Cookeville approves five Curex AI traffic cameras to gather corridor data; council discusses TDOT coordination

Cookeville’s City Council approved a $77,693 purchase of five Curex Vision AI traffic systems July 3 to add to five cameras purchased last year and provide corridor-level traffic detection and analytics.

Public Works staff said the first five cameras are installed along the Willow corridor and the newly purchased five are planned for the Jefferson corridor so the city can collect continuous 24/7 data for corridor signal optimization. The system uses cameras and AI to detect and count vehicles, track turning and through movements, and generate detailed traffic analytics to improve signal timing across corridors rather than at isolated intersections. Staff said the purchase is budgeted and comes in under the budgeted amount.

During public comment and council Q&A, resident and City of Cookeville employee Billy George asked, "because Jefferson is a State Road, how much is the state also involved in this?" Public Works staff answered that while TDOT must approve new signals on state routes, the city maintains and controls the existing signals and will feed the continuous camera data to TDOT as better evidence for future state roadway improvements. Trenton Strode asked how the data might speed TDOT improvements; staff said the corridor data gives far more continuous counts than TDOT’s limited static counts and can support requests for turn lanes and other infrastructure.

City staff recommended the purchase to better inform signal timing and to provide real-time data to TDOT and other agencies; council approved the contract by voice vote. Why it matters: corridor-level, continuous traffic data can change what improvements a city requests from the state and can support future modifications such as right-turn lanes or signal timing adjustments.