AI drives smart city solutions in Peachtree Corners

Curiosity Lab provides an environment with a public roadway filled with real pedestrians, vehicles and more each day for startups to established companies to continue to improve and develop their technologies based on how they perform in a real environment. Solutions deployed at Curiosity Lab include everything from the next generation of intelligent mobility, smart city solutions, IoT, C-V2X, drone delivery and more. Peachtree Corners and Curiosity Lab have been both nationally and internationally recognized for creating the smart city blueprint through public-private partnerships for cities across the United States.

Data is displayed on dashboards within the Curiosity Lab’s IoT Control Room, one of the only rooms of its kind in the country showing live video streams from cameras deployed throughout Peachtree Corners’ smart city ecosystem. This data is used to help City Managers see how drivers are moving through the corridor and to identify if certain areas need to be remodeled for additional roadway safety and efficiency.

By accessing the data, the city is able to track the volume of VRUs and the number of vehicles alerted at specific intersections, allowing the city to make roadway development decisions to improve VRU safety.

Since this project was launched, the solution has identified and sent C-V2X messages for over 2,143 pedestrians entering the crosswalks, preventing thousands of wrecks, and saving thousands of lives.

“VRU and driver safety are two major priorities for the city,” said City of Peachtree Corners Assistant City Manager and CTO and Curiosity Lab Executive Director Brandon Branham. “As our city continues to grow rapidly, we want to ensure we have systems in place to protect VRUs at intersections, and especially in areas where there may not be the best driver visibility. This includes crosswalks close to major inclines and declines, sharp turns and more. Bosch’s solution has allowed us to not only identify an approximate number of pedestrians using our new trail at these intersections but to also give drivers enough time to react accordingly to prevent VRU injury or fatality. As Bosch continues to develop these solutions, we are looking forward to expanding the areas of use across the city.”

Providing smart city solutions, Bosch cameras are also counting persons entering and exiting the area to provide data on peak times people are visiting the shopping area or to track attendance at events in the park. Peachtree Corners concerts on the Town Green have been known to attract over 10,000 visitors. These solutions not only provide data on how to improve safety and crowd management but also help to manage parking in the Town Center. In select areas, Bosch cameras identify and count empty parking spots. This real-time information is displayed to those visiting the Town Center through the Choose PTC app. This solution allows visitors and residents to know if there are open spots available, or if they need to resort to overflow parking areas, which is key during high-turnout events on the Town Green. In turn, this also helps drivers find open parking faster to reduce traffic congestion and emissions. Future plans for this solution include publishing this information on Peachtree Corner’s website so residents can also access this information live online.

“Crowd control and safety monitoring at our Town Center has been a huge help for City management and first responders,” said City of Peachtree Corners Assistant City Manager and CTO and Curiosity Lab Executive Director Brandon Branham. “Bosch’s solutions in this area help us with three major areas of focus: managing parking, crowd control during large events and resident safety. Bosch’s solutions leveraging T-Mobile’s 5G allow the city to keep a close eye on areas of the Town Center where groups may gather for long periods of time. The camera will detect this activity and will alert our office on duty to check out the area to ensure residents are safe and that there are no issues. In addition, attendance tracking has been key for planning large concerts and outdoor events we hold on the Town Green. The data allows the City, from a management standpoint, to make event crowd management more efficient and safe, especially as our downtown continues to grow in popularity. This same idea applies to the parking solution as well, which makes our residents’ and visitors’ everyday lives easier by making the parking process more streamlined. As our Town Center continues to expand and our population rises, these solutions will remain key flagstones in our city management planning.”