By Laura Diamond, Georgia Tech News Center
The City of Atlanta’s North Avenue Smart Corridor Project was recognized as an innovative and transformative program during a leading international summit on smart cities.
The Smart City Expo World Congress awarded the project its Mobility Award. Georgia Tech serves as the research partner for this Atlanta initiative, with School of Civil and Environmental Engineering professors Randall Guensler and Michael Hunter working to use the corridor’s data to reduce emissions and improve energy use.
“This corridor is becoming the most connected one in the state of Georgia, serving as a living lab for active, multi-modal traffic management through technology deployment and data analytics. Smart technology solutions applied here are improving roadway and public safety, mobility and the environment,” according to the news release announcing the award.
In August 2017, the City of Atlanta announced an expanded research project with the Institute for the North Avenue project. It involves multiple Smart City technology components designed to: facilitate and promote safety for pedestrian and bicycle traffic; use the latest technology-adaptive traffic signals for a safer, more efficient flow of bus and vehicular traffic in real time conditions; and prioritize fire engines and ambulances traveling along the corridor on emergency response calls.
Georgia Tech has partnered with the City since 2015 to design, implement and study Smart City initiatives.
Georgia Tech leads several initiatives to bring together industry and public agencies to help local governments implement smart development. The strategies developed serve as models that could be implemented across Georgia and the country.
The Georgia Smart Communities Challenge provides seed funding and access to a Georgia Tech research team to develop and implement smart design solutions to tackle big challenges such as housing, traffic congestion, sea level rise and shared autonomous vehicles.