Richmond signed up for project aimed at easing traffic congestion
Posted February 17, 2015 7:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – If you commute between cities every day, you’ve probably found yourself caught in your fair share of traffic snarls because of crashes or roadwork.
What if the “right people” could know about a collision when it happened, and then do something to help keep everything going?
Richmond is getting involved with a project that aims to do just that.
The city is set to be the first in Metro Vancouver to be linked up to a regional traffic management centre, put in place by the BC government.
Copper and fibre cables will connect traffic cameras, signals and counters to that centre, so what’s going on on the roads will be known in real time.
If there’s a crash on Highway 99 or a stall on Steveston Highway, the city and province would know about them right when they happened.
They would have data including counts and volume of traffic, surveillance pictures and videos, descriptions of incidents and their locations, the status of traffic signals, and configuration information.
The timing of signals could then be adjusted to help clear congestion.
Real-time information is expected to be online at DriveBC.ca by later this year. Richmond’s cables are expected to be connected by the end of next month.
The City of Richmond says it won’t cost the municipality any extra cash; the province is covering the cost of connecting the cables, hardware, and software.
Costs for staff are expected to be absorbed within regular resources.
