. Connected by the IoT and the cloud, this data can be downloaded by authorities on dashboards and used to help manage and adapt existing schemes, plan and implement new ones, and even remove ones that aren’t working. It opens up a data-driven strategic planning of cities.  

But data isn’t enough to fulfil sustainable objectives and unlock ways of reusing existing infrastructure. With congestion only set to increase and more travel modes to be using our roads, technology that can improve traffic flow is pivotal. Working with partners such as TfGM and Weaver Labs, Vivacity has installed AI-powered Smart Junctions that are able to respond in real-time to road conditions and adapt signals accordingly. They can be set up flexibly with other tech to prioritise sustainable travel, air quality in off-peak periods or reduce congestion at peak hours, for example, depending on what that specific area needs. Reducing journey times is a massive smart city prerogative, and real-world applications of our Smart Junctions have shown that they can reduce them by up to 23%. This not only improves congestion and promotes sustainable travel, but, as a result, reduces emissions. 

Vivacity Labs has also been working with Ford to explore the evolution of connected vehicles, and is combining vehicle and sensor data to create tools such as accident heat maps to pre-empt incidents. Current trials of Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs), and how they can work with street furniture and connected technologies, will become increasingly important to realising the smart city concept in the years to come. Data flow between the two can lead to coordination between vehicles and traffic lights and optimisation based on routes, not just presence.