Suffolk
The English county of Suffolk is installing a multidata sensor system for public lighting along busy roads. This connects motion and temperature sensors directly to a data lighting hub of the street lighting. The aim is to reduce the costs of public lighting, traffic control and road maintenance, while at the same time reducing CO₂ and other harmful emissions.
Big data
Suffolk County is installing a multi-data sensor system for public lighting. This connects motion and temperature sensors directly to a data lighting hub of the street lighting. The aim is to reduce the costs of public lighting, traffic control and road maintenance, while at the same time reducing carbon and other harmful emissions.
With the big data of traffic volumes collected by Suffolk through the SLIC pilot, public lighting, traffic checks and road maintenance can be planned more efficiently. This should allow for a reduction in costs and a reduction in the emission of CO₂ and other harmful substances. Suffolk has the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030, including all buildings, schools and services.
Suffolk will install a total of 25 radar traffic detection units in the Ipswich and Stowmarket areas, which will control 500 street lamps. Data streams from different sensors are combined; traffic and pedestrian data via radar and the road surface via temperature sensors.
The dimming schedules can be automatically adjusted based on the traffic flows. In addition, it is investigated whether energy can be saved by correlating traffic data on main roads and smaller roads. If possible, the sensors can be partially omitted, while the benefits of a dynamic dimming schedule on side roads are still retained. The road surface temperature sensor can be used to make ice control more efficient.
Stakeholders
Suffolk County Council chooses not to inform the public in advance of the public lighting experiments. In order to check whether the changes made are noticed, the county council prefers to record spontaneous reactions from road users and residents who receive it.
Public lighting and traffic control are managed by Suffolk Highways, a specialist county service responsible for the maintenance and safety of local roads.
