Skip to main content

Siemens names first centre of excellence for intelligent traffic technology

Siemens has chosen Ann Arbor, Michigan as the company’s first centre of excellence for intelligent traffic technology. Siemens will provide Ann Arbor with its latest innovative hardware and software technology to help expand the city’s smart traffic system infrastructure. Ann Arbor will be among the country’s first real-world implementations of this latest intelligent traffic technology and the partnership will allow the city to continue to modernise and enhance its transportation systems, while enablin
December 15, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
189 Siemens has chosen Ann Arbor, Michigan as the company’s first centre of excellence for intelligent traffic technology.

Siemens will provide Ann Arbor with its latest innovative hardware and software technology to help expand the city’s smart traffic system infrastructure. Ann Arbor will be among the country’s first real-world implementations of this latest intelligent traffic technology and the partnership will allow the city to continue to modernise and enhance its transportation systems, while enabling Siemens and the city to gather new real-world data and insight into the impact of intelligent traffic technologies on congestion and safety.

The technologies that will be part of the centre of excellence include: The newest version of Siemens TACTICS smartGuard, cloud-based traffic management software which allows cities of any size to monitor, view and respond to changing traffic conditions in real-time from any internet-enabled device; The latest version of SEPAC local controller software, located  on the traffic controller this software communicates between the controller and the central system, as well as between the controller and mobile devices including smart phones and vehicles; Upgrade to existing SCOOT (Split, Cycle and Offset Optimisation Technique) system, an adaptive traffic control system that automatically adjusts signal timing to optimise traffic flow.

These systems will allow Ann Arbor to respond and adapt more quickly and intelligently, in real-time, to improve traffic flow and safety.

“Ann Arbor is a city of 115,000 residents, 70,000 students and thousands of visitors and that put considerable stress on a transportation system so the need to move traffic in and out of the city efficiently is crucial not only for economic and environmental impacts, but for quality of life for Ann Arbor residents,” said Marcus Welz, president of Siemens Intelligent Traffic Systems. “The city’s ability and willingness to leverage technology to improve traffic and quality of life for their residents and guests, our long-standing 10-year technology partnership, and the existing culture of research through the university and local business make Ann Arbor an ideal partner of choice for a Siemens Intelligent Traffic Center of Excellence.”

Siemens will work in conjunction with local distributor Carrier & Gable to implement the technology and showcase the systems at their local Ann Arbor office. Siemens will also offer software support to keep Ann Arbor up to date with the latest versions of its technologies.

Related Content

  • January 18, 2013
    Programming a smoother commute
    Work being carried out by the University of Toronto’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Centre could have a beneficial effect on the city’s congestion problems. Says Professor Baher Abdulhai of the Centre, "Everybody realises that we have a big congestion problem in Toronto and the scarier part is that it's getting worse, exponentially." One of the solutions he's working on is smarter traffic lights using artificial intelligence to control the flow of traffic. "Each traffic light would learn how to time i
  • March 18, 2015
    Southend-on-Sea opts for Siemens traffic management
    Siemens is to provide Southend-on-Sea Borough Council (SOSBC) in the UK with a new hosted traffic management service operating real-time urban traffic control (UTC) including SCOOT adaptive control. The new seven year contract will see the migration of the current system to a new hosted Stratos solution to control traffic signal equipment across the town at 50 junctions and pedestrian crossings. Hosted UTC-SCOOT removes the need for local authorities to maintain their own office-based hardware and brings be
  • November 15, 2012
    IBM and City of Lyon collaborate to create transport management centre of the future
    IBM researchers are piloting a system with the City of Lyon, France which will be used to help traffic operators in its transportation management centre to evaluate an incident and make more informed assessments about which actions would restore traffic flow. Using real-time traffic data, the new analytics and optimisation technology can help officials predict outcomes and analyse ways to resolve problems. The researchers say that, although traffic management centres have sophisticated video walls and colou
  • March 22, 2012
    IBM helping to transform Zhenjiang's transport system
    IBM and the City of Zhenjiang, China, have announced that IBM is helping to transform the city's public transportation system. Zhenjiang will use hardware, software, services and technologies from the company’s research labs, all brought together through the IBM intelligent operations centre (IOC) for smarter cities, a solution that will serve as the central point of command for the city.