Street Smarts

• By Zareh Megerdoonian
• Jul 30, 2025

The ongoing acceptance of AI and advanced data analytics has allowed surveillance camera technology to shift from being a tactical tool to a strategic business solution. Combining traditional surveillance technology with AI-based data-driven insights can streamline transportation systems, enhance traffic management, improve situational awareness, optimize resource allocation and streamline emergency response procedures.

To keep pace, the traditional security and surveillance technology that is used to keep people and property safe must evolve into Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), doing more than simply monitoring traffic as cities move to a “smart” infrastructure.

Smart cities leverage connected devices and sensors to collect data and improve efficiency across areas like traffic, energy, and public safety, and ITS is an increasingly essential element for enhancing transportation infrastructures. ITS technology helps smart city managers perform critical data analysis to allocate and manage public safety resources, insulate transportation systems from security threats and create safer environments for passengers and transit employees, as well as protect every mode of transportation, mass transit systems, terminals, airports and borders.

ITS involves leveraging the camera as a sensor, where the video captured is secondary to the rich metadata extracted. That data serves as the foundation to building predictive models and solutions, ultimately enhancing urban living and even promoting sustainability.

The potential applications and use cases for Smart Cities and ITS environments are far-reaching and diverse. They include traffic safety, congestion reduction, and the integration of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). However, they also extend to other applications.

Air quality. Where ITS can collect real-time data on air pollution and particulate matter to help cities take actions to reduce pollution or regulate traffic flows based on pollution levels, and promote cleaner vehicles.

Public transportation efficiency. Using real-time data to schedules routes efficiently.

Demand-responsive transportation. In areas with low demand, smaller vehicles or flexible transportation alternatives are allocated.

Smart parking solutions. Using sensors and apps to help drivers find parking options, reducing driving time spent searching for parking and ultimately reducing traffic.

The list goes on to potentially include logistics management, health and emergency response, data-driven city design, community engagement, accessibility, autonomous delivery, and crowd management.

Federal Funding
Surveillance technology has changed dramatically over the last few years, and so has access to federal funding. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was signed into law by President Biden on Nov. 15, 2021, and opened a world of possibilities for every aspect of infrastructure enhancement.

ILJA authorized $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending, with $550 billion allocated for "new" investments and programs for the nation's bridges, airports, waterways, highway safety improvements, congestion mitigation, toll roads, bridges, tunnels and ferries – basically all forms of public transit and transportation management programs, including intelligent transportation systems.

Intelligent Transportation Technology
City organizations are looking for ways to maximize their security spending by getting the most out of an initial technology investment. Surveillance solutions are increasingly incorporating on-board analytics to provide low latency real-time alerts and deliver data that can drive intelligent business decisions. Multi-sensor camera technology is a perfect example. With one device through one data connection, it is possible to monitor and record several key areas with unique fields of view for each, such as outdoors in public areas or more commonly intersections, roads, sidewalks, and shared pathways.

With built-in analytics, cameras are capable of driving truly intelligent transportation and surveillance functions. For example, one area of major ITS focus is “active mitigation,” which is really focused on identifying issues before they become major problems by regularly monitoring and taking preventive actions.

City officials may want to detect and track pedestrian street-crossing patterns, or detect double parking, jaywalking, near miss and collision detection, and work zone management. Maybe they need to know how many people cross the street outside city hall, or near a light rail facility. Since the cameras are already pointing in the direction of that train station, they can capture that data but can also gather footage useful to the police department to detect if there have been physical altercations, robberies, or violent crimes in that area over the past few years.

Using this dual-approach model is also efficient. The metadata stream is roughly 5% of the size of a video stream, while being anonymous and GDPR compliant for privacy. A smart city is perfectly fine with anonymous data, whereas a police department would typically require specific attributes of a person and their demographic profile.

The final technology piece comes down to network connectivity and data access. To avoid latency, fiber connectivity or at least 5G is optimal. One agency may have less fiber and more point-to-point connectivity compared to another area with strong fiber infrastructure and network uptime of 99.9%. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also includes provisions to bolster the country's broadband infrastructure and help ensure that every American has access to high-speed internet.

A Collaborative Mindset
Implementing ITS and smart city technologies requires alignment between different city agencies and departments, as well as overcoming challenges like legacy infrastructure, budget constraints, and cultural resistance to change. AI is now at a tipping point where its accuracy enables it to replace existing sensors. That said, if a traffic agency can’t use the utility pole to hang or power a camera; then these solutions are impossible to realize.

Smart Cities and ITS can create a more connected, efficient, and sustainable urban environment. These technologies help cities manage resources more effectively, improve quality of life, and support economic growth.

This article originally appeared in the July / August 2025 issue of Security Today.