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ITS Australia's ITS Tech Talk series is transport technology 101. Each episode will serve as an introduction to one key part of the ITS industry. . . this is episode 2.
What does it take to manage a roadway? Like most of our jobs, it is more complex than people may first think. This presentation will take a look at the breadth of tasks that go into successful managing a road network. It will explore the various duties undertaken to help the community traverse the arterial network safety and efficiently. Register for this, and all of our upcoming ITS Tech Talks, through the ITS Australia Portal.
Daniel Suter Principal Consultant / Transmax Principal Consultant / Transmax
Throughout his 17 years as a traffic engineer, Daniel has been driven by his desire to provide real benefits to the community through optimising traffic networks. Working for both public and private companies, his experience ranges from the initial modelling of traffic networks right through to their ongoing operations and maintenance. He has worked with traffic management centres across Australia, providing strategic and operational guidance. As a Principal Consultant, Daniel plays a fundamental role in the delivery of cost-effective, fit-for-purpose ITS solutions for Transmax customers. He is passionate and committed to helping communities have safe and reliable journey experiences.
Get in touch with Transmax.
Noting I do not represent BCC or TMR, I was involved in a process years ago where we transferred the operation of signals from one system to the other so that the boundary between the two systems aligned with places we would not naturally coordinate between the two systems. For the very few remaining boundary locations that do interact, yes it is possible to provide coordination between the two systems through the two traffic signal teams working closely together.
One of the main tools is by measuring the routes travel time and volume of cars per period (if you can get more cars through the network with the same or better travel time then that is an improvement). We also track the cycle length of the corridor – again, if you can cycle the signals at a lower cycle time but still have the same throughput then that is also an improvement. We can also do spot queue length surveys to visually see the difference in queuing.
I am assuming this refers to STREAMS and SCATS – SCATS has been heavily integrated into STREAMS as demonstrated by Nerryl Kingston from DoT Vic during the last Tech Talk. A lot of traffic engineers around Australia use STREAMS to provide inputs into SCATS to help assist with the operations of the road network.
You can already – there are several ways that Bluetooth travel time data can be used in STREAMS. Feel free to reach out to me to understand how that can be achieved.
The main tool I use (and I believe the whole industry in Australia) to create traffic signal drawings is AutoCad. If you are referring to personality generation then this is done with NGEN™.
Definitely, whilst coordinating the traffic signals is a major part of operating the network, the line marking and signage plays a substantial role as well. Sometimes the only way to increase capacity at an intersection is to reduce the number of movements hence banning right turns. In doing the corridor reviews all options are explored.
First, the traffic signal personality has the final say in what the traffic signals do – STREAMS (and SCATS) can’t override the core programming of the personality so even if the system was hacked, the system will still operate safely. As to our security, the ITS network that controls the traffic signals is very secure and has been audited many times including for the G20 visit to Brisbane. As to the technology used, please get in direct contact with me to discuss this aspect further.
Movement based controllers allow for any combination of movements to run as long as they don’t conflict with each other. So imagine the traffic signals are running both north and south along the main road with people waiting to turn right from the main road. With a group based controller, if the opposing through movement has no demand the right turn traffic could be given a green making better use of the signal timing. Now that can be done with phase based controllers as well but it takes a lot more coding to allow this to occur whereas movement based controllers naturally allow this to occur. Likewise, for more complex coordination algorithms with widely variable offset times a movement based controller allows for greater flexibility in the operation of the signals.
The system has a series of visualisation tools to give operators an understanding of what is occurring on the road network. These maps, charts, schematics and alarms help guide the users into making changes when required. The system is also flexible enough to accommodate small changes automatically as well as manage large known changes – for unknown changes such as where a sections of roadway has been blocked, this is where a traffic engineer needs to assist. There is a series of sophisticated tools in STREAMS that allows for the system to respond to network changes automatically with these tools continuing to be enhanced through collaboration with our customer base.
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