To improve road safety, the Bordeaux Métropole (a French public authority) took unprecedented steps to dive deeper into traffic flows by installing I-SAFE 2 radar speed display signs. By publishing data from them, the authority provides transparency and helps meet the nation’s commitment to Open Data.
THE TASK:
Gather vehicle speed data. Put it to good use.
Bordeaux Métropole has used I-SAFE radar speed signs to manage traffic for quite some time. They recently acquired additional new I-SAFE 2 radar speed display signs and installed them at critical points throughout their roadways to alert drivers of their (excessive) speed.
The radar speed signs have proven to be extremely effective at increasing road safety. While they’re designed to display the speed of vehicles approaching them, they also gather the measured vehicles’ speeds and convert that into invaluable and actionable data—revealing the “speeding” behavior of motorists.
THE TECH:
Radar speed signs. Open data network.
Two new features allow I-SAFE signs to transfer, and publish the speed data they collect.
- 3G modems send the data to the Icoms Detections server on a regular basis.
- An API developed by Icoms Detections in close collaboration with Bordeaux Métropole that allows the public authority to automatically extract data from the signs to populate its data warehouses and publish the data on its platform.
The data collected includes the speed, direction of travel, and time of passage. Therefore, identifying peak hours or times is straightforward when the speed is highest. The comparisons are easy, and it's simple to see a picture of how traffic is responding.
Bordeaux Métropole makes the following data available on an hourly basis:
- Average/minimum/maximum speed
- Standard deviation (speed)
- Percentile (speed)
- Volume
THE TRUTH:
A commitment to sharing data. France is leading the way.
France is one of the countries leading the way in opening up public data, having passed the Digital Republic act in 2016. The country ranks as one of the top five in the world for open data, scoring highly for government action. Publishing public data has the ultimate objective of helping to innovate and create new services in the interest of all. Mobility data such as those reported by behavior-modifying radar speed signs are useful in more ways than one, both for citizens and for developers of third-party applications.
Bordeaux Métropole and Icoms Detections worked closely together to develop this solution, which is perfectly in line with their mutual desire to solve for smarter cities.