The project connects more than 3,000 intersections and 2,200 vehicles to provide centralized priority and vehicle movement control to the city
The Quebec Transportation Association (AQTr) recently selected a project that empowers officials in Montreal to oversee and control the movement of vehicles that operate on its streets as one of two Innovation award finalists.
The project – led by St. Paul, Minn.-based Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) – provides centralized intelligent traffic management, including Transit Signal Priority and Emergency Vehicle Preemption. GTT’s solution leverages existing infrastructure and hardware in combination with innovative software to enable smart city initiatives such as improved mobility, greenhouse gas reductions, increased safety and adaptive mobility management.
The Montreal centralized priority control project is a finalist in the Innovation category of the AQTr Eye Contest at the 54th Quebec Transport Association (AQTr) Congress. The chosen finalists entered original, innovative projects with the potential to “change the field of transport”. Representatives of each finalist project will present to a jury at next week’s event, to be held at the Saint-Hyacinthe Convention Center.
For the Montreal project, Société de transport de Montreal (STM) and the City of Montreal partnered with GTT and INIT to develop a centralized intelligent traffic system that leverages existing infrastructure to connect more than 3,000 intersections and nearly 2,200 vehicles. The result is a flexible, software-based traffic signal priority system that can manage priority levels for public transit, emergency and maintenance vehicles. In the future, the system could manage long-haul trucks, delivery vehicles and even ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft without any major infrastructure investments.
This latest innovation in smart city mobility merges features from industry-leading priority control systems deployed in Laval, QC and New York City. GTT’s system used by STM in the City of Montreal combines the conditional and relative Transit Signal Priority (TSP) features found in Laval with the centralized, software-based deployment used in New York.
GTT’s Victor Darias said this system gives the City of Montreal the power to manage and optimize mobility on its streets by moving calculations which are typically made onboard the vehicles into a central location.
“In the case of transit priority, the Central Management Software considers lateness, passenger load and schedules when it allocates priority at an intersection,” Darias explained. “Once this is calculated, the system leverages existing infrastructure – including cellular and fiber networks – to send the priority decision to the intersections. Transit vehicles receive a green light only when they need it most.”
The system helps to reduce traffic congestion by making public transportation a more viable option. More controlled vehicle movements and less traffic also make the city safer for pedestrians, Darias added. The emergency vehicle preemption component also helps to get first responders to emergencies more quickly and safely. But the most innovative piece of the project is the fact that it’s easy to adapt and expand as the city’s needs change.
“The nature of this centralized priority control system means that it will be able to expand and adapt to future requirements, enabling Smart City vehicle management today and for the future,” Darias said.
Outside the city’s central core, both public safety and public transit vehicles will be able to leverage existing point-to-point communications for priority control. Even vehicles from surrounding municipalities will be able to use the system, provided they have the necessary vehicle communications. Throughout the entire system Montreal officials will be able to manage who gets different levels priority, no matter the type of vehicle or where it came from.
The 54th AQTr Conference is focused on Diversity, Sustainability, Development and Challenges. It takes place from Monday, April 8 to Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at the Saint-Hyacinthe Convention Center. GTT’s presentation takes place on Monday, April 8, 2019, in the Student Delegation Space at the Salon des transports. For more information visit: https://aqtr.com/association/evenements/54e-congres-laqtr-transport-4d-diversite-durabilite-developpement-defis
Back to Press Releases
