New transportation operations centre unveiled by City of Toronto will help improve safety and traffic flow

City of Toronto Media Relations has issued the following:

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News Release:  July 23, 2014           

New transportation operations centre unveiled by City of Toronto will help improve safety and traffic flow

The City of Toronto has renovated and upgraded its Transportation Operations Centre to help improve safety and traffic flow on city roadways.

The centre's upgraded technology now permits the monitoring of more traffic cameras on its video wall, enabling operators to see traffic as it moves along city expressways and over the next few years, more main roads. The video wall will allow for future growth of the system as the City places more cameras on main roads over time.

"This state-of-the-art facility is the next step in our plan to get Toronto moving," said Mayor Rob Ford. "Fighting gridlock is a top priority for the City of Toronto. These vital investments will help us manage traffic flows more effectively and get Toronto residents where they need to go, both quicker and safer."

The updated video wall has the capacity to monitor more than 200 cameras at one time. The previous wall could only monitor about 60 cameras at once.

This project is one part of the City's overall congestion management plan. Other elements of the plan include:

• re-evaluation and co-ordination of approximately 1,000 traffic signals 

• installation of 100 traffic cameras on arterial roads to better detect problems on these key transportation routes 

• addition of 13 variable message signs along the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard 

• extension of peak-period parking regulations and turn prohibitions on selected roads such as Queen Street and King Street to help improve surface transit operations.

These changes, along with other initiatives, will allow the City to better respond to real-time changes in traffic conditions, provide motorists with updated information to allow them to change routes as necessary, and improve traffic efficiency along key corridors.

This news release can also be found on the City's website: http://bit.ly/WCRXvT

Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. Toronto is proud to be the Host City for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.

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Media contact: Steve Johnston, Strategic Communications, 416-392-4391, sjohnsto@toronto.ca