Grey Highlands council wants to get more data about where and when drivers are speeding on local roads.
At its meeting on Oct. 2, Grey Highlands council voted in favour of working with Montreal-based company, Traffic Logix, to compile speed data across the community.
Council received a presentation from company representative Malvika Gandhi at the meeting. Gandhi explained that Traffic Logix works with municipalities to gather traffic data and formulate the appropriate solutions and responses to speeding issues.
Members of council met Gandhi at the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
She told council the key to implementing effective solutions to speeding problems is to have up-to-date and accurate information.
“The main thing you have to do is collect the data,” she said.
Gandhi said Traffic Logix offers a free data collection system for municipalities to use to determine where speeding is occurring the most and what kinds of vehicles are responsible.
The company places small black boxes onto poles besides roads. The boxes record traffic speeds throughout the day and the information is uploaded to the cloud every two hours.
“You’re almost getting real-time data,” she said.
She said the data can tell municipalities “where the hot spots are” and can assist with setting up solutions to slow down traffic.
Coun. Joel Loughead said when he spoke with Gandhi about the data collection system at the AMO conference he felt it would work well for Grey Highlands.
“We’re aware we have a speeding problem. We weren’t aware of the specifics,” said Loughead. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us.”
Gandhi said she would work with municipal staff to determine the best locations to set up the black boxes. Data will be collected from the device over a period of weeks and it can be easily moved around to different locations.
Gandhi also said she plans to make a presentation to Grey County council about the system in the near future.
