Traffic is set to be tracked in a busy town centre by new high-tech sensors aimed at reducing congestion and accidents on the roads.

Dartford council is set to install additional cameras as part of a county-wide scheme to improve urban road designs.

The new traffic monitoring sensors, produced by tech firm Vivacity Labs, monitor interactions between pedestrians, cars, buses and bikes and record their speeds.

They collect real-time data to better understand near misses and crashes, along with traffic conditions, to inform planners as to how safely design roads.

Sensors are already in place along Ingress Park Avenue, Tiltman Avenue, and Greenhithe railway station – where it is also gauging the uptake of the Fastrack bus service running between the station and Bluewater.

But now additional cameras are set to be installed in Dartford town centre as part of its £12 million regeneration scheme.

Traffic patterns will be monitored before, during and after to provide insight into the improvement works. The council has been asked for more information on their locations.

A Dartford council spokesman said: “Funding has been allocated from the Dartford Town Centre Regeneration project to install traffic monitoring sensors at key junctions in the area.

“The cameras have allowed Dartford council to monitor traffic, including pedestrian and cycle movements, so that we can appropriately plan for the regeneration of the town centre with transport infrastructure in mind.

“We hope to continue using the technology to accurately monitor activity in the area, to inform any future plans for the town.

“Designs for the next phase of the town centre regeneration are being developed and a consultation will take place later this year.”

Their installation is part of a wider Kent County Council (KCC) project.

The Adept Smart Places Live Labs programme is a £22.9 million project funded by the Department for Transport.

Working in collaboration with its maintenance partner Amey, KCC submitted a bid to run one of the Live Labs and was successful in being granted £1.975m for a two-year project.

“As well as helping to make safer communities, these sensors will play their part in delivering our strategic aim of having no deaths on our county’s roads by 2050,”said David Brazier, Kent council member for highways and transport.

So far 32 sensors have already been rolled out across the county at busy road junctions.

These include 20mph speed limits around Tonbridge and Faversham, the Running Horse roundabout in Aylesford, Dover town centre, and cycle lanes across Tunbridge Wells, Margate and Hythe.

Vivacity Labs says all video imagery is deleted within one second of capture.

In rare instances it says an image will be captured and sent to the server, but not before face and number plate blurring has been applied.