Transport for West Midlands boosts road safety as part of UK-first AI project

TTransport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), has partnered with AI transport technology company VivaCity, to deliver a UK-first project to improve road safety within the West Midlands.

Historically, TfWM has struggled with the road safety data gap, relying on post-incident information that tells only part of the story and does not reveal road user behavior, trends, or road infrastructure flaws, leaving TfWM unable to take the necessary steps to proactively implement effective interventions before incidents happening. TfWM has built a network of VivaCity AI-powered computer vision sensors that provide high quality, anonymous, multimodal traffic data on road users behavior and trends.

The authority is leveraging further their sensor network by upgrading the sensors with VivaCity’s Smart Road Safety features, including the groundbreaking Near Miss feature.

Classification, speed, and pathway datasets are being used to analyze interactions between Vulnerable Road Users (VRUS) and cars to identify potential high-risk areas.

Near Miss data is subsequently used to zoom into specific interactions and assess their severity and risk exposure to VRUs.

This is helping TfWM build a framework for hazard detection at different sites with evidence base, and quickly plan effective interventions.