Skip to main content

City of Toronto to use traffic data to get Toronto moving

The City of Toronto is investing in the power of data to help understand how, where and when people travel and how the City can use this information to better assist the public in moving around Toronto. The city is creating a Big Data Innovation Team which will build on some of the current big data work of Transportation Services, including: developing a Big Travel Data strategy for Transportation Services to determine ways to make this type of information available; partnering with McMaster University
April 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The City of Toronto is investing in the power of data to help understand how, where and when people travel and how the City can use this information to better assist the public in moving around Toronto.

The city is creating a Big Data Innovation Team which will build on some of the current big data work of Transportation Services, including: developing a Big Travel Data strategy for Transportation Services to determine ways to make this type of information available; partnering with McMaster University to analyse historical travel data on city expressways and streets; working with the TTC to closely analyse surface transit data to identify operational improvements to further improve streetcar service; and releasing a report from the Cycling Unit of Transportation Services evaluating cycling travel patterns based on data collected from its cycling tracking app, showing the impacts of Cycletracks.

Mayor John Tory says the availability of travel data has improved dramatically over the past few years and is at a point where the City can, and should, be using it to better understand travel patterns, evaluate the City’s investments and monitor performance. “With this information, we can get Toronto moving smarter," he said. "This will be a game changer and will establish Toronto as a leader in running a truly smart city."

UTC

Related Content

  • February 9, 2017
    PTV sets its sights on Smart City solutions
    Making a city smarter not only relies on understand technological opportunities but also human decision-making, as Miller Crockart explains. Cities are about people – a fact that can easily be forgotten when experts talk about roads, healthcare and education as though they are abstract and unconnected monoliths rather than things people use. Understanding how and why people use services is vital for making decisions on how they can be optimised for maximum efficiency across inter-connected networks that for
  • April 10, 2012
    Why integrated traffic management needs a cohesive approach
    Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App
  • January 14, 2013
    New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010.
  • January 11, 2013
    New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010. The IT giant was looking for a local transport authority as partner for testing IBM’s