Calgary pours tech into traffic-congestion mitigation

David Bell · CBC News

· Posted: May 07, 2025 5:54 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

The City of Calgary says it's doing a bully occupation managing vehicular postulation congestion and it wants drivers successful the metropolis to assistance retired by reasoning ahead.

The acting postulation services manager says Calgary is starring the battalion successful immoderate ways.

"We usage drone exertion arsenic a instrumentality to show postulation erstwhile required. We are 1 of the archetypal cities successful Canada to usage this exertion for that application. We are besides the 3rd largest metropolis successful Canada by colonisation and, according to TomTom, an planetary person successful navigation technology. We fertile eighth successful congestion," Anthony El-Araj told reporters astatine a Wednesday event.

"We are performing amended than cities similar Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, London and Halifax. Our congestion levels are astir 50 per cent amended than Vancouver and Toronto."

El-Araj said the metropolis tin remotely entree and power 90 per cent of the much than 200 postulation cameras successful Calgary. They anticipation to deed 100 per cent aboriginal this twelvemonth oregon successful 2026.

"In 2024 alone, we made much than 5,000 real-time awesome adjustments to enactment 7,000 incidents and detours," the technologist said.

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He noted the metropolis has pulled unneurotic resources to assistance drivers navigate astir the construction-dominated summertime season.

Here's the web page.

"That leafage includes interactive postulation maps with thrust times and real-time camera feeds. We besides broadcast accusation connected 107.9 FM, the postulation advisory radio," helium said.

The city's societal media beingness connected X features real-time postulation updates, and integer connection boards are placed successful zones with operation and congestion.

Plan ahead

"The operation play doesn't person to beryllium a pain, particularly erstwhile you person a plan," El-Araj said.

Zi Wang is the congestion absorption pb with the city.

He said artificial quality besides plays a relation successful mitigating congestion erstwhile definite metrics are achieved.

"We don't person a set-in-stone threshold for that. We trust connected AI tools to comparison it to humanities question clip data. So if it is 50 per cent much congested than accustomed conditions, we get a notification. Then an relation looks into what happened," helium explained.

"But it's not a metallic slug to cure the problem."