The city is on a $10-million road toward remotely controlling — and watching — every intersection in the city over the next five years.
Think of it as the cost of managing traffic during a Queen Street hill rebuild, major highway collision or post-Ticats game pileup.
"If we can get it done it will be pretty cool," traffic operations manager Martin White said of the multi-year proposal, which includes a state-of-the-art control centre and multiple cameras for each of the city's 550 signalized intersections.
We'll have the ability to do really advanced, reactive traffic management for big events, on-demand changes for emergencies … But we're a few years away yet." A few dollars away, too. Construction will soon begin on a $350,000 control room in a traffic operations building on Upper Ottawa Street near Stone Church Road.
But most of the cash needed for 1,100-plus cameras, communications equipment and other electrical work will need approval in future capital budgets, White said.
A citywide rollout would likely cost close to $10 million, although White expects cameras to be installed in targeted locations first for evaluation. The City of Windsor recently committed around $2 million for 200 similar cameras.
White is hopeful small-scale tests of the technology — already under way at a handful of intersections — will convince council to continue investing in the project, which dates back to 2005 studies on "intelligent" transportation planning technology.
