The Intelligent Transportation Society of America is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to advancing the research, development and deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to improve the nation’s surface transportation system. As the state chapter, Intelligent Transportation Society of Georgia (ITS GA) advocates for the transformative power of Intelligent Transportation Systems in enhancing the management of diverse transportation systems. The City of Peachtree Corners makes it a point to be a member of ITS GA to ensure our city and smart city initiatives are staying up to date on the latest ITS projects and knowledge across the U.S.
This year, the city and Curiosity Lab had the opportunity to highlight one of our current ITS projects deployed in Peachtree Corners with Curiosity Lab ecosystem member, Seyond. They decided to apply for the Outside the Construction Box Award for setting up simulated intersection known as “Ghost Intersections” on Peachtree Parkway. This award is given to projects that showcase a creative and unique approach or solution to an ITS challenge or issue using ITS architecture, software deployments, network engineering, or any other ITS application that is not directly related to a typical project.
We are excited to share that on November 13, 2024, ITS Georgia held its annual awards banquet at the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, where Peachtree Corners and Curiosity Lab were awarded the 2024 Outside the Construction Box Award for setting up ‘Ghost Intersections’ on Peachtree Parkway (State Route141) with Seyond.
“We are proud of our relationship with Curiosity Lab and the City of Peachtree Corners, which provides us with an environment that is unique in ITS, where we can test and validate use cases before offering them as products to our US customers,” said Seyond Product Marketing and Strategy Manager Steven Sheffield, P.E.
About our ‘Ghost Intersection’ with Seyond
Seyond, a global provider of high-fidelity LiDAR solutions, is working with Peachtree Corners, Curiosity Lab and other private-public partners to test and scale mobility solutions to improve safety, efficiency and sustainability of Peachtree Corners. LiDAR is becoming a critical piece of infrastructure transformation, and real-world environments such as Curiosity Lab are putting concepts into action and paving the way for the future of mobility.
To expand the city’s research and Seyond’s testing capabilities, the city set up a “Ghost Intersection” at a more heavily traveled intersection maintained by Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), seeing over 60,000 vehicles a day on average. The city worked closely with GDOT and Seyond to stand up this project and installed city-owned poles to harness traffic equipment and an additional traffic cabinet and controller to run the existing software. Seyond’s LiDAR systems were set up at this intersection to collect real-world data and real-time 3D mapping with both vehicle and pedestrian object detection.
The purpose of this project is to be able to study existing traffic and vulnerable road user habits and to simulate and test how future traffic systems will operate using real-time traffic data. The goals of this project are to accomplish efficiencies in corridor movement and improve vulnerable road user protection, especially for handicapped individuals or families with children crossing who may require more time to cross the crosswalk than the average pedestrian phase allows. When combining Seyond’s LiDAR and their OmniVidi Perception Service Software Platform and Blue-Band Integrator AI, the data collected can be used to implement traffic and VRU signal solutions to make intersections safer and more efficient, while also protecting citizen privacy. The collected data from Seyond’s data and Blue-Band’s analysis can be used by Peachtree Corners to adjust traffic signals, pedestrian crossing signals, intersection design and more to address specific safety and efficiency needs based on real-world data.
Seyond’s traffic perception and actuation software detecting and classifying road users in real-time.
Deployed earlier this year, the project was successful so quickly that Curiosity Lab and Peachtree Corners decided to expand the project with Seyond by installing additional infrastructure to two adjacent intersections. This would allow us to study the additional intersections individually and to see how this technology can help further synchronize the corridor as a whole.
“Working with Seyond on this project for Curiosity Lab and our city has been incredible,” said Public Works Director Greg Ramsey. “Their technology would allow us to adjust the traffic signals and crosswalk signals based on real-time and real-world data. This is incredibly advanced in the ITS arena, and we can already see how this can make a huge difference in the performance of our intersections. VRUs are always top of mind for us, and we have been able to learn patterns of activity while protecting the privacy of our citizens. Knowing these patterns has allowed us to evaluate both the traffic signal and pedestrian signal timing to ensure both VRUs and drivers are making their way through our city safely. We are looking forward to seeing the additional learnings we can pull from our ‘Ghost’ corridor.”
As the year continues, Curiosity Lab and the City of Peachtree Corners are continuing to intake additional data from Seyond’s systems to make our corridor safer and more efficient for vehicles and VRUs.
Read more about our collaboration with Seyond here.