A combined GPS/GIS approach to collecting, analysing and storing travel time information is helping transport planners better understand traffic congestion.
With the hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in transport initiatives to address congestion, Beca’s Transportation specialists believe that understanding and accurately measuring congestion is essential in improving the effectiveness of this infrastructure investment.
Beca Transportation has developed sophisticated techniques to monitor and analyse traffic congestion. This helps road controlling authorities gain an appreciation of where congestion occurs, trends in the growth of congestion, effects of road upgrades, as well as being able to report on actual route travel times.
The Geospatial specialists within Beca combine GPS and GIS (Geographical Information Systems) to collect, analyse and store travel time information. Specific routes in major cities are driven three times a day for an entire week, with survey data collected using GPS systems, With this information it is possible to analyse and assess the full range of travel times, variability and trends since 2004.
The information generated from measuring congestion can provide transport planners in road controlling authorities with information to better understand congestion, assess its causes and target investment to where there is the most need. In conjunction with local and central government, Beca is developing key performance indicators and improving understanding of trip reliability, a leading cause of frustration among road-users.
Beca’s approach has been to combine our extensive experience and skills with some of the latest technology, and to develop Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) data fusion techniques, bringing together ITS information from multiple sources to develop a clearer understanding of transport networks.
Beca is also working on new ways to tackle congestion head on. This involves developing better ways to optimise the performance of urban roads. Beca are investing in optimisation software called ARTIS, which interfaces directly with the SCATs software that runs Australasian traffic signals. ARTIS is a breakthrough ITS technology that will allow a greater range of information and options previously unavailable to transport planners.