OPWA Booklet I Design 2025 (4) - Flipbook - Page 20
TECHNICAL INNOVATION
REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF YORK
Automated Stop Inspection System using Artificial Intelligence and
Image Processing Technology
York Region is Canada’s 6th most populous municipality and has a large
service area covering over 1,700 square kilometres, providing transit service
to millions of commuters annually. The safety and comfort of passengers are
of paramount importance. Keeping over 6,000 bus stops and their assets,
including transit shelters, benches, bike racks, waste/recycling receptacles,
or community information kiosks, in good condition and free of potential risks
or hazards to the public is important. It also requires significant resources to
track the condition of these amenities at any given time. After determining
inspections, maintenance operations and asset assessments programs could be improved, York Region began
searching for a new and creative solutions to innovate the different public works programs.
York Region installed eight CITYROVER AI smart camera system technology within its YRT fleet to automatically
scan and inspect all bus stops on a given route. The cameras and software were redesigned by CITYROVER to
capture and analyze bus stop infrastructure.
By leveraging CITYROVER AI to automatically collect bus stop data, York Region has improved its approach to
facility maintenance and amenity asset management and can scale facility maintenance capacity while
leveraging transit vehicles for facility data collection.
This solution has demonstrated:
1. Productivity Boost and Cost Savings: By installing detection devices in buses with the capability to
automatically collect data and send to the cloud, YRT can access a more complete picture of the condition of the
bus stops encountered while on route.
2. Safety and Risk Exposure Reduction: Regular updates on the condition of YRT’s bus stops and amenities
make it possible to address issues in less time, thereby reducing commuters’ exposure to risk and improving
service satisfaction levels.
3. Digital Asset Repository and Logs: Streamlining infrastructure inspection through AI automation allows YRT
to maintain an up-to-date daily records of its transit assets and amenities.
This technology solution means YRT is now able to conduct more regular inspections (daily image collection at
each stop), detect incidents or issues in near real time (multiple garbage bags on platform or shelter), and review
amenity problems more proactively (seeing that a sign is missing in a stop).
20 | OPWA AWARDS LUNCHEON
