Bristol City Council has been named the winner of the ‘Best Smart City Project’ at 2018’s Smarter Travel Awards. It received the award due to its new Operations Center which brought together three disparate control centers in a purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility: the Traffic Control Center, Emergency Control Center, and Community Safety (CCTV) Control Rooms.
The new traffic management system uses Stratos, Siemens Mobility’s integrated highways management system, is cloud-hosted, and features an urban traffic control (UTC) system running SCOOT (Split, Cycle, Offset Optimization Technique) – a real-time traffic control and monitoring solution. The system is connected to the network’s traffic signals at junctions and crossings and collects data from on-street detectors to optimize the flow of traffic at controlled junctions.
Councillor Craig Cheney, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance, said: “The Bristol Operations Center has grown from strength to strength over the past year, providing an essential service in an innovative space. By using Siemens Mobility’s technology, the council’s traffic management team can act in a more efficient and coordinated way which has had a hugely positive impact on the people who live here.”
Wilke Reints, Managing Director for Intelligent Traffic Systems at Siemens Mobility Limited, said: “We’re thrilled that the Bristol Traffic Control Service has been recognized with this award and delighted to have worked so closely with the team to deliver such an outstanding intelligent infrastructure solution. Now approaching its first anniversary, the system has delivered real operational efficiencies, which in turn have benefited the traveling public.”
The judges stated: “Bristol’s project was the most useful, practical, and well thought out intervention that should be rolled out more widely, if not universally, in cities and regions. Practical steps to make cities smart today!”
