1001 Smart Cities
🇬🇧 Manchester

TfGM Urban Traffic Control: Greater Manchester's Adaptive Signals

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 26 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

26 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Greater Manchester's 2,400-plus signals adapt to traffic, but only to vehicles: TfGM's own engineer said SCOOT can't see people on foot or bike. The AI fix was trialled mostly in Salford.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byTransport for Greater Manchester (Urban Traffic Control and Control Centre), for the ten Greater Manchester councils; AI signal-control trial with Vivacity Labs; Green Light pilot with Google
Scale🗺️ Regional
FundingRun by TfGM for the ten district councils. Adaptive upgrades funded by £5.6m of Local Growth Deal money (2018) and £5.63m from the DfT's Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and Green Light Fund (2024); a reported £500,000 DfT award to Manchester City Council for cloud-hosted UTC SCOOT (2022). The Smart Junctions AI trial was co-funded by Innovate UK and DCMS's 5G Create fund.

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,216 documented projects · 🏙️ 8 more in Manchester · 🚦 Traffic management guide · 🚲 Mobility projects

Transport for Greater Manchester's Urban Traffic Control team runs the traffic signals of all ten Greater Manchester councils, Manchester included: more than 2,400 installations, 985 of them pedestrian crossings, operated from TfGM's Control Centre, operating around the clock since April 2018. Adaptive control comes from SCOOT, which coordinates groups of signals from vehicle detectors, and MOVA at single junctions; in November 2019 TfGM put 47% of signalised junctions under such smart control, against a 2018 target of 70%. Both detect vehicles, not people on foot or bike. From 2020 a trial let a Vivacity Labs AI agent, fed by video sensors, run signals in Salford and on the Manchester–Salford border. Vivacity's sensors also count road users for TfGM across the region: counting, not control.

Live

📊 Impact

The measured results are small, local and the operator's or a supplier's. In a four-week 2019 pilot on the A6 Stockport Road, SCOOT gave late-running 192 buses extra green at 14 sets of signals between Stockport and Manchester; 11.8% of the priority messages the signals received led to green time for a late bus, with an average saving of 31 seconds per junction, by TfGM's count. TfGM later told its transport committee the A6 scheme had run at 26 junctions "without any adverse impact to general traffic" and planned to extend it to A635 Ashton Old Road and A5103 Princess Road. Vivacity reports a 23% cut in journey time across a single junction "in Manchester" under its AI control. In TfGM's 2023 pilot with Google's Green Light, recommended timing changes at one junction brought an average improvement of 9% in the morning peak and 18% in the afternoon peak; many recommendations were not applied, because the signals were giving priority to buses and pedestrians or discouraging rat-running. None of these figures comes from an independent evaluation, and neither the supplier nor the Green Light report names the junction; the Green Light report does not name the measure either.

🎓 Lesson

Central adaptive control is a mature instrument with a built-in bias. TfGM's own engineer wrote in 2021 that SCOOT and MOVA cannot bring pedestrians and cyclists into their algorithms, and that political appetite had kept signal control vehicle-first. The region's answer was to add video sensors and trial an AI agent, promising an evaluation that would weigh pedestrians, cycles, buses and cars rather than car traffic alone. The figures in circulation are the supplier's and the operator's. The bus-priority pilot shows the other lever: the system already in place can be told whose delay counts.

🚲 MobilityTraffic managementSensors & IoTPublic transport

Sources

↗ Transport for Greater Manchester — Traffic signals in Greater ManchesterTfGM's standing page on its Urban Traffic Control (UTC) team: a signal control service to the ten district councils of Greater Manchester and Highways England; more than 2,400 installations, which TfGM calls the largest number in the UK outside London, operated and controlled through TfGM's Control Centre with SCOOT and MOVA; 985 of the 2,400 sets of signals are pedestrian crossings; UTC also maintains variable message signs, car park signs and automatic traffic count sites.
↗ Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)Report by TfGM's chief operating officer on the Congestion Deal launched in March 2018: the Control Centre moved to 24/7 operation in April 2018 and alters signal timings to improve vehicle flows; a SCOOT bus-priority pilot ran at 26 junctions on the A6 Hazel Grove to Manchester corridor, giving extra green to late buses where spare capacity was detected 'without any adverse impact to general traffic', with roll-out planned to A635 Ashton Old Road and A5103 Princess Road; over 2,400 signalised junctions, 47% under smart (adaptive) control, with 97 more junctions in an installation programme, 46 of them commissioned.
↗ Place North West — TfGM gets £5.6m for smart traffic light programme (4 Jul 2018)Reports £5.6m of Growth Deal funding for SCOOT, which coordinates groups of signals from sensor data, and MOVA at standalone junctions, both 'due to be rolled out across 70% of Greater Manchester's signal-controlled junctions'; TfGM says SCOOT has been shown to increase traffic performance by up to 15% compared with fixed-time lights.
↗ Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)Reports a four-week TfGM pilot on the A6 Stockport Road in which SCOOT extended green time for late-running 192 buses at 14 sets of traffic lights between Stockport and Manchester, based on each bus's lateness; 11.8% of messages received by the signals resulted in priority, with an average saving of 31 seconds per junction (8.2% and 12.9% in the weekday morning and evening peaks, 11.5% at weekends).
↗ CiTTi Magazine — Transport for Greater Manchester rolls out AI-controlled smart traffic junctions (6 Nov 2020)Reports that Vivacity Labs' AI signal control went live early in 2020 and in September 2020 began simultaneously controlling three neighbouring junctions in the Blackfriars area of Salford; part of a three-year Innovate UK co-funded programme, with further money from DCMS's 5G Create fund; the project 'will scale up to an area of 20 junctions in Manchester by the end of 2021'.
Show 8 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)Comment by TfGM's ITS engineer: TfGM operates over 1,250 adaptive signal control systems (1,000 SCOOT sites and 250 MOVA sites); SCOOT feeds vehicle detection from multiple junctions into a central model, MOVA controls one junction at a time; their weakness is the inability to incorporate pedestrians and cyclists; political appetite kept signal control vehicle-first; the Smart Junctions project installed over 100 AI sensors across over 13 junctions and two crossings in Salford and Manchester city centre and let a reinforcement-learning agent from Vivacity take control of signal timings; evaluation was to consider pedestrians, cycles, buses and cars rather than car traffic only.
↗ CiTTi Magazine — Green means go: extended interview with David Watts, TfGM (26 Aug 2021)Interview with TfGM's ITS engineer on the three-year Smart Junctions project with Vivacity Labs: around 200 sensors give insight into pedestrian movements; the AI control is compared directly with SCOOT and MOVA in one of Greater Manchester's larger SCOOT regions; TfGM operates over 750 junctions on SCOOT and over 250 on MOVA; the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed some comparison opportunities.
↗ Vivacity Labs — Smart Junctions: three years of AI traffic signal control (20 Oct 2021)Supplier's account of the Innovate UK co-funded project with TfGM and Immense Simulations: after controlling three neighbouring junctions, the system was scaled to control five junctions along 'a whole key corridor on the main orbital route on the Manchester Salford border'; claims real-world trials reduced journey times through a junction by an average of 23%.
↗ Vivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022)Supplier's news post: 'in Manchester Smart Junctions achieved a 23% reduction in journey time across a single junction', illustrated with a before/with chart; the junction is not named.
↗ Vivacity Labs — Transport for Greater Manchester portalSupplier's customer page for TfGM: TfGM awarded Vivacity a three-year call-off contract for traffic monitoring across the region, available to local authority partners; the technology 'was also deployed to control traffic signals in Salford'; 200+ sensors rolled out since 2022 for active travel, Smart Junctions, network monitoring and school streets.
↗ Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)Reports TfGM's Green Light pilot with Google: Google reviewed traffic movements and recommended signal timing changes; because signals often give priority to buses or pedestrians or discourage rat-running, recommendations did not always lead to changes; where they did, changes at one junction gave an average improvement of 9% in the morning peak and 18% in the afternoon peak; quotes TfGM's analysis and reporting manager on a network of 2,400 traffic signals.
↗ Traffic Technology Today — TRL Software to provide active-travel traffic management for Manchester (19 Oct 2022)Trade report that TRL Software will supply its UTC SCOOT 7 software, with pedestrian-priority functions, in a programme of works with TfGM; quotes TRL that TfGM has used its UTC since 2019; reports that Manchester City Council was awarded £500,000 by the DfT from the Traffic Signals Maintenance funding call to help deploy cloud-hosted UTC SCOOT until 2024.
↗ Department for Transport — Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and Green Light Fund allocations (20 Mar 2024)Allocation table for the £30m Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and £20m Green Light Fund: Greater Manchester Combined Authority (TfGM) receives £5,626,838.37 in total, of which £5,000,000 from the competitive element.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. 11 of 13 sources carry a publication date, from 4 July 2018 to 20 March 2024.

When the sources were published

  1. Place North West · pressPlace North West — TfGM gets £5.6m for smart traffic light programme (4 Jul 2018)
  2. Place North West · pressPlace North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
  3. Greater Manchester Combined Authority · regional governmentGreater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
  4. CiTTi Magazine · pressCiTTi Magazine — Transport for Greater Manchester rolls out AI-controlled smart traffic junctions (6 Nov 2020)
  5. CiTTi Magazine · pressCiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
  6. CiTTi Magazine · pressCiTTi Magazine — Green means go: extended interview with David Watts, TfGM (26 Aug 2021)
  7. Vivacity Labs · vendorVivacity Labs — Smart Junctions: three years of AI traffic signal control (20 Oct 2021)
  8. Vivacity Labs · vendorVivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022)
Show 3 more dated sourcesShow fewer
  1. Traffic Technology Today · pressTraffic Technology Today — TRL Software to provide active-travel traffic management for Manchester (19 Oct 2022)
  2. Road Safety GB · ngoRoad Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)
  3. UK Government (GOV.UK) · national governmentDepartment for Transport — Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and Green Light Fund allocations (20 Mar 2024)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 26 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence file · public beta 26 addressable claims, 13 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The file is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 26

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-433aa3f420045c69 descriptive
Transport for Greater Manchester's Urban Traffic Control team runs the traffic signals of all ten Greater Manchester councils, Manchester included
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
TfGM's page says its Urban Traffic Control team provides the signal control service to the ten district councils of Greater Manchester, of which Manchester is one, and that TfGM is responsible for permanent traffic signals in Greater Manchester.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Transport for Greater Manchester — Traffic signals in Greater Manchester
Claim 2 clm-d5f4936731d6d00b quantitative
more than 2,400 installations, 985 of them pedestrian crossings
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The page gives more than 2,400 installations and says the 2,400 sets of signals include 985 pedestrian crossings (Puffins, Pelicans, Toucans and Pegasus).
Caveat
The figure counts installations, including standalone crossings, not junctions; TfGM and press reports also give 2,500 sets of signals.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Transport for Greater Manchester — Traffic signals in Greater Manchester
Claim 3 clm-7840464c54a25b39 descriptive
operated from TfGM's Control Centre
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The page says the signal network is operated and controlled by UTC through TfGM's Control Centre using SCOOT and MOVA.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Transport for Greater Manchester — Traffic signals in Greater Manchester
Claim 4 clm-c27e5f47ae5363a4 quantitative
operating around the clock since April 2018
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The committee report says that in April 2018 TfGM's Control Centre transitioned to 24/7 operation and alters signal timings to improve vehicle flows.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
Claim 5 clm-723e7aac872b9676 descriptive
Adaptive control comes from SCOOT, which coordinates groups of signals from vehicle detectors, and MOVA at single junctions
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
TfGM's engineer explains that SCOOT detects vehicles on the approach, feeds detection from multiple junctions into a central model, and that MOVA controls one junction at a time; Place North West describes SCOOT as groups of signals working together and MOVA as used at standalone junctions.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
  2. Place North West — TfGM gets £5.6m for smart traffic light programme (4 Jul 2018)
Claim 6 clm-9af7a7c6bf8e8364 quantitative
in November 2019 TfGM put 47% of signalised junctions under such smart control
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The November 2019 report says there are over 2,400 signalised junctions in Greater Manchester, 47% operated by smart signal technology that responds in real time to traffic volumes.
Caveat
Later counts by TfGM's engineer use different units: over 1,250 adaptive sites (1,000 SCOOT, 250 MOVA) in April 2021, and over 750 junctions on SCOOT and over 250 on MOVA in August 2021. No later share was found.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
Claim 7 clm-9c740babe2909118 quantitative
against a 2018 target of 70%
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Place North West reports that with £5.6m of Growth Deal funding SCOOT and MOVA were due to be rolled out across 70% of Greater Manchester's signal-controlled junctions.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Place North West — TfGM gets £5.6m for smart traffic light programme (4 Jul 2018)
Claim 8 clm-59c64e5b173dd7b8 descriptive
Both detect vehicles, not people on foot or bike.
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
TfGM's ITS engineer writes that SCOOT and MOVA control signals based on vehicles detected on the approach, and that their weakness is the inability to incorporate pedestrians and cyclists into their algorithms.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 9 clm-73608ba03c08a057 quantitative
From 2020 a trial let a Vivacity Labs AI agent, fed by video sensors, run signals
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
CiTTi reports that Vivacity's AI signal control went live early in 2020; TfGM's engineer describes Vivacity control units that let a reinforcement-learning agent take control of signal timings using inputs from AI sensors.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Transport for Greater Manchester rolls out AI-controlled smart traffic junctions (6 Nov 2020)
  2. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 10 clm-f36dc8baa9bbed91 descriptive
in Salford and on the Manchester–Salford border
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
CiTTi reports control of three neighbouring junctions in the Blackfriars area of Salford from September 2020; Vivacity says the system was then scaled to five junctions along the main orbital route on the Manchester Salford border, and its TfGM page says the technology was deployed to control signals in Salford.
Caveat
The project's sensors extended into Manchester city centre, and a 2020 report said it would scale to 20 junctions in Manchester by the end of 2021; no source confirms that expansion.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Transport for Greater Manchester rolls out AI-controlled smart traffic junctions (6 Nov 2020)
  2. Vivacity Labs — Smart Junctions: three years of AI traffic signal control (20 Oct 2021)
  3. Vivacity Labs — Transport for Greater Manchester portal
Claim 11 clm-ffdb89387c91ac6f descriptive
Vivacity's sensors also count road users for TfGM across the region: counting, not control.
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The supplier's TfGM page says TfGM awarded Vivacity a three-year call-off contract for traffic monitoring across the region and lists 200+ sensors since 2022 for active travel, network monitoring and school streets, while naming Salford as where the technology controls signals.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Vivacity Labs — Transport for Greater Manchester portal
Claim 12 clm-f050db151b206b93 quantitative
In a four-week 2019 pilot on the A6 Stockport Road, SCOOT gave late-running 192 buses extra green at 14 sets of signals between Stockport and Manchester
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Place North West reports the four-week pilot on the A6 Stockport Road, in which SCOOT extended green time for the 192 at 14 sets of lights between Stockport and Manchester based on each bus's lateness.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
Claim 13 clm-b24bd72bc1579896 quantitative
11.8% of the priority messages the signals received led to green time for a late bus, with an average saving of 31 seconds per junction, by TfGM's count
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The report gives the pilot's results: of all messages received by the signals, 11.8% resulted in priority for buses running behind schedule, with an average saving of 31 seconds per junction; it attributes the figures to TfGM.
Caveat
TfGM's own figures from a four-week pilot; the method behind the 31-second saving was not published.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
Claim 14 clm-c3557c680c8755ad quantitative
TfGM later told its transport committee the A6 scheme had run at 26 junctions
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The November 2019 committee report says TfGM successfully piloted a SCOOT bus-priority scheme at 26 junctions on the A6 Hazel Grove to Manchester corridor.
Caveat
The July 2019 report of the pilot names 14 sets of signals; the sources do not reconcile the two counts.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
Claim 15 clm-fd0f93708ca4b871 descriptive
"without any adverse impact to general traffic"
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The report says extra green went to late buses where the system detected spare capacity based on real-time traffic flows, without any adverse impact to general traffic; it gives no measurement behind that statement.
Caveat
The operator's statement to its committee; no measurement is given.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
Claim 16 clm-e42816cfae528cae quantitative
planned to extend it to A635 Ashton Old Road and A5103 Princess Road
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The report says the pilot was planned to be rolled out across several other corridors, including A635 Ashton Old Road and A5103 Princess Road.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019)
Claim 17 clm-5b35d9138c1d2ec6 quantitative
Vivacity reports a 23% cut in journey time across a single junction "in Manchester" under its AI control
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Vivacity's 2022 post says that in Manchester Smart Junctions achieved a 23% reduction in journey time across a single junction; its 2021 post says real-world trials reduced journey times through a junction by an average of 23%.
Caveat
The supplier's own figure; the junction is not named, and the junctions under AI control were in Salford and on the Manchester–Salford border.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Vivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022)
  2. Vivacity Labs — Smart Junctions: three years of AI traffic signal control (20 Oct 2021)
Claim 18 clm-d1b76472ef5d2087 quantitative
In TfGM's 2023 pilot with Google's Green Light, recommended timing changes at one junction brought an average improvement of 9% in the morning peak and 18% in the afternoon peak
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Road Safety GB reports that recommended changes at one junction led to an average improvement of 9% during the morning peak period and 18% during the afternoon peak period.
Caveat
Reported without naming the junction or the measure that improved.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)
Claim 19 clm-3ec01c735fd28386 descriptive
many recommendations were not applied, because the signals were giving priority to buses and pedestrians or discouraging rat-running
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The report says that in many instances signals are used to give priority to buses or pedestrians or to discourage rat-running, so Google's recommendations did not always lead to a change in signal timings.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)
Claim 20 clm-8b03ab5489042f13 descriptive
None of these figures comes from an independent evaluation, and neither the supplier nor the Green Light report names the junction; the Green Light report does not name the measure either.
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
Each figure is published by TfGM or by Vivacity, or reported from TfGM's announcement; the Vivacity post and the Green Light report name neither the junction nor, in Green Light's case, the measure. A statement about what the sources contain, so no single passage carries it.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Vivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022)
  2. Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)
  3. Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
Claim 21 clm-62b54b12774abb19 descriptive
Central adaptive control is a mature instrument with a built-in bias.
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
TfGM's engineer says the logic behind SCOOT and MOVA has largely remained the same for three or four decades, and that signal control has historically been vehicle-first.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Green means go: extended interview with David Watts, TfGM (26 Aug 2021)
  2. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 22 clm-93793fd9a25284b9 quantitative
TfGM's own engineer wrote in 2021 that SCOOT and MOVA cannot bring pedestrians and cyclists into their algorithms
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The April 2021 comment by TfGM's ITS engineer names the inability to incorporate pedestrians and cyclists into their algorithms as a weakness of SCOOT and MOVA.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 23 clm-c6ec2f3ae17d0b7c descriptive
and that political appetite had kept signal control vehicle-first
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The same comment says political will and appetite have contributed to historically maintaining a vehicle-first approach to signal control, though attitudes were starting to change.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 24 clm-735992a8cd00873b descriptive
The region's answer was to add video sensors and trial an AI agent, promising an evaluation that would weigh pedestrians, cycles, buses and cars rather than car traffic alone.
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The comment describes the Smart Junctions sensors and the reinforcement-learning agent, and says evaluation will take account of pedestrians, cycles, buses and cars rather than only the impact on car traffic.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021)
Claim 25 clm-8e53cfcffb17be08 descriptive
The figures in circulation are the supplier's and the operator's.
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The journey-time figure is Vivacity's own; the bus-priority and Green Light figures are TfGM's, reported by Place North West and Road Safety GB. A summary of who publishes the figures, so no single passage carries it.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Vivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022)
  2. Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
  3. Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023)
Claim 26 clm-ff8fc97a19303bc1 descriptive
the system already in place can be told whose delay counts
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
In the A6 pilot the existing SCOOT system prioritised the 192 at each set of lights based on the lateness of each bus.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-10-16-baseline effective 2026-10-16 · created 2026-10-16

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:8a36399e4f2ccaa3d1f5e1dec2041b1db0ea4bb79ac005f27f4add6d6ecaad57
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
26
of 26 claims mapped
13
source dossiers
11
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Transport for Greater Manchester (Urban Traffic Control and Control Centre), for the ten Greater Manchester councils; AI signal-control trial with Vivacity Labs; Green Light pilot with Google
Actor types
regional-government, city-government, national-government, private
Funding model
public
Funding description
Run by TfGM for the ten district councils. Adaptive upgrades funded by £5.6m of Local Growth Deal money (2018) and £5.63m from the DfT's Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and Green Light Fund (2024); a reported £500,000 DfT award to Manchester City Council for cloud-hosted UTC SCOOT (2022). The Smart Junctions AI trial was co-funded by Innovate UK and DCMS's 5G Create fund.
Cost
Not recorded
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Exit conditions
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13 source dossiers

Transport for Greater Manchester — Traffic signals in Greater Manchester tfgm.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-2e512fbc0ccc263c
Publisher
Name not classified · tfgm.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
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No archived copy linked
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Open the recorded source note

TfGM's standing page on its Urban Traffic Control (UTC) team: a signal control service to the ten district councils of Greater Manchester and Highways England; more than 2,400 installations, which TfGM calls the largest number in the UK outside London, operated and controlled through TfGM's Control Centre with SCOOT and MOVA; 985 of the 2,400 sets of signals are pedestrian crossings; UTC also maintains variable message signs, car park signs and automatic traffic count sites.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Greater Manchester Combined Authority — Highways and Congestion Update, Greater Manchester Transport Committee (8 Nov 2019) democracy.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk · 5 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-de07665e5ad798b2
Publisher
Name not classified · democracy.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
2019-11-08
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
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No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report by TfGM's chief operating officer on the Congestion Deal launched in March 2018: the Control Centre moved to 24/7 operation in April 2018 and alters signal timings to improve vehicle flows; a SCOOT bus-priority pilot ran at 26 junctions on the A6 Hazel Grove to Manchester corridor, giving extra green to late buses where spare capacity was detected 'without any adverse impact to general traffic', with roll-out planned to A635 Ashton Old Road and A5103 Princess Road; over 2,400 signalised junctions, 47% under smart (adaptive) control, with 97 more junctions in an installation programme, 46 of them commissioned.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Place North West — TfGM gets £5.6m for smart traffic light programme (4 Jul 2018) placenorthwest.co.uk · 2 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-f609f96b5681a822
Publisher
Name not classified · placenorthwest.co.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2018-07-04
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports £5.6m of Growth Deal funding for SCOOT, which coordinates groups of signals from sensor data, and MOVA at standalone junctions, both 'due to be rolled out across 70% of Greater Manchester's signal-controlled junctions'; TfGM says SCOOT has been shown to increase traffic performance by up to 15% compared with fixed-time lights.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Place North West — TfGM looks to traffic tech to boost late buses (3 Jul 2019) placenorthwest.co.uk · 5 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e2d4c2ab89bf49dc
Publisher
Name not classified · placenorthwest.co.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-07-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports a four-week TfGM pilot on the A6 Stockport Road in which SCOOT extended green time for late-running 192 buses at 14 sets of traffic lights between Stockport and Manchester, based on each bus's lateness; 11.8% of messages received by the signals resulted in priority, with an average saving of 31 seconds per junction (8.2% and 12.9% in the weekday morning and evening peaks, 11.5% at weekends).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
CiTTi Magazine — Transport for Greater Manchester rolls out AI-controlled smart traffic junctions (6 Nov 2020) cittimagazine.co.uk · 2 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-366e09cc1ab73441
Publisher
Name not classified · cittimagazine.co.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-11-06
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports that Vivacity Labs' AI signal control went live early in 2020 and in September 2020 began simultaneously controlling three neighbouring junctions in the Blackfriars area of Salford; part of a three-year Innovate UK co-funded programme, with further money from DCMS's 5G Create fund; the project 'will scale up to an area of 20 junctions in Manchester by the end of 2021'.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
CiTTi Magazine — Smart junctions: the future of signal control, by David Watts of TfGM (9 Apr 2021) cittimagazine.co.uk · 7 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-b52e656856346df3
Publisher
Name not classified · cittimagazine.co.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-04-09
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Comment by TfGM's ITS engineer: TfGM operates over 1,250 adaptive signal control systems (1,000 SCOOT sites and 250 MOVA sites); SCOOT feeds vehicle detection from multiple junctions into a central model, MOVA controls one junction at a time; their weakness is the inability to incorporate pedestrians and cyclists; political appetite kept signal control vehicle-first; the Smart Junctions project installed over 100 AI sensors across over 13 junctions and two crossings in Salford and Manchester city centre and let a reinforcement-learning agent from Vivacity take control of signal timings; evaluation was to consider pedestrians, cycles, buses and cars rather than car traffic only.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
CiTTi Magazine — Green means go: extended interview with David Watts, TfGM (26 Aug 2021) cittimagazine.co.uk · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-1c165dcaefe51299
Publisher
Name not classified · cittimagazine.co.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-08-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Interview with TfGM's ITS engineer on the three-year Smart Junctions project with Vivacity Labs: around 200 sensors give insight into pedestrian movements; the AI control is compared directly with SCOOT and MOVA in one of Greater Manchester's larger SCOOT regions; TfGM operates over 750 junctions on SCOOT and over 250 on MOVA; the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed some comparison opportunities.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Vivacity Labs — Smart Junctions: three years of AI traffic signal control (20 Oct 2021) vivacitylabs.com · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-5a567169f7fcf845
Publisher
Name not classified · vivacitylabs.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-10-20
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Supplier's account of the Innovate UK co-funded project with TfGM and Immense Simulations: after controlling three neighbouring junctions, the system was scaled to control five junctions along 'a whole key corridor on the main orbital route on the Manchester Salford border'; claims real-world trials reduced journey times through a junction by an average of 23%.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Vivacity Labs — VivaCity present Smart Junctions 5G traffic solution at UK5G event (13 Apr 2022) vivacitylabs.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-8e057b05d607d51d
Publisher
Name not classified · vivacitylabs.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2022-04-13
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Supplier's news post: 'in Manchester Smart Junctions achieved a 23% reduction in journey time across a single junction', illustrated with a before/with chart; the junction is not named.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Vivacity Labs — Transport for Greater Manchester portal info.vivacitylabs.com · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-571ce225c4a41f20
Publisher
Name not classified · info.vivacitylabs.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Supplier's customer page for TfGM: TfGM awarded Vivacity a three-year call-off contract for traffic monitoring across the region, available to local authority partners; the technology 'was also deployed to control traffic signals in Salford'; 200+ sensors rolled out since 2022 for active travel, Smart Junctions, network monitoring and school streets.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Road Safety GB — TfGM teams up with Google to use AI to improve traffic flow (27 Oct 2023) roadsafetygb.org.uk · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-657417315f57b702
Publisher
Name not classified · roadsafetygb.org.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-10-27
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reports TfGM's Green Light pilot with Google: Google reviewed traffic movements and recommended signal timing changes; because signals often give priority to buses or pedestrians or discourage rat-running, recommendations did not always lead to changes; where they did, changes at one junction gave an average improvement of 9% in the morning peak and 18% in the afternoon peak; quotes TfGM's analysis and reporting manager on a network of 2,400 traffic signals.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Traffic Technology Today — TRL Software to provide active-travel traffic management for Manchester (19 Oct 2022) traffictechnologytoday.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-784cc4c59e10f49a
Publisher
Name not classified · traffictechnologytoday.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2022-10-19
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Trade report that TRL Software will supply its UTC SCOOT 7 software, with pedestrian-priority functions, in a programme of works with TfGM; quotes TRL that TfGM has used its UTC since 2019; reports that Manchester City Council was awarded £500,000 by the DfT from the Traffic Signals Maintenance funding call to help deploy cloud-hosted UTC SCOOT until 2024.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Department for Transport — Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and Green Light Fund allocations (20 Mar 2024) gov.uk · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-f110824400941082
Publisher
Name not classified · gov.uk
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2024-03-20
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-16
Dossier created
2026-10-16
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Allocation table for the £30m Traffic Signal Obsolescence Grant and £20m Green Light Fund: Greater Manchester Combined Authority (TfGM) receives £5,626,838.37 in total, of which £5,000,000 from the competitive element.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this file
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇮🇪 SCATS Adaptive Signals and the Traffic Management Centre · Dublin Dublin runs SCATS from one centre, Greater Manchester SCOOT and MOVA: two regional control rooms on different adaptive systems. 🇩🇪 Munich's Load-Dependent Traffic Signal Selection (LAPW) · Munich Munich switches green-wave programs from detector data citywide; under half of Greater Manchester's junctions were adaptive in 2019. 🇹🇼 Taipei's Dynamic and AI-Responsive Traffic Signals · Taipei Both added AI to a central system: Taipei's responsive signals in select districts, Greater Manchester's trial in Salford.

Explore the wider context

🚦 Asphalt or algorithms📖 Adaptive traffic signals📖 Automated speed enforcement (speed cameras)📖 Congestion pricing
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “TfGM Urban Traffic Control: Greater Manchester's Adaptive Signals” — Manchester, United Kingdom. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/greater-manchester-traffic-signal-control/ (last verified 2026-10-16). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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