City to air traffic jams on TV

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Gordon Kent
  }4 ?* G# N0 {The Edmonton Journal

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December 11, 2004


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EDMONTON - If you can steer a mouse or a remote control, you'll soon be able to navigate your way around Edmonton's traffic jams.

Early next year, cameras at 13 busy intersections and bottlenecked bridges will start broadcasting road conditions to let commuters check for disruptions, transportation spokeswoman Shawna Randolph said Friday.

6 _! [* h( n$ o"It gives the public the opportunity to regularly view these images before they leave their home or office so they can determine the route they're taking."

At first, the video will only be available on the Shaw cable community channel, but later in 2005 people should be able to click on it through the city website, Randolph said.
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The cameras will also be monitored by staff in the traffic operations control centre at Century Place, allowing them to quickly find out about problems and send crews to deal with them, she said.

Eventually, staff who see serious trouble will be able to change the pattern of nearby traffic signals to move vehicles more efficiently.
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! N# i; t/ C- A' C$ v. i3 h# qAs well, employees can do long-term monitoring of volume and road conditions from the control centre, rather than sitting for hours watching from a truck, Randolph said.
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' j2 F0 B& r' [/ E% [The $650,000 project, helped by a federal transportation award, isn't a new idea.

! X# Z5 Q) V$ |1 XEdmonton once had six cameras on the streets, but the 1970s equipment died after years of use.
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Five of those cameras were integrated into the current setup, with another eight installed over the summer.

While the system was scheduled to go into operation last year, work needed on items such as computer upgrades to handle the digital signals caused delays.

9 R5 K/ ^" {5 BThe pole-mounted cameras can rotate 360 degrees. They have a range of one kilometre and even include tiny windshield wipers to clean off snow and rain.
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9 Z  N- v* a+ ^5 LCity traffic engineer Craig Walbaum stressed that police won't use the cameras, and images aren't clear enough to identify licence plates or individual drivers.
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7 Z1 N* y* b* @% }# C( NIf staff zoom in on a problem spot, they'll override the public feed to protect the privacy of motorists, he said.
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He's working with Shaw, which paid $40,000 to put in a high-speed connection, to decide when street shots will be aired.
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Shaw officials couldn't be reached for comment.

The program will cost $289,000 to operate in 2005. It survived an attempt Friday by Coun. Linda Sloan and Coun. Karen Leibovici to cut the budget in half and put the savings toward reducing crosswalk mishaps.

"If there's an accident on the Whitemud ... there's not much that helps you by looking at a video at home," said Leibovici.
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"We should be looking at making our roads safe rather than paying one or two individuals to sit in a back room and monitor a video."
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But city manager Al Maurer described it as a sophisticated project that saves money by ensuring streets are used efficiently.

"I think it's an excellent program to maximize the capacity of our existing (road) inventory, as opposed to building new lanes all the time."
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The scheme makes Edmonton one of the Canadian leaders in using this form of so-called intelligent traffic system.

; j5 N, J) S& z$ D8 n- G" M) }& hToronto has about 200 street cameras and Ottawa has 40, but Calgary only has a half-dozen which it's still testing, Randolph said.

: D; j7 t! |6 w/ ?  l0 B* P"It's human nature these days for people to turn to technology for information. They're turning to the television in the morning before they head out to work."