Verizon's 'Vision Zero' smart city effort rolling out in Boston

Verizon is launching a smart city technology trial with Boston called "Vision Zero." The trial will include a combination of traffic and public safety plans and is set to run from June through December. As FierceTelecom reports, Vision Zero will look at the corridor along Massachusetts Avenue to address various issues including traffic management, traffic signaling and congestion, as well as public safety with a particular focus on pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

"With the introduction of bicycle lanes, Boston does not have the widest roadways so with the combination of all of those different modes of transportation and pedestrian traffic there really is a need to look at issues in a different way," said Donna Cupelo, Northeast regional president for Verizon. "I think the city has taken some great steps on its own already looking at the analytics associated with traffic and traffic congestion and other key indicators throughout the city."

The effort by Verizon is part of the company's FiOS FTTH service deployment announced in Boston in April. Under a six-year plan, Verizon will invest $300 million to replace the city's aging copper network infrastructure with fiber.

And part of the project includes the roll out of fiber for 4G LTE backhaul, alongside smart city applications such as traffic light management.

For more on this topic, check out this FierceTelecom feature.