AI traffic data pioneer Viva is using the ITS America Conference & Expo in Grapevine, Texas, this week (April 24-27) to officially launch its new Near Miss analytics as part of its AI Smart Road Safety solution in the US.
Near Miss uses Viva’s AI and video sensors – which are able to identify and count every road user from a pedestrian or e-scooter rider right through to a bus or truck – to track the path of road users and generate statistics on near misses to help identify their root causes. By combining speed, footprint and trajectory datasets, near-miss data reveals the most hazardous areas of road space and informs proactive safety interventions.
Earlier this month NYCDOT announced that it had deployed Viva sensors at 12 locations around New York City to collect data to allow planners to better understand the uses of city streets, assessing the effectiveness of schemes to encourage active travel, and informing future street redesigns – as well as assessing near misses.
“One traffic fatality is too many, and New York City DOT is exploring new and innovative ways to use technology to prevent the next tragedy from happening,” said NYCDOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Our street activity sensor pilot program will help us better understand how people use our streets, how those uses change over time – and what actions we can take to keep New Yorkers safe.”
Authorized for installation by NYC DOT, the Viva sensors are mounted onto street-light poles. The devices classify and count roadway users in real-time. Video frames from the sensors are deleted nearly instantaneously and only anonymous features are stored.
If the street activity sensor pilot is successful, NYC DOT will scale up use of the sensors citywide – in the expectation that sensors will be a key component for the agency in building traffic models that can more accurately forecast the number of people walking and biking along New York City streets.
“Near Miss will also help authorities to quantify the benefits of their road safety investment, as shown in the project currently running NYC DO,” says Viva’s COO, Peter Mildon. “We are collecting a combination of generalized near-miss statistics so that multiple sites can be compared, and using a custom and consultative approach based on path data to understand the details behind the localized hazards.”
The Viva team will be demonstrating Near Miss at ITS America booth number 1140.
