Traffic management platform gets a cloud lift
Connecting state and local government leaders
NextTraffic, a next-gen transportation and traffic management solution, launched on Microsoft’s Azure platform.
Cubic Transportation Systems, a provider of transportation payment and IT services, has launched its NextTraffic transportation and traffic management system on Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
NextTraffic collects, processes and monitors all traffic data so municipalities can control and manage transportation, roads and networks from one interface. The solution supports systemwide data collection, processing and sharing with the city and its travelers, and it works with cities' existing infrastructures as well as through Microsoft Azure.
According to Cubic, NextTraffic delivers real-time traffic management for all freeways, highways and city road networks. The platform includes a browser interface, mobile access, data analytics, businesswide management reporting and a public website.
The solution can exchange data with traffic signal management applications, video management tools, changeable message signs, connected vehicle portals, weather sensors, communications monitoring tools, speed controls, integrated corridor management, dynamic lane controls, asset management and maintenance dispatch as well as other transportation management tools.
With NextTraffic on the Azure cloud, “we can take data from any source … [merge it] in with other data and turn it into knowledge,” Cubic’s Chris Bax, vice president of ITS Global Strategy, said.
For example, NextTraffic could let a drivers stuck in traffic know where the nearest parking lot or bus station is and provide bus timetables or alternate routes, Bax said. With the platform, cities can decide to share information through mobile applications, social media or websites.
According to Bax, putting the platform on the cloud was essential, because scalability the ability to provide a platform for proof of concept though rapid development and deployment were both considered critical.
Although Microsoft’s work with its own CityNext initiative and its installed base of enterprise solutions across cities and government made it Cubic’s preferred platform, NextTraffic can be hosted by any cloud provider. “We also recognize the importance of the open ecosystem in a scenario like traffic management,” said Microsoft’s Bill Mitchel, senior director for World Wide Public Sector.
“The ability to take data from anywhere... is the real exciting thing about cloud platforms,” Mitchel said. And Azure’s capability to ingest data from the Internet of Things and provide analytics pipelines makes it useful, he added.
The solution is intended to improve traffic patterns and transportation around the city, reduce congestion, contribute to economic development, reform city planning and provide travelers with personal journey information.