A ground-breaking road safety project which is making a difference on the streets of the West Midlands has won two major transport technology awards
Smart city technology developer VivaCity and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, teamed up on the ‘near miss’ detection system which won in the Better Safety Through Technology’ and the overall ‘Best Project of the Year’ categories at the ITS UK Awards 2024.
VivaCity and TfWM were presented with the ‘Better Safety through Technology’ Award for their project aimed at making roads safer in the region, using AI and near miss data to proactively identify incident hotspots before they happen.
40 of the VivaCity sensors within the TfWM network have been upgraded with the near miss detection feature, providing real-time traffic data and the likelihood of a collision between motor vehicles versus pedestrians or cyclists. This is focused on protecting more vulnerable road users.
From left: Vitor Kono (Viva City), Steven Norris (presenting the award), Darren Divall (regional road safety manager TfWM), Cleo Weeden and Carl Pittam, (both VivaCity)
This technology helps TfWM identify sites that indicate higher risks, and VivaCity’s road safety data allows them to further understand the risk exposure and assess possible infrastructure and behaviour changes needed.
This has been shown in Coventry, where plans to modify the road layout are being drawn up off the back of the analysis. This award-winning project is part of the refreshed West Midlands Regional Road Safety Strategy, helping to improve safety for all road users.
VivaCity and TfWM also took home the award for ‘Best Project of the Year’. This top award is presented after the judges review all submissions across every category, recognising the most impactful and innovative project of the year. The judges praised the project for its use of AI-powered computer vision sensors, which enabled TfWM to identify near-miss hotspots effectively.
Anne Shaw, executive director TfWM said: “This project is a great example of how the West Midlands is open to working with partners on developing new ideas on transport and testing them in a real world environment.
“Our project teams at TfWM and Viva City have done great work and thoroughly deserve their award.”
