A leading Canadian developer of video-based traffic management software systems has launched a new free first-of-its-kind system that has been designed to allow engineers and planners to coordinate traffic data projects, and underpin their recommendations with supporting visuals.
Miovision has released Miovision Central, a cloud-based platform that is a new way to add transparency to traffic projects, by organizing, visualizing and sharing data in order to simplify complicated projects. Transportation planners and engineers shape the traffic flow of the world’s cities, and their projects require the coordination of large amounts of data among stakeholders from different internal and external groups. To complete projects on time and on budget, it is crucial for these groups to align, which is difficult when information is scattered across multiple computer drives, spreadsheets, emails or even sticky notes. Miovision Central provides a free software platform for cities and their contractors to centralize all of those moving parts, making projects simpler, more productive and more successful. Early Central users are already realizing the benefits of improved collaboration and access to data.
The concept behind Central is simple: put data and information at the fingertips of the engineers and planners. Data is the foundation of every major traffic project, and billions of dollars are spent every year predicated on traffic data. Central makes it simpler to receive and analyze that data, helping ensure that engineers and planners can get projects done on time and on budget. Unlike anything that exists today, Central makes it possible for transportation professionals to define their traffic data projects, then collaborate with clients and colleagues on all files, data and video, using secure modern web-sharing practices. Designed specifically for engineers and planners, Central significantly cuts down on staid bureaucracy and inefficiencies created by archaic methods of information sharing that are unfortunately the standard for many cities.
“Great projects require smart decisions that are driven by good data,” explained Kurtis McBride, CEO and co-founder of Miovision. “Unfortunately, that data is often not available to all the different people across different organizations. Accessing, analyzing and visualizing it should be easy. With our Central platform, now it is. When cities embark on transportation projects, data is often the first thing they need, and it’s the last thing they should have to worry about. We are providing Central for free because empowering traffic professionals to collaborate better improves transportation, and quality of life, for residents.”
Vanessa Jorge, transportation planning engineer at Maser Consulting and an early user of the system commented, “We do a lot of traffic impact studies in New York and New Jersey that require large amounts of supporting information and traffic data. Central brings everything together into one place, so I spend less time rummaging through old emails and files and more time processing studies.”
Her views were mirrored by Chris Hutchinson, senior traffic engineer at TERRA Engineering, who said, “The traffic data visualizations in Central are very helpful for me when I am analyzing volume trends throughout the day, or comparing how different modes interact with each other. The visualizations are also useful when presenting complicated data and recommendations at public meetings and to non-traffic professionals.”
