A news item on the US Ford Media Center caught my eye as it was about the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario. Windsor was the first Canadian location of a Ford manufacturing in 1910. Manufacturing of Ford cars was the brainchild of wagon maker, Gordon McGregor, as he had space for the plant in his old covered wagon facility. McGregor and Henry Ford struck the deal and Ford had its first production location in Canada.
It wasn’t called Windsor at that time, instead being incorporated as a Village called “Ford City”. As Ford City grew to town status and with more community development, it reached a population of $16,000 in 1929. The name was then changed to East Windsor.
The recent news item about Windsor and Ford was their partnership in a program developed by Ford called Safety Insights. This program uses technology of accident data, vehicle connectivity and GPS mapping to provide insights into the cause and affect of accidents superimposed on a community street map. City engineers use this data to improve road work, and transportation planning to reduce accidents.
Here is the overview from the Ford Media Center by Callahan Coplai:
“The Ford connection to the City of Windsor stretches back more than a century, ever since Henry Ford opened his first Canadian operation in 1904 and started production of the Model C. That cross-border collaboration has never ceased – and now we’re taking that relationship to the next level in an attempt to help reduce car crashes and improve the safety of city streets.
Last October, we officially launched the Safety Insights platform, an innovative software tool that can help governments with their mission to build smarter, safe transportation systems. Now, we’re proud to announce that Windsor has become our first Canadian customer.
What is Safety Insights? Safety Insights is an award-winning, web-based tool that provides transportation engineers and planners with a comprehensive view of traffic safety in their communities, equipped with features that help them plan in a more proactive way to help save time, money, and most importantly, lives. Safety Insights identifies hotspots where crashes occur often to help cities determine how to make those areas safe.