Winning the U.S. DOT Smart City Challenge will take a lot of collaboration.
As the final seven cities submit their plans, technology from companies like Global Traffic Technologies, LLC (GTT) can help enable their visions for a more connected, efficient transportation network.
GTT, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based company, develops some of the latest intelligent transportation technology, including signal priority solutions for transit and emergency vehicles, in addition to traffic sensing solutions that can accurately detect vehicles and transmit other critical data for analysis and reporting.
GTT CEO Doug Roberts highlighted the company’s established history as a reason these finalists and other smart cities partner with GTT. For over 45 years, GTT solutions have been making cities smarter by connecting vehicles to infrastructure to move people through cities more quickly, improve the safety of emergency vehicles and reduce overall emissions.
“Our technology is deployed in all seven of the Smart City finalists’ cities,” Roberts said. “But no two cities are exactly alike — GTT offers an evolving array of solutions that can be customized to meet the specific needs of all cities, today and into the future.”
GTT, formed in 2007 from 3M’s pioneering Intelligent Transportation Systems business, is the manufacturer of Opticom priority control systems and Canoga traffic sensing systems.
HOW SMART CITIES USE GTT
Each of the seven finalist cities have worked with GTT to deploy solutions for emergency services, public transport and traffic sensing.
- Emergency services: Traffic signals can be preempted or extended with Opticom to help first responders reach an emergency scene more quickly.
- First responders in Austin have used Opticom technology since the mid-1990s.
- Public transit: Opticom solutions automatically extend green lights when transit vehicles fall behind schedule.
- San Francisco uses Opticom to add transit signal priority to the Mission Street corridor.
- Traffic sensing: Canoga adds speed, class and count to detection capabilities, in a single loop.
- GTT’s Canoga installation at Denver International Airport creates a safe system for runway operations during times of low visibility.
With the $50 million winner expected to be announced in June, building on existing partnerships could prove to be a key differentiator in winning the Smart City Challenge.
“We are confident our technologies will make any city stand out from the competition,” Roberts said.
GTT has solutions that can help cities get connected, stay on time and use smart data to make better decisions:
- The latest wireless technology can connect vehicles and infrastructure. GTT has demonstrated experience in industry-leading systems such as cellular, Wi-Fi and DSRC.
- GTT leads in signal priority solutions with smart vehicle technologies, including GPS tracking and GTFS transit schedule data.
- Cloud-based analytics and reporting enable the data needed to make smart decisions. Streamlined operations are enabled by managing and monitoring transportation systems from a central location.
GTT is a market leader in traffic management systems, having an installed base of over 70,000 intersections and 70,000 vehicles in more than 3,100 cities worldwide, including 41 of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Still, Roberts said innovation is what drives the company.
