City of Atlanta Celebrates Smart Corridor Capabilities, Developed in Collaboration with Together for Safer Roads

The North Avenue Smart Corridor Demonstration Project has deployed a connected, data-driven approach to residential safety and multimodal mobility challenges in a ‘living lab’

September 14, 2017

Washington, D.C. – Together for Safer Roads (TSR), a coalition of private sector companies dedicated to making the world’s roads safer, congratulates the City of Atlanta on its unveiling of the North Avenue Corridor as a “Smart Corridor.” Atlanta is one of three leading cities collaborating with TSR to address strategic road safety challenges to improve the lives of citizens.

“TSR is proud of its contributions to the North Avenue Corridor’s transformation into a Smart Corridor,” said David Braunstein, President of TSR. “The North Avenue Corridor is critically important to the vibrancy of Atlanta, and the work being done here sets the stage for Atlanta to become the transportation city of the future. The strong support of Mayor Kasim Reed and TSR member companies, like AT&T and IBM, throughout this process has led to a successful and ongoing public-private partnership.”

To align with Atlanta’s goals of transforming the North Avenue Corridor into a Smart Corridor, TSR’s work with the City addresses the abnormally high crash rate in the North Avenue Corridor, which was more than 200 percent worse than the statewide average for similar corridors in 2014. To help better understand this challenge, TSR and the City combined private sector data with public data to analyze root causes of crashes within the Corridor and suggest the best interventions and future usage of the Corridor.

The City has utilized innovative technologies from organizations like TSR to understand urban challenges, foster economic growth, and strengthen resiliency on North Avenue. By implementing various technologies, City transportation, enforcement and emergency services divisions will have more timely access to insights informing mobility solutions that best serve the community. Atlanta’s North Avenue Corridor is a hub of activity for locals and visitors. Attractions from Georgia Tech to Ponce City Market draw thousands of drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians to explore the Corridor each day. The smart technologies in the area will make the Corridor safer and more accessible for its citizens and visitors alike.

As a leading private-sector coalition focused on road safety, TSR brought the expertise and data of several member companies to bear in partnering with the City of Atlanta. “It’s critically important for IBM to be involved in this project with the City of Atlanta and TSR. We’re seeing incredible advancements in analytics and cognitive regularly, and being able to gear these advancements toward road safety is a huge step in the right direction toward using technology for good,” said Dave Cole, Managing Director, IBM.

The collaboration between TSR and the City of Atlanta ultimately resulted in an interactive dashboard that analyzes key risk factors within the North Avenue Corridor, so the City is able to predict crashes before they happen. Key risk factors include:

• Congestion around events
• Driving behaviors of failing to yield and changing lanes improperly
• Susceptibility to water logging around high traffic segments
• Rainy conditions during early morning hours

“It’s been an exciting journey to see what could be produced through the unprecedented combining of data from the private sector with the City’s public data,” said Chris Penrose, President of AT&T’s Internet of Things Solutions. “The collaboration is the first of its kind, and our hope is that we can continue to expand its capabilities and ultimately reduce crash rates, which in turn save lives.”

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About Together for Safer Roads
Together for Safer Roads (TSR) is an innovative coalition that brings together global private sector companies, across industries, to collaborate on improving road safety and reducing deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes globally. TSR brings together members’ knowledge, data, technology, and global networks to focus on five areas that will make the greatest impact globally and within local communities. These focus areas align with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety’s Five Pillars by developing programs to address issues in road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users, and post-crash response. TSR’s current members include AB InBev, Abertis, AIG, AT&T, CalAmp, Ericsson, GM, IBM, iHeartMedia, Octo Telematics, PepsiCo, Republic Services, Ryder, UPS, and Walmart. Learn more at www.togetherforsaferroads.org. Connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.