Avignon Smart City Project

The historical City of Avignon, with the help of Survision, increases security and comfort for its inhabitants using the latest and most modern License Plate Recognition (LPR) Cloud and 4G technologies.

Challenge

Avignon is a medieval town surrounded by 7 centuries-old ramparts. As the host-town of popes, it was the center of the Christian world in the 14th and 15th century. It is now a beautiful city in the non-less (equally) beautiful French Provence.

But Avignon is a very touristic place and hosts some of the most important cultural events in France. The main one being the Theatre “Festival d’Avignon”. More than half a million people visit Avignon every year and the Festival alone brings almost 200.000 people inside the old city over a period of three weeks in July. To be compared with Avignon’s permanent population of only 90.000 people.

This causes huge challenges for Security and traffic management that can endanger both the population’s well-being and the longevity of the old stone. But, because of the very nature of that town, it can’t enforce on-street parking and city access using heavy, very visible and invasive access control systems.

Solution

The solution proposed by SURVISION, in collaboration with its partner SNEF, was to put well-designed red-light Totems at each of the old-city ramparts gates. These Totems incorporate a License plate reading camera from SURVISION and are connected through a 4G connection to the Cloud service of Moobyl.

This cloud service is used by the City and provides both permanent monitoring of the cameras and a web platform giving temporary access right to drivers that paid the right to enter and park in the city. Thanks to that very flexible dematerialized system, the city also grants permanent access to residents and security vehicles, and recurring access right to different categories that contribute to the economic activities in the city (merchants, goods deliveries…).

Results

The 5 gates equipped controlled thousands of cars over the months of July and August and blocked all unwanted cars from entering. They brought a strong contribution in reducing traffic jams and air pollution in the City.

They made life much easier for the people that really need an access to the city because they live or work there. They reduced accidents from interactions between pedestrians and cars in this crowded city. They encouraged visitors to use public transportation networks. The service is such a success that the city, that ordered it for the festival season, now plans to use it all year long.