UK city deploys wireless sensors to reduce congestion

In a bid to cut congestion, Portsmouth City Council in the UK has installed a wireless vehicle tracking solution in the city. The system, from Danish wireless technology company Blip Systems, was deployed by the company’s UK partner Smart CCTV which has installed BlipTrack sensors on the three most-often congested roads linking to the M27/A27 east-west corridor.
November 19, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In a bid to cut congestion, Portsmouth City Council in the UK has installed a wireless vehicle tracking solution in the city.

The system, from Danish wireless technology company 3778 Blip Systems, was deployed by the company’s UK partner smart CCTV which has installed BlipTrack sensors on the three most-often congested roads linking to the M27/A27 east-west corridor.

The sensors use data received from Bluetooth-enables devices in passing vehicles to measure journey times and speeds, enabling the council to provide queue warnings on VMS displays and mobile apps.   It also provides the city with valuable information about traffic flow for planning and optimising traffic.

According to Smart CCTV’s Managing Director Nick Hewitson, the installation of the BlipTrack sensors costs about one-tenth of the cost of an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.  He said at a recent 288 ITS UK conference, “BlipTrack catches upwards of 40 per cent of vehicles, compared to with 95 per cent with ANPR, but this is statistically more than adequate for journey time information”.
Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

Related Content

  • October 4, 2013
    Further reseller agreement for Blip Systems
    Blip Systems, Danish supplier of Bluetooth and wi-Fi traffic management solutions, has appointed Irish ITS systems integration specialists Bandwidth Telecommunications as their value added reseller. BlipTrack works by placing small sensors in road networks and anonymously tracking. This real time traffic flow data in enables road authorities to proactively manage the road network to minimise delays and congestion.
    Read More
  • January 27, 2012
    Integrate systems to reduce roadside infrastructure
    David Crawford reviews promising current developments. Instrumentation of the road infrastructure has grown to become one of the most dynamic sectors of the ITS industry. Drivers for its deployment include global concerns over the commercial and environmental pressures of traffic congestion, the importance of keeping drivers informed throughout their journeys, and the need to reduce accident rates and promote the safety of all road users, for example by enforcing traffic safety rules.
    Read More
  • April 10, 2014
    Cellint measures speed and travel time without roadside infrastructure
    Collecting speed and travel time data without using roadside infrastructure could offer new possibilities to cash-strapped road authorities. Streaming video may be useful for traffic controllers to monitor incidents and automatic number plate recognition may be required for enforcement, but neither are necessary for many ITS functions. For instance travel times, tailbacks, percentage of vehicles turning, origin and destination analysis can all be done using Bluetooth and/or WI-Fi sensors and without video o
    Read More
  • January 26, 2018
    Jenoptik uses sensor fusion to avoid monitoring confusion
    Jenoptik’s Uwe Urban looks at the advantages of ‘sensor fusion’ for the ITS sector. When considering the ideal sensing and monitoring system to enable the ITS sector to deliver improvements in mobility and road safety, for general policing security and border protection, we have to think beyond radar-base systems or laser scanners. What is needed today are solutions for detecting and tracking vehicles while recording evidence to deacide if any action is necessary. There is no sole sensor capable of
    Read More

Highlighted Content