Miovision unveils Central traffic control platform

Kitchener, Ontario traffic systems technology company Miovision is launching a free, cloud-based collaboration platform called Miovision Central, which will allow various stakeholders in city infrastructure projects, including engineers, planners and contractors, to access relevant traffic data when they need it to complete projects on time and on budget.

Miovision has been working on Central with some of its core customers over the past several months and will be unveiling the platform at the North American Travel Monitoring Exposition and Conference (NATMEC) 2016, taking place this week in Miami.

“Great projects require smart decisions that are driven by good data,” said Miovision CEO and co-founder Kurtis McBride. “Unfortunately, that data is often not available to all the different people across different organizations. Accessing, analyzing and visualizing it should be easy. With Miovision Central, now it is.”

With the Smart City agenda gaining more traction within municipal governments around the world, the idea of using technology to increase efficiencies and coordinate stakeholders on urban challenges like traffic, among other things, is gaining wider acceptance.

Miovision Central brings more transparency to traffic projects, putting data into a centralized platform, to organize, visualize and share relevant data to increase project efficiency.

Traffic projects typically require coordination of data for a varied group of both internal and external stakeholders, including municipal government officials, urban planners, contractors, engineering firms, with data frequently spread across computer drives, physical pieces of paper, spreadsheets, email, or thumb drives.

“We do a lot of Traffic Impact Studies in New York and New Jersey that require large amounts of supporting information and traffic data,” said Vanessa Jorge, transportation planning engineer at Maser Consulting. “Central brings everything together into one place so I spend less time rummaging through old emails and files and more time processing studies.”

Miovision, which now serves over 650 customers in 50 countries, turned 10 years old last year, at which point Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride talked to Cantech Letter about his company’s plans to build nothing less than “the operating system of the smart city.”

“The traffic data visualizations in Central are very helpful for me when I am analyzing volume trends throughout the day, or comparing how different modes interact with each other,” said Chris Hutchinson, senior traffic engineer at TERRA Engineering. “The visualizations are also useful when presenting complicated data and recommendations at public meetings and to non-traffic professionals.”

Last February, Miovision closed a $30 million Series B financing round, led by MacKinnon, Bennett & Co., with assists from Investeco Capital, Renewal Funds, Plaza Ventures and Comerica.

“When cities embark on transportation projects, data is often the first thing they need and it’s the last thing they should have to worry about,” McBride said. “Miovision is providing Central for free because empowering traffic professionals to collaborate better improves transportation – and quality of life – for residents.”