Glasgow harnesses AI to improve traffic flow and road safety 

Glasgow City Council is partnering with transport technology scale-up VivaCity to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve traffic flow and road safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

The project is being funded by the Glasgow City Region City Deal, which is an initiative to invest over £1bn in transport improvements and infrastructure in the Glasgow City Region.

Cycle and vehicle detection

Glasgow City Council has commissioned sensors at two key intersections on Byres Road: the junction with Church Road and White Street, and the junction at Dumbarton Road, to improve cycle and vehicle detection, enabling traffic signals to respond more effectively.

VivaCity technology is also being used on a crossing on Paisley Road West, to improve bus journey times to and from the city centre and reduce the time pedestrians have to wait to cross junctions.

“By improving traffic signal responsiveness and providing valuable insights into road usage, we are confident that this partnership will help to improve travel in Glasgow and make it safer”

Sensors anonymously count the number of pedestrians waiting to cross, providing larger groups with greater priority. Buses are detected on the approaches to the crossing enabling Glasgow City Council to balance bus and pedestrian movements at the crossing using the VivaCity sensor capability to assess different classes, directions and volumes of road users, and feed that data into the traffic signal controller.

Besides collecting multimodal data to feed the traffic signals and therefore optimise the crossing, the sensors also gather accurate, detailed and anonymous data on other travel modes.