All over the world, large cities and municipalities have struggled with worsening traffic due to their infrastructure being unable to handle urban sprawl and rapid population growth over the past several decades. Toronto has become North America’s third most congested city and seventh among 1,000 cities globally. This has caused the average Torontonian to lose 118 hours sitting in traffic in 2022, resulting in poorer productivity and work-life balance.
AirMatrix, a Canada-based leading provider of aerial traffic management software solutions, is singularly placed to help Toronto address traffic congestion and provide solutions that can help alleviate it. Having successfully partnered with the City of Waterloo, the City of Kitchener and the City of Calgary on other successful projects, AirMatrix is well-suited to assist municipalities in addressing traffic congestion and is looking forward to continued engagement with key stakeholders in various areas, such as business, technology, government, and emergency services.
According to AirMatrix, the congestion problem is worsened by most cities’ inability to understand traffic from a holistic standpoint. Typically, traffic authorities install a camera at one intersection, and extrapolate the data they get at that intersection for the rest of the city. While this approach may have worked in the past, it is now quite rudimentary and outdated due to the huge growth in urban population and advances in technology.
AirMatrix’s drone-based aerial solution gives traffic managers real-time visibility 24 hours a day, providing a more accurate and holistic picture of the traffic situation. By knowing exactly the situation on the ground, authorities will be able to make more informed decisions, such as what are the best detour roads to take in case of construction work or emergency in a particular area. This solution covers the entire city, not just major roads and intersections, providing a more economical and convenient way to alleviate congestion by using the entirety of the city’s road resources.
Recently, AirMatrix partnered with big data analytics company Palantir Technologies to strengthen its airspace infrastructure technology and enable the safe scaling of drone operations in complex urban environments.
“We eliminate the guesswork for traffic managers and city authorities,” says AirMatrix Founder and CEO Bashir Khan, “We’re able to give them a complete picture of what traffic looks like at any given moment throughout the city, allowing them to accurately plan out detour routes and reallocate traffic to decongest the area. The fundamental difference with the old way is that we provide real-time data, which is very powerful compared to simply guessing and extrapolating.”
Khan adds that other providers use static cameras mounted in specific areas. While the stationary equipment is cheaper on a per-piece basis, it becomes more expensive in the long run due to the huge number of cameras needed to cover the entire city. Utilizing drone technology in AirMatrix’s platform eliminates the need for static hardware. Instead, the mobile hardware moves in real-time along with the traffic, providing real-time, full visibility of the situation.
Furthermore, AirMatrix is able to integrate seamlessly with a wide variety of traffic management systems currently being used by city authorities, vastly enhancing their capabilities. There’s no need to tear anything up, and AirMatrix’s solution will be able to fill the gaps in data collection. The AirMatrix team will provide expert assistance in setting up the drones and the AI system and the platform integration, making it a painless process for the city or municipality.Â
“Mobility and traffic congestion have long been hot-button election topics in major Canadian urban areas such as Toronto, and councils are always looking for ways to address these issues as part of their election platforms,” Khan says. “We are currently talking to many cities and municipalities across Canada and even overseas on how we can help. Given how bad traffic has become in major cities, working with their traffic authorities will be an extremely valuable use of our technology, producing a huge impact in alleviating congestion in urban areas. We are constantly in touch with city and municipality officials, including their traffic and procurement teams, figuring out the best solutions to their problems.”
