Kent County Council (KCC), Amey, and Vivacity Labs are installing an additional 18 sensors to monitor traffic patterns and inform future transport decision-making.
The move follows the successful installation of 32 insight sensors back in February 2021.
The installations are part of the £22.9m Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) SMART Places Live Labs programme.
Through a combination of real-time data and predictive algorithms, the sensors enable the highways authority to identify areas for road layout or infrastructure improvements and ultimately design a better road user experience.
David Brazier, Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, said: “This innovative technology will enable us as a council to have definitive data at our fingertips.
“As well as helping to make safer communities, these sensors will play their part in delivering our strategic aim of having no deaths on our county’s roads by 2050.”
Sunita Dulai, head of business improvement for Transport Infrastructure at Amey, said: “We’re delighted with the data that’s been gathered during phase one of this project.
“By working in collaboration with Kent County Council and Vivacity we’re able to look at ways to enhance transport systems.
“The installation of these 18 additional sensors will further provide insight that can be used by the local authority to make decisions that will improve road user safety, ease congestion and identify areas for transport infrastructure improvements.”
All the data collected via the Vivacity sensors are anonymised and help the highways authority to understand the interactions on the network that then enable decisions to be made to improve journey time and experience.
Mark Nicholson, Vivacity Labs Co-Founder, said: “Having accurate and detailed data is the key success when it comes to implementing new road schemes and network changes, and it’s fantastic to see how Kent County Council are using Vivacity sensor data insights to make positive changes in road safety, congestion and improving road user experience overall.”
The ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs programme is a two-year £22.9 million project funded by the Department for Transport and supported by project partners SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business, EY, Kier, 02, Ringway and WSP.
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