• VivaCity sensors have been installed to gather data insights on active travel as part of Liverpool City Region’s ‘Sustainable Green Travel Corridors Project’

• Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has developed the Smart Green Dashboard, partly fed by VivaCity sensor data, to enable local authorities to make strategic decisions on infrastructure development for active travel

• LJMU has developed the Smart Green Journeys mobile phone app, fed by VivaCity sensor data, for local residents to use to plan walking and cycling journeys and see resulting money and carbon savings

The Liverpool City Region Sustainable Green Travel Corridors Project (LCR SUD) is a £16.7m project, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and part of a LCR-wide initiative, to incentivise more cycling and walking in the city, with particular emphasis on encouraging people to ditch the car in favour of active travel for short journeys. 

The benefits of increasing the uptake of cycling and walking in the city include improved community health as a result of increased physical activity, better air quality and reduced pollution, enhanced journey quality, and a reduction in greenhouse gases.

The LCR identified challenges facing the area’s communities, including unemployment and pockets of concentrated poverty, alongside a history of poor air quality, poor health and social inclusion issues. Poor transport provision is a known barrier to economic growth and prosperity. To remedy this, a better connected, accessible, citizen-centric network is key. 

Data is a vital ingredient of this project. Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has led the digital innovation aspect of the scheme, and rolled out 6 VivaCity AI sensors across the city’s cycling and walking network. Road use data gathered from these, alongside air quality and weather data captured by other sensors, has been made accessible to local authorities by being fed into the Smart Green Dashboard, the purpose-built management information dashboard by LJMU. 

Alongside the dashboard, the Smart Green Journeys app was launched in October 2021. This free app, available for iPhone and Android, serves as a data-driven route planner for cyclists and walkers. Users have access to road use and weather data and can plan safe, direct routes for leisure or commuting that best suits their needs. Utilising classified counts data, the app is able to display up-to-date usage information, and calculates the money and carbon savings that can be achieved by opting for active travel, further incentivising modal shift. As of December 14th, the app had been downloaded by 113 Android users and 144 Apple users since its launch and the project has been granted more funding by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to extend its work in 2022.

The work of LJMU demonstrates how road use data captured by our AI sensors can be used to empower urban citizens, equipping them with an easy to use resource that helps them make environmentally conscious, money saving, and healthy travel decisions. This initiative further expands the Region’s multi-modal transport network, removing travel barriers for residents and helping to address socio-economic disparities in the Region, supporting overall economic growth. 

For more information on Smart Green Dashboard or Smart Green Journey, please contact Professor Thanh Nguyen on t.t.nguyen@ljmu.ac.uk.

If you would like to learn more about how our computer vision sensors can provide traffic insights for various network improvement, active travel and other schemes, please get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to run a demon.

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