Ireland: IBM RESEARCH has generated more than a year”s worth of detailed data on Dublin traffic patterns, creating a highly effective tool for the city”s planners. The computing giant showcased the ‘smart cities’ technology at its newly upgraded Innovation Centre in Dublin. The research collaboration between Dublin City Council and IBM uses data sourced from state-owned traffic sensors, already in place all over the city, which measure the volume of traffic on Dublin roads. IBM combines this with information about events taking place in the city, ongoing road works, weather conditions and road incidents like crashes, gathering data from a wide variety of sources, including Twitter and AA Roadwatch.
The company now has a full set of data for the last 458 days. This allows it to predict future traffic patterns and forecast the effect the hosting of an event will have on traffic congestion. IBM aims to roll out the ‘smart cities’ technology as a commercial product. Since all Dublin buses can now be tracked using GPS technology, they produce a large volume of data every day. IBM analysis of this data allows it to predict route delays based on specific events and times of the year.
Source: Independent
