Pump up the jam: the data on increased traffic levels

Nobody likes being stuck in traffic. More of us were working from home entering the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic than the first, and early analysis shows it saved us time and could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

But, this year, with more of us heading back on the road for travel, in-person work and school, traffic volumes are back in the spotlight and so is how to spot them around cities.

Statistics Canada’s data scientists at the Data Exploration and Integration Lab, Centre for Special Business Projects, have developed a system for traffic flow estimation from traffic camera imagery. Furthermore, the Traffic Flow Dashboard, an experimental online tool to visualize the extracted traffic flow data, has been developed and released.

Although users can currently only view data for selected road segments in Toronto and Calgary, data from 1,518 traffic cameras in all 10 provinces are available, and the tool will soon be updated with more cities.

The two cities were chosen based on the number of cameras available, resolution quality and high refresh rate. Unlike other recent research that uses video cameras, the Statistics Canada model is based on static cameras.

A workflow was developed to acquire traffic camera imagery and detect different types of vehicles using an object detection model. The model then produces vehicle counts, which can be used to estimate traffic volumes using proposed methods described in the paper.

The Traffic Flow Dashboard tool gives users options to view traffic flow estimates by clicking on a particular camera location on the map. For example, on Friday, July 8 at the busy downtown Toronto intersection of Lake Shore Boulevard and Yonge Street near the Gardiner Expressway, data from that camera shows a vehicle count of 1,040.

Data from that same camera show monthly highs of 170 on February 15, 244 on March 25, 255 on April 26, and 636 on June 10—all of which were weekdays.

Conversely, data from the camera at the intersection of the Bow and Crowchild Trails in downtown Calgary shows 24 days with over 1,500 vehicles each from February to August—Alberta began rolling back pandemic lockdown restrictions February 9.

Toronto, which had higher rates of telework earlier in 2022, had less commuters into downtown, which may explain the gradual rise in traffic counts.

Check back in the coming months to see cameras from your city—and neighborhood—added to the tool!