Demonstrate Your Smart
Mobility Solution

Maintaining road infrastructure and assets is crucial to keep traffic flow optimal and ensure road safety. Current methods—manual audits and inspections by city staff to address resident inquiries—are labour-intensive and reactive. Additionally, the reliance on outdated virtual imagery services, such as Google Street View, limits the ability to remotely assess recent conditions. The City seeks an innovative, technology-driven solution to automate road asset maintenance, enabling accurate, and proactive monitoring of the City’s various road assets.

The City of Vaughan is seeking an innovative solution to enhance road asset inspections through accurate and proactive monitoring. The goal is to improve efficiency and optimize staff resources while streamlining the inspection and management of road infrastructure.

In Collaboration with: Transportation and Fleet Management Services 

Vaughan’s Transportation and Fleet Management Services is responsible for maintaining city infrastructure by inspecting and managing the maintenance needs of its roadway assets for residents and road users. Currently, this process relies heavily on labour and time intensive on-site visual inspections.

The City is inviting companies to propose solutions that can enhance Vaughan’s ability to automate road asset inspection and maintenance to improve efficiency and service levels. Solutions should address the following focus areas in asset management, including:

• Suitable streetlight poles for radar message boards
• Traffic signage inventory and condition assessments
• Vegetation obstruction identification
• Pavement marking evaluation
• Traffic calming assets evaluation
• Intersection lane configuration
• Access points along the roadway segments
• Guardrail and barrier assessment
• Drainage issues
• Asset inventory updates and management
• Grade information
• Pedestrian infrastructure inventory assessment and management

The following Challenge Area is in collaboration with the City of Vaughan. 

The proposed location is Block 8 within the area bounded by Steeles Avenue West, Bathurst Street, Centre Street, and Dufferin Street.

The City is open to a range of innovative approaches, including but not limited to:

• Camera and sensor technology for automated inspections
• GIS-compatible imaging and live footage solutions
• Machine vision and advanced sensors for asset condition assessments
• Measurement tools for infrastructure verification

The City seeks innovation that:

• Saves staff time and resources
• Provide accurate and imaging of the City road assets conditions to allow for remote inspections
• Provide accurate field measurements and verification of conditions in infrastructure

The City of Vaughan is seeking forward-thinking solutions that will transform the way road assets are monitored, assessed, and maintained.

As shared micromobility services, such as e-scooters and e-bikes, continue to expand in urban areas, cities face challenges in providing adequate parking solutions that are visible, flexible, secure, and do not interfere with pedestrian pathways or existing infrastructure. The current options—using bike racks or virtual parking corrals—either overcrowd existing amenities or lack clear identification, leading to enforcement and operational challenges. 

There is a need for innovative “micro-parking” solutions that integrate seamlessly with the urban environment while ensuring safety, accessibility, and compliance with city by-laws.

In Collaboration with: Infrastructure Planning and Corporate Asset Management 

Micromobility devices are transforming urban transportation by providing efficient first- and last-mile connectivity between transit and individual destinations as well as open a new market for business, reducing congestion, and offering sustainable mobility options. However, their rapid adoption presents liability, risk, enforcement challenges, particularly regarding safety concerns for riders, pedestrians, vulnerable road users and cyclists. Most predominate concerns from both riders and non-riders are where to ride and park these devices safely without impacting other road users. 

To address these concerns, the City of Vaughan has enacted by-laws to regulate where e-bikes and e-scooters can ride:

1. Parking By-law 064-2019, as amended by By-law 158-2023, (the “Parking By-law”) to add the definition of power-assisted bicycles known as “e-bikes” and electric kick-scooters known as “e-scooters” or “electric kick-style scooters”, and to prohibit these vehicles from parking or stopping on sidewalks.
2. Parks By-law 134-95, as amended by By-law 159-2023, (the “Parks By-law”) to add the definitions of power-assisted bicycles, also known as "e-bikes" and electric kick-scooters, also known as "e-scooters" or “electric kick-style scooters”, and to prohibit these vehicles from parking, driving or riding within parks.
3. Traffic By-law 284-94, as amended by By-law 160-2023, to permit the use of electric kick-scooters also known as "e-scooters", and to regulate the use of electric kick-scooters and power-assisted bicycles (also known as "e-bikes") in the City, and to make other changes regarding the use of bicycle lanes, cycle tracks, and multi-use pathways.

While these regulations clarify usage, they do not yet provide well-defined, accessible parking locations, leading to enforcement difficulties and user uncertainty. To successfully implement a shared micromobility program, a strategic approach to micro-parking is essential.

The following Challenge Area is in collaboration with the City of Vaughan. 

Potential locations may be activated throughout the entire City of Vaughan. 

The City seeks innovative solutions that:

• Establish physically visible, well-defined, flexible, and secure parking areas for e-bikes and e-scooters.
• Leverage existing urban infrastructure, such as bike racks, bus stops, benches, and other street furniture (e.g. bike racks, bus stops), to create designated micro-parking areas.
• Are adaptable to different environments, including:
  • Bus stop areas
  • Wider boulevard spaces
  • Limited boulevard spaces
  • Areas with street furniture
  • Spaces along cycling facilities

The City of Vaughan aims to pilot these micro-parking solutions in key locations, including the Vaughan Enterprise Zone, Weston/Hwy 7 area, major transit stations, City Hall, and the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC).

This challenge invites innovative companies and technology providers to propose solutions that enhance the shared micromobility experience while maintaining safety, and accessibility for all users. 

For more information, visit:

• Vaughan.ca/micromobility
• Accommodating micromobility (e-bikes and e-scooters) and initiate a shared pilot

Vaughan Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) is dedicated to providing efficient and effective emergency response, fire protection, fire prevention, safety and education to people who live, work and visit the city. To meet the objectives related to emergency response and fire protection the VFRS needs to be able to receive notification of an emergency situation, respond quickly with the most appropriate equipment and trained personnel, effectively assess the situation once on site and perform the emergency services as effectively and efficiently as possible, while ensuring the safety of the public and their own personnel is maintained.

We invite companies to propose solutions that will enhance the ability of the VFRS to efficiently and effectively provide emergency response and fire protection or that will help reduce the risk to the public and VFRS personnel during these activities.

In Collaboration with: Vaughan Fire and Rescue Services 

VFRS responded to more than 12,800 service calls in 2022. Its Operations Division provides full service emergency response for fire incidents, sudden medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents as well as chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents. Response to any of these may include Search and Rescue efforts.

To help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their response, VFRS and the City of Vaughan is interested in any new technologies that will enhance the speed and accuracy of their response or increase the safety of first responders, rescuers, and the public during emergency situations.

A few examples of such technologies are listed below; however this is not an exhaustive list and the City encourages applicants to submit other technologies that may assist Vaughan VFRS in their emergency response activities:

• Use of robotics such as robots to search culverts or enclosed spaces and drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to perform aerial reconnaissance of large building or geographic area.
• Use of advanced communications systems with edge computing video analysis at emergency sites.
• Machine vision and advance sensors for hazard protection.
• Advance communications and sensor technology to provide biometrics and equipment condition for real time analysis and to enhance the safety of emergency response personnel.
• Software developed for unified incident command with remote workstations for monitoring and assessing changing conditions during an emergency.

The following Challenge Area is in collaboration with the City of Vaughan. 

Potential locations may be activated throughout the entire City of Vaughan. 

Innovations must meet at least one of the following outcomes:

• Improve notifications of an emergency including enhancing the information available regarding an emergency situation prior to dispatch, allowing VFRS to respond with the most appropriate complement of equipment and personnel.
• Enhance the speed of their response, through techniques such as routing algorithms that take into account real time traffic information and travel times and signal pre-emption.
• Monitor and track the emergency from notification to completion of the emergency incident.
• Allow a better assessment of the situation upon arrival at the scene, potentially through the use of Aerial and disaster site imaging.
• Improve the effectiveness of their activities on site,
• Improve and make more reliable communications between VFRS staff and other first responders which may include improved methods to communicate to users on the roadways and how communications is performed between first responders and dispatch services.
• Improve the safety of, or reduce the risk to, the public and VFRS personnel and all first responders.

The relevance of proposed innovations will be assessed according to how they address and resolve the Challenge Statement above.