Tory puts faith in tech to ease road congestion
Mayor hopes to unleash ‘power of big data’ to study traffic flow and fix problems
Amsterdam city staff monitor traffic on one screen and react to trouble immediately. Barcelona residents get real-time data on all transit stops with a city app that uses an onscreen arrow to walk them to the nearest station.
By comparison, says Mayor John Tory, Toronto is in the age of “clipboards and clickers” for traffic research. He vowed Tuesday to catch up by investing “in the power of big data.”
Toronto’s transportation department is looking for a “data leader” to head a new team that will scan options and costs and, by the end of 2015, recommend to city council ways to put the pedal to the digital metal.
City hall will also, in September, host a “hackathon” aimed at bringing tech experts together to brainstorm transportation solutions for Toronto.
“We’re going to get us out of the clicker-and-clipboard business and into the 21st century,” Tory said, adding he is “embarrassed” that GPS firm Tom-Tom has a real-time Toronto traffic map and the city does not. He made the announcement at Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone, where he chatted with Sam Seo, a computer science student and co-founder of tech company Physicalytics.
Seo’s company makes $200 sensors that use cellphone and Bluetooth signals from vehicles to anonymously track their progress around the city and identify problems.
As examples, he discussed the way cars can be tracked as they head from the Gardiner Expressway into downtown to better understand flow and how tracking cars can explain why an intersection gets clogged at certain times, so staff can focus on fixing that problem.
Physicalytics is talking to Brampton, Markham and a couple of Brazilian cities, Seo said, but hopes to sell Toronto on the homegrown tech.
Tory plans later this month to bring Physicalytics and other local tech companies together to have them showcase opportunities for the city.
Tory said embracing big data should not cost Toronto big money. However, his general manager of transportation services told reporters that, “while folks think there is big data floating out there, all of these companies want to sell you things.”
Stephen Buckley said data “sets” cost money, with a premium for upto-the-minute information. Still, he believes Toronto can relatively quickly become a leader in North American transportation tech.
“I envision a day that a computer algorithm figures out ‘that’s a pedestrian, that’s a car and that’s a cyclist,’ and we have real-time models” of the moving city on a screen, he said. Those commuters could then get real-time information about traffic conditions and closures.