Regional industry group West Midlands 5G (WM5G) and Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) are beginning to install air quality sensors around some the region’s roads.
It is part of the £5.8 million Road Sensor Network Project and will involve the provision of around 350 sensors by Vivacity and Vaisala across the seven constituent authorities of the TfWM area.
The sensors will combine Vivacity’s technology using artificial intelligence to capture anonymous traffic counts with Vaisala’s weather and environmental measurement products.
Vivacity said the installation will provide detailed insights into both street level and large scale weather and air quality changes across the region.
Essential conversation
The company’s CEO Mark Nicholson commented: “The conversation around air quality, sustainability and the impact of travel has become essential, and it’s great to be partnering with Vaisala to provide key and new data for local authorities and researchers.
“By providing these insights, decisions can be made about infrastructure and both immediate and longer term plans can be put in place to improve air quality.”
The Road Sensor Network Project is set to run until March 2022, and it is hoped the findings will support other regions in developing similar networks to ease congestion hotspots and more intuitively manage traffic flow.
Image from WM5G
