Artificial Intelligence specialists, Vivacity Labs has launched a new product to help local authorities understand the travel patterns of cyclists, as it moves to support councils with changes they have to make to the road network and an increase in active travel as a result.
The new products allows authorities to count cyclists, but also to understand the interaction patterns, such as dangerous undertaking manoeuvres or cyclists using pavements, which enables authorities to improve safety for cyclists.
The Department for Transport has called for councils to monitor and evaluate any temporary measures they install, with a view to making them permanent, and embedding a long-term shift to active travel as the nation moves from restart to recovery.
Vivacity Labs’ artificial intelligence technology already anonymously captures, classifies and tracks live transport usage, 24/7. During lockdown, Vivacity’s sensor data has often been quoted as a reliable source by much of the mainstream media. Crucially, Vivacity’s technology is highly reliable at gathering data on cycling, walking, and social distancing, all critical components of the government’s lockdown exit strategy, says the company.
By examining the number of cyclists and other vehicles using junctions from different directions, authorities can improve their understanding of how cyclists are using the existing infrastructure, supporting future improvements.
This new product uses the same underlying video analytics technology as autonomous vehicles to really understand what is happening on the roads, extracting deep but anonymous insight into behaviour patterns.
“We have installed sensors for cycling with authorities from Oxford to Cambridge, London to Manchester,” says Vivacity CEO Mark Nicholson “However, the holy grail of understanding not just counts of cyclists but also behaviours, interactions, and turning movements has always been just out of reach. With this new tool becoming available now, authorities can plan safety interventions much more effectively.”
Councils all over the UK have been benefiting from Vivacity’s technology, with projects ranging from monitoring of air quality and active travel uptake in Manchester through to pedestrian and cyclist intervention outside schools in Bournemouth, to name but a few. Vivacity have even helped the redesign of road junction into a mini ‘Holland style’ roundabout providing cyclists with priority in Cambridge.
Graphic: Vivacity Labs
