Optimising the Transport Network and Saving Lives in Scotland with AI: TRANSPORT Smart Class, Scotland 2025 Retrospective

The difference between good intentions and real impact in transport lies in the quality of the data behind decisions. Real-time, high-quality multimodal data is the foundation of successful schemes, enabling safer roads and more active travel.

VivaCity’s Carl Pittam (Commercial Manager, Smart Signal Control) joined us at TRANSPORT Smart Class, Scotland 2025 to explore how AI-powered computer vision sensors are replacing outdated monitoring methods to deliver richer, actionable insights. Carl’s presentation showed how advanced analytics uncover true traffic patterns, helping authorities optimise signal timings for active travel and public transport. He also demonstrated how near miss detection technology shifts road safety from reactive to proactive, identifying risks before collisions occur to bridge the road safety data gap.

These rich multimodal datasets have also been revolutionising traffic monitoring, enabling continuous, long term monitoring and supporting evidence-led decision making with confidence:

“Having a clear picture of how people and vehicles interact allows transport teams to target investment, measure impact, and optimise networks in real time. Thus reducing congestion, supporting sustainable travel, and building smarter, more liveable communities”.

Following the presentations and Q&As, Carl teamed up with John Howard (VivaCity’s Head of Business Development for the UK and Ireland) to host deeper dive roundtable discussions with all delegates in attendance.

Presentation highlights and notes:

• Meet VivaCity…
• Established in 2015, VivaCity has grown to become the traffic monitoring system of choice for numerous local authorities implementing schemes to support Net Zero and Vision Zero targets. They do this with the help of VivaCity’s state-of-the art, AI based sensor platform that provides highly accurate, super granular, multi-modal transport data and analysis on a long term 24/7, 365 basis – now implemented in over 170 UK authorities, and by 210+ authorities globally. Actionable insights help them design, deploy and justify transport schemes throughout their entire life cycle;;
• 6,500+ VivaCity sensors are now live in 10 countries. The sensor provides a 3 in 1 solution – Traffic Monitoring, Road Safety Analysis and Advanced detection for Signal Control systems. It also boasts at least 97% classification accuracy across even small classes. It’s important to note that word “classify” as many high % accuracy claims in the industry are simply based on detection or the ability to sense that something is there, but not the ability to detect what is there – a big difference!
• Privacy is also at the heart of VivaCity’s solution which is a data tool, not an enforcement or surveillance tool. Key to protecting personal privacy is edge-processing – video is processed on the device and only anonymised data leaves the sensor. This data is then sent, in real time to VivaCity’s database where authorities can access it instantly from the dashboard or using VivaCity’s API. This provides a rich set of data features, all from a single sensor, that can be used to understand long-term trends, quantify the impact of an intervention, or provide regular reporting;

• Supporting Scotland…
• Glasgow: Glasgow City Council has partnered with VivaCity to deploy 36 sensors at key junctions, improving traffic flow and road safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and bus passengers. The system dynamically adjusts signals by detecting groups of pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, and buses, reducing delays while enhancing safety and efficiency. Alongside optimising crossings in real time, the sensors provide rich multimodal data to guide future junction designs and ensure new layouts meet the needs of all road users;
  Edinburgh – Monitoring the Road Network across Edinburgh: City of Edinburgh Council replaced 18 ageing, unreliable ATCs with VivaCity’s AI powered sensors to gain accurate, multi-modal traffic data. The new solution eliminates costly maintenance and delivers consistent, granular insights without the need for constant intervention. Now, transport teams can confidently assess active travel trends and make data-led decisions that support long-term mobility planning;
• Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis – Supporting better town centres: Stornoway partnered with VivaCity to gather reliable, multi-modal transport data ahead of major town centre regeneration in Stornoway. With cruise tourism set to increase and funding on the line, the Council needed accurate insight to inform where to invest in streetscape improvements. VivaCity’s AI-powered sensors now provide consistent, actionable data enabling smarter, community-focused planning from day one;
• VivaCity are involved in many other exciting projects in Scotland and their current partners include the likes of Aberdeenshire Council, Cairngorms National Park, Cycling Scotland, East Lothian Council, East Renfrewshire Council, Glasgow City Council, HITRANS, Moray Council, Scottish Canals, SEStran, Shetland Islands Council, The Highland Council/Comhairle na Gaidhealtachd, The City of Edinburgh Council, The University of Edinburgh, and Western Isles Council/Comhairle nan Eilean Siar;

• VivaCity MultiView Sensors – A 3-in-1 Solution with up to 4 views, 13 Classifications (including pedestrians, cycles, e-scooters etc), and independently verified 97% accuracy…
• Although there’s a huge amount of complex data available, the real value comes from the ability to use the data for practical, real-world use cases. As mentioned VivaCity have three product lines that make use of the data their our system generates:
• 1) Smart Traffic Monitoring – Where VivaCity dominate the market in the provision of data for transport planning, enabling authorities to better understand how their networks are performing, and supporting the development of business cases and funding bids;
• 2) Smart Road Safety – Comprising VivaCity’s multi award winning Near Miss feature, including winning the recent International Road Safety Invention & Innovation Competition for their work with Transport for West Midlands;
• 3) Smart Signal Control – Which is also award winning and which an increasing number of authorities are using to act on the data from VivaCity’s monitoring systems;
• Each of the above is made possible by the highly accurate data on the position, classification, direction and speed of each road user. And each of them can be combined on one device if required, hence a 3-in-1 solution!
• Accessing the Data – Accessing the data from VivaCity’s sensors is very simple. They offer a range of solutions and options to view and analyse the data required:
• 1) Access to Vivacity’s own dashboard provides a holistic view of of the network and specific sensors as well as a deeper look into multimodal counts on a specific sensor on a specific date;
• 2) You can also access your data through APIs – typically already integrated into existing interfaces such as ESRI, DrakewellC2 and others;
• 3) Through integration into 3rd party systems;
• Improving Bus Journeys with Real-time Data – Nottingham City Council Case Study…
• Challenge – Improve bus journey times without disrupting traffic; Intervention – 285 VivaCity sensors deployed for detailed junction and corridor insights; Insights – Unexpected journey time increases post-scheme launch; Action – Rapid adjustment to junction signal timings and removal of problematic bus lane section;
• Driving Liverpool’s Active Travel Vision with VivaCity Data – Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Case Study…
• Ambition – Best place to walk and cycle in the UK; Challenges – Demonstrating impact, justify funding, overcome public resistance; Solution – 250+ VivaCity sensor deployment, Real-time evaluation to guide investment and scheme design;

• Proactive Road Safety – Plan, Action & Evaluate…
• VivaCity’s Smart Road Safety Solution helps authorities plan, action and evaluate road safety programmes across their network. This is done by:
• Supporting road safety officers at specific sites with diagnostics and real time data – Root-cause analysis of incidents (Diagnostic); Identifying danger hotspots (Real-Time);
• Driving insights for directors and senior decision makers to help them become proactive (Pre-Emptive) – Use as justification and evidence for funding and to prove scheme success; Long term before and after scheme analysis;
• VivaCity’s data features directly support these use cases with – Traffic volumes and trajectories/tracks to help understand risk exposure; Countline speeds which shows compliance for different road users; Near Miss heatmaps & videos to witness dangerous interactions and gain a detailed understanding of road user behaviour;
• Proactive Road Safety – 89% Reduction in Near Misses in Coventry Case Study…
• The Near Miss feature uses the really precise position and class data that we saw earlier. And in common with the traffic monitoring features we’ve seen already, road safety analysis is available as real-time data, providing immediate insight into the safety of your network as well as specific sites;
• In this example from the West Midlands, anecdotal reports were acted upon by deploying sensors for root cause analysis – to understand why the junction was unsafe in more detail;
• The Near Miss system captures unsafe interactions and and makes them available as short, GDPR-compliant clips for you review. This means you don’t have to trawl through long recordings, but as the system is active 24/7, you can also get a more rounded perspective than can be achieved by observation on site;
• And important here is the 3D pose feature – This is essential for determining the distances between objects, and their relative and projected proximity. You can’t get reliable, scientific near-miss incident data without doing this;
• As a result of the data made available this junction in Coventry has already undergone improvements, with a huge (89%) reduction in Near Miss events, in turn reducing the likelihood of a fatality;

• Smart Signal Control – Superior Multimodal Detection…
• All the precise, multi-modal data we’ve heard about so far – on the class, position and speed of all road users – can be used for some really innovative traffic signal control approaches;
• Data is sent via ethernet up to 15 frames per second directly to all the commonly used signal control systems;
• Typically, detection at junctions is single mode – Induction loops in the carriageway respond to the presence of a lump of metal, and there are separate systems for crossings for instance;
• With a more advanced detection system, that detects all road users at the same time, and can send data to several systems at once, as well as providing monitoring data – you need fewer devices, which brings cost efficiencies;
• There’s also the ability to filter data before it arrives at the control systems – This makes for much more dynamic control, better suited to support active travel, bus priority and road safety priorities;
• Advanced Detection in Action – Glasgow Case Study (demonstrating how to get best value from a 3-in-1 solution)…
• Context – Remodelled corridor to support increased cycling and walking; Challenges – Demonstrating scheme success, Cost efficiency; Solution – Footfall monitoring, Advanced cycle detection, Integration with existing traffic signal systems;

• The Vision – Insightful Network Monitoring & Optimisation…
• So bringing everything together, using highly accurate, real time data, it’s possible to build a comprehensive picture of how your road network is performing. With the changes we’re seeing in movement patterns and modal choice, it’s imperative that authorities have deeper, more meaningful insights – and these insights are driven by the data you collect. For example:
• 1) Insights on modal shift – Where on the network is this occurring, across which modes, with seasonal and yearly trends called out and understood;
• 2) Alerts on congestion issues – Where, when and why they are occurring? Is this a construction issue, a response to an intervention, or just the daily norm?
• 3) And crucially, road safety concerns – The ability to monitor cluster sites proactively, identify near miss or close pass events before accidents occur, and understand the impacts of speed limit and road use changes. True road safety will be achieved through proactive and pre-emptive data insights;
• Armed with those insights, solutions might then be road space reallocation or junction remodelling.

If you satisfy our regular delegate qualification criteria but were unable to join in Edinburgh on September 11th for the live in-person event at Riddle’s Court, CLICK HERE and complete the short “Download form” (located at the bottom of the post) to receive a unique link enabling free access to the presentation video recordings and slides (including the film footage and slides from Carl’s initial presentation).

Those qualifying to receive the rich presentation content from this event include commissioning, procurement, trialling, partnering and policy leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers, programme managers and planners from local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public transport operators; regional transport partnerships, sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; highways authorities and road operators; government and supporting national transport agencies; non-governmental organisations; fleet operators, parking operators, prime contractors etc.