Skip to main content

Toronto agrees urban mobility trials with Ovin

Firms will deploy new traffic camera and sensor technologies which use AI and 5G
By David Arminas June 6, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Toronto has a population of three million and is North America’s fourth-largest city (© Dgareri | Dreamstime.com)

The city of Toronto is partnering with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (Ovin) to support pilot schemes investigating emerging technologies for urban mobility.

The agreement between Toronto, capital city of the Canadian province Ontario, and the provincial government agency Ovin will provide small- and medium-sized enterprises with up to Can$100,000 (US$73,000) to test traffic management technologies in real-world environments.

During these pilots, the companies will deploy new traffic camera and sensor technologies that use AI and 5G wireless networks to improve and accelerate traffic management strategies.

Toronto, which has a population of three million and is North America’s fourth-largest city, may then procure technologies that successfully demonstrate the ability to alleviate congestion, improve road safety, enhance transit priority and make city transportation more efficient.

“As Ontario and Canada’s economic and tech powerhouse and largest metropolitan area, the city of Toronto is uniquely positioned to adopt innovative urban mobility technologies that will facilitate safer, cleaner, and more efficient transportation,” said Raed Kadri, head of Ovin. 

“The Ovin Technology Pilot Zone for urban mobility cultivates the unparalleled potential of made-in-Ontario innovation to address mobility challenges, while accelerating their commercialisation and growth.”

Ovin is responsible for promoting and connecting new technology and small- to medium-sized companies with major manufacturers and investors in the North American mobility sector – from vehicle makers and public transportation agencies to providers of traffic management and data analysers.

The agreement supports the city’s Congestion Management Plan 2023-26 which was adopted last November to address traffic management concerns.

As part of this, the city is also partnering with telecommunications companies and their traffic technology partners – including Bell Canada with Caliber Communications, Rogers Communications with NoTraffic and Telus with Miovision – to enable pilot projects aimed at reducing travel times, improving road safety and enhancing transit priority.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • First pan-London Car Club Action Plan launched
    May 21, 2015
    Around 85 per cent of UK car club members already based in London New plan will help reach new joint target of one million London car club members by 2025 Future growth of car clubs will help improve London’s air quality and reduce congestion in the Capital A new ‘strategy for car clubs’ in London has been launched today (21 May), to encourage residents and businesses across the capital to sign up to car club schemes as an alternative to direct car ownership. The new action plan, jointly developed b
  • ITS UK Awards 2024: and the winners are...
    November 11, 2024

    ITS UK revealed the winners of its prestigious annual Awards at its 18th President’s Dinner last week.

    Organisation president and former UK transport minister Steve Norris presented the trophies across 16 categories.

    "Many congratulations to all the winners of the ITS UK Annual Awards," said Max Sugarman, chief executive of ITS UK.

  • SmogStop aims to clear the air
    February 17, 2020
    Air quality is an increasing issue for the ITS industry - but Envision SQ has something which can work alongside traffic calming measures to cut emissions
  • Support for US transportation bill
    November 6, 2015
    The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) and the Teamsters have given their support to the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (the STRR Act), which was overwhelmingly approved by the US House of Representatives after three days of debate. The bipartisan, multi-year surface transportation bill to reauthorise and reform federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs helps improve US surface transportation infrastructure, refocuses programs on address