Skip to main content

Xerox researchers take to the streets to take the pain out of congestion

In the US, Xerox researchers have taken to the streets in a bid to reduce traffic congestion. They’re using expertise in data analytics, control systems, sensing, imaging and video to create new transportation applications that help reduce congestion, increase safety on the road and take the pain out of finding a parking spot.
October 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
In the US, Xerox researchers have taken to the streets in a bid to reduce traffic congestion. They’re using expertise in data analytics, control systems, sensing, imaging and video to create new transportation applications that help reduce congestion, increase safety on the road and take the pain out of finding a parking spot.

 “Today you can find our scientists and ethnographic researchers standing on bridges and roads or camping out in city parking lots collecting data and observing driver behaviours,” said Sophie Vandebroek, 4186 Xerox’s chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group. “Our expertise in imaging and human behaviour is now being applied to new areas such as analysing real-time data, including video of traffic and parking patterns, to help improve traffic safety, increase driver satisfaction, simplify a municipality’s infrastructure or make cities greener by decreasing traffic-related pollution.”

Xerox technology clearing the way for smoother travel includes: imaging technology for high occupancy toll (HOT and high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes; automatic licence plate recognition (ALPR); smart urban parking services, parking demand management services and public transportation systems.

 “Adding intelligence to systems is how government and transportation agencies around the world can do more for less,” said Cees de Wijs, Xerox group president for International Transportation and Government. “At Xerox we are focusing our innovation to simplify the complexities of modern integrated transport, resulting in greater convenience, reliability and savings for users and governments and transportation agencies.” De Wijs is speaking on the topic this week at the 19th 6456 ITS World Congress on in Vienna, Austria.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, say traffic police chiefs
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • Expert calls for high-tech traffic control
    November 29, 2012
    A leading Chinese transportation expert has called for China to develop smart traffic technologies that are more customer-oriented, while boosting greener, safer and more efficient modern transportation in the country. "China's ITS applications should shift their focus to provide more solutions for public transportation in the next decade, and the industry should get a new stimulus by responding to the needs of the market," said Wang Xiaojing, chief engineer at the Research Institute of Highway under the Mi
  • Hamburg to bid for 2021 ITS World Congress
    August 26, 2016
    ITS Germany used its presence at the June 2016 Europe ITS Congress in Glasgow to make two major announcements from the city of Hamburg, country’s second-largest urban area. First came a formal bid to host the 2021 ITS World Congress; second, the global unveiling of new Roadwork Administration and Decision System (ROADS) software.ROADS has emerged to enable coordination of planned transport construction projects several years before start dates, to minimise impacts on traffic flows when work begins.
  • CES 2021 | Connecting cities
    March 1, 2021
    Covid-19 forced the Las Vegas Convention Center to close its doors for CES 2021, but the trade show’s online debut suggests the pandemic is helping cities