In Charlemagne, Boulevard Céline-Dion is more than just a road. It is the city’s backbone.
The Visionary Bet of the City of Charlemagne
Every day, it connects residential neighborhoods to businesses, essential services, and the highway network (A-40 and A-640). For a municipality of 6,348 residents, seeing up to 25,000 vehicles pass through daily is almost surreal — traffic volumes worthy of a metropolitan center, concentrated on a single corridor.
Then came the announcement: more than 1,300 new housing units by 2026, with the potential for 4,000 units in the medium term. The question was no longer if congestion would worsen, but when.
Rather than waiting for the situation to become critical, the City of Charlemagne made a strategic decision: to act proactively. With this in mind, the city mandated Orange Traffic to support them in the reflection, analysis, and implementation of a sustainable solution.
From the very beginning, our role went far beyond that of a simple technology integrator. We conducted the initial corridor assessment, analyzed the City’s operational challenges, and helped structure a project aligned with both its current and future realities.
Together, we built a clear vision: optimize this unique corridor before it becomes a permanent bottleneck.
Our team supported the City at every stage of the process. Concretely, Orange Traffic:
It is this field expertise, combined with a deep understanding of existing infrastructure, that enabled a smooth transition to a next-generation solution — without disrupting the City’s daily operations.
To meet the identified needs, Orange Traffic recommended integrating the NoTraffic platform — an AI-powered traffic signal optimization solution.
Unlike traditional systems based on rigid schedules and fixed cycles, NoTraffic operates like a true urban brain. The platform continuously analyzes real-time traffic and adjusts signals down to the second based on actual demand.
Hybrid sensors (video and radar) were installed on every approach at the targeted intersections. They detect all users — cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians, and cyclists — analyzing their trajectories, speeds, and positions. Every movement becomes actionable data.
Result: traffic lights no longer follow a clock.
They respond to real-world conditions.
Four strategic intersections were targeted along the corridor:
These were precisely the locations where coordination was lacking, queues were growing, and citizen frustration was mounting.
In less than four months, Orange Traffic and the City:
Nothing was improvised. Everything was measured, compared, and validated.
The results speak for themselves.
An average reduction of 37% in delays across the entire corridor, considering all intersections and approaches. This time savings also translates into reduced greenhouse gas emissions, with 1,380 tonnes of CO₂ avoided annually — equivalent to nearly 300 vehicles removed from the road or over 63,000 trees planted.
During peak hours, certain approaches saw delays drop by more than 50% in both the morning and evening. Queues diminished — even disappeared. The corridor regained its breath, encouraging calmer and safer driving.
Additionally, based on average vehicle occupancy and the economic value of time (as prescribed by mobility research institutes), these time savings can be translated into economic gains for the community. Here, this gain amounts to approximately $18.4M, recoverable in productive hours or simply in improved quality of life.
Charlemagne did not simply implement a technology. It adopted a new way of thinking about mobility: a proactive, sustainable approach based on data and intelligent optimization of existing infrastructure.
And above all, it relied on a trusted partner to turn this vision into reality.
This project proves one thing: intelligent mobility is no longer a futuristic concept — it is already here.
Thanks to Orange Traffic’s expertise and the power of NoTraffic AI, the City of Charlemagne is becoming a benchmark in proactive traffic management.
A corridor once headed toward saturation… is now moving toward intelligence.
