Your City’s Traffic at the Flick of a Switch
IMS Traffic Intelligence is a traffic solution that displays the relative congestion of all the roads across an entire city (or country) over the course of the day, with real-time traffic data. This data allows drivers to determine the time required to reach their destination and to select routes that avoid congestion and thus make better use of their time.
See a live demo of IMS Traffic Intelligence for the Greater Toronto Area.
This unique Traffic Solution starts with crowd-sourced cell phone signals from vehicles, carefully separates these from roadside signals gained from Rogers – our telecom partner in Canada – and then plots them on a city map to indicate relative traffic congestion on key roads.
The IMS solution is better, faster and less expensive than that of its competitors. First it delivers more data nodes, and therefore higher resolution, than traditional loop sensor traffic collection methods and GPS-based mobile phone apps. For example, IMS Traffic Intelligence receives data from over 4 billion ‘pings’ per day in the Greater Toronto Area alone, across the wireless network. When laid over a city map this data enables traffic managers, municipalities, businesses and emergency services to access real-time and historical traffic data across Southern Ontario.
IMS’ Traffic Intelligence solution includes:
> Congestion level of all key urban roads, rural roads and highways
> Historical data for urban planning and evacuation simulations
> Traffic Manager Portal to manage dynamic message of highway signs, indicating congestion ahead, travel times and possible re-routing.
> Map tile color overlay of relative congestion of jurisdictional area’s traffic data
> Application Program Interface (API) to query historical road speeds for analysis of journey times on specific road links
“Intelligent data will drive better decisions about traffic congestion in the short-term as well as the long-term.”
Traffic conditions are deteriorating as the world urbanizes. The world’s major economic hubs are losing billions of dollars in productivity per year with commute times surpassing 80 minutes per driver, per day. While public transit is making it possible for greener, more efficient travel, there are still far more drivers on the road than there is people on buses, trains and subways.
Steven Kemp Director of Traffic Management talks about how IMS Traffic Intelligence technology will help Toronto ease gridlock
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
IMS believes that intelligent data about a region’s infrastructure is the single most important step towards building a future with lower commute times, greener cities and a more prosperous economy. Traditional methods of traffic intelligence such as loop sensors or GPS-based solutions are limited in their coverage and/or resolution and the capital outlay required to cover any reasonable distance of road makes it far too inefficient and expensive for region-wide or nation-wide intelligence. IMS’ Traffic Intelligence solution leverages the existing telco network (in artnership with Rogers Communications in Canada) making it possible to activate traffic data across a city, country or even continent with a relatively minimal cost.
For businesses, and regional or federal governments, this means:
> Economic growth through higher productivity and more efficient trade corridors
> Attract more businesses and the best talent – therefore creating more jobs and a higher standard of living for society at large
> Greener cities with lower emissions and overall reduction of greenhouse gases
> Safer commute for travelers and less time on the road (less accidents)
> Informed urban planning and evacuation simulations with real-time and historical data
> Emergency services routing for respective, local emergency response and law enforcement authorities
> Lower capital outlay and maintenance costs than traditional traffic data collection methods