VivaCity now working with Dudley Council to boost active travel

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is the latest local authority to partner with VivaCity – transport tech scale-up firm – to boost active travel initiatives and improve traffic flow.

VivaCity sensors capture high accuracy data on vehicle and active travel flows, used to inform future decision making and introduce appropriate infrastructure interventions.

The council identified congestion in a specific area – around Brierley Hill and the the Merry Hill Shopping Centre – significantly impacting residents with potential repercussions on the area’s regeneration and growth.

The multimodal data that VivaCity can provide will not only allow Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council to identify and address the causes of congestion, it also enables simultaneous monitoring into the impact of interventions taken to improve traffic flow within the region.

A sizeable network of 65 VivaCity AI sensors have been implemented across Brierley Hill and Merry Hill Shopping Centre, capturing both demand and journey time data to analyse congestion. The data collected from the sensors has allowed Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council to make a data driven decision to target a junction at the intersection of Venture Way and Mill Street to deploy VivaCity’s Smart Junction solution.

Sensors at this junction recorded the highest volumes of cyclists and pedestrians compared to other junctions in the area, highlighting an opportunity for multimodal prioritisation between different road users. The junction is often saturated with a high volume of motor vehicles during the day, and so school children crossing the main road will benefit from VivaCity’s AI based sensors, as the council will be able to optimise signalling during these busy periods.

VivaCity’s Smart Junction intervention helps to tackle several issues, including congestion, active travel and road safety. This approach utilises the highly accurate, multi-modal data from the sensors with the intention of making direct and quantifiable improvements to vehicle and active travel journeys through improved optimisation of throughput at the junction.

Dean Hubbard, Project Engineer for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, said: “VivaCity’s sensors have been incredibly beneficial to the work we are trying to accomplish in the Dudley area. We understand how frustrating traffic congestion and journey disruptions can be for local residents and visitors, and we hope that our work helps minimise this throughout the region. At a time when we are trying to further develop and revamp the area, VivaCity’s data is crucial in helping optimise travel and safety for all.”

Mark Nicholson, CEO and Co-Founder at VivaCity, commented: “We’re excited to work with Dudley on diagnosing the root causes of congestion, using our sensor data combined with their local knowledge. We have been able to target a specific junction in the area, in which we will now implement our Smart Junction solution to help solve further issues. Our collaboration with Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has proven the value of an end-to-end solution, using data to spot issues, combined with smarter technology to solve them.”

We quizzed the good people at VivaCity in a podcast back in 2021, where they explained how AI can make cities smarter, safer and more sustainable.

VivaCity’s AI for Optimisation solution will be delivered and operational towards the end of this year, with its aim to support data driven decisions for future network improvement.