Skip to main content

Smart Surrey invests in traffic management

The City of Surrey in Vancouver, British Columbia has released its ‘Smart Surrey Strategy’ which will serve as a guide for how technology and innovation are considered in decisions made for existing and future City plans, programs and infrastructure. The Smart Surrey Strategy comprises numerous current and future initiatives including the City’s state-of-the-art traffic management centre, an innovation boulevard, the district energy program, and plans for the City to operate the only fully-integrated clo
July 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The City of Surrey in Vancouver, British Columbia has released its ‘Smart Surrey Strategy’ which will serve as a guide for how technology and innovation are considered in decisions made for existing and future City plans, programs and infrastructure.

The Smart Surrey Strategy comprises numerous current and future initiatives including the City’s state-of-the-art traffic management centre, an innovation boulevard, the district energy program, and plans for the City to operate the only fully-integrated closed-loop waste management system in North America.

Traffic congestion is a problem in British Columbia’s second-largest city, which is home to the Fraser Surrey Docks, railway lines, two US border crossings and many logistics companies.

The city council is tackling the issue with high-tech solutions as more drivers use the city roads to avoid paying tolls on the new Port Mann Bridge. The traffic management centre, which city staff have described as the most advanced in BC, is expected to increase its 178-camera closed circuit television network to 178 cameras, allowing staff to monitor traffic patterns and adjust signals in real time to reroute traffic around accidents.

The city also plans to expand its traffic signal co-ordination network along 29 corridors each year, while all 340 of its traffic signals will be updated by December 2014 to provide round-the-clock traffic count data every day.

“Several exciting innovative initiatives are already underway in Surrey,” said Councillor Bruce Hayne, Chair of the Innovation and Investment Committee. “A good example is the traffic management centre, which will begin operating in the fall; this system allows adjustments of traffic signals based on real-time traffic flow. It is the most advanced municipal centre of its kind in BC.”

Related Content

  • IntelliDrive, connectivity, safety, mobility and the environment?
    January 30, 2012
    Shelley Row, Director of the ITS Joint Program Office, US Department of Transportation, details the new five-year ITS Strategic Research Plan. Imagine a world where vehicles of all types can talk to each other in order to reduce or eliminate crashes, where vehicles can talk to traffic signals to eliminate unnecessary stops, where travellers can get accurate travel time information about all modes and route options, and where transportation managers have data which allows them to accurately assess multimodal
  • Iteris wins $1.4 million signal system management project
    November 6, 2014
    Iteris is to serve as system manager for the deployment of the City of Omaha’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). The US $1.4 million project builds upon Omaha’s Traffic Signal System Master Plan, developed by Iteris in 2012, and will include the management of Omaha’s $35 million ITS upgrade program to reduce congestion. As system manager, Iteris will oversee the enhancements to the transportation network, focusing on more than 1,000 traffic signals and 4,500 miles of roadway in the city. Iteris’ r
  • Making SMART Signal even smarter
    April 20, 2015
    According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, most traffic signals in the US are only retimed every two to five years (or longer), largely due to the expense associated with retiming efforts. However, over the past several years, University of Minnesota researchers have developed and refined its SMART Signal system to make it easier and less expensive to retime signals. The system, developed with funding from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), not only collects traffic and si
  • PTV Group to highlight next-gen traffic management
    August 25, 2022
    In a rapidly changing mobility world, cities are looking for daring ideas and smart solutions to revolutionise the way people move.