Vic Roads Traffic Management System

As a prelude to the club meeting of 15 May 2012 over 20 members visited the Vic Roads office and were treated to an explanation and real time show of aspects of its automated system which is used to manage traffic around Melbourne on freeways and various major arterial roads.

First, some daunting statistics on traffic flows were highlighted.  My simple artithmetic calculated  that over 750,000 vehicles travelled these roads every day.    

The core of the system was a highly sophisticated algorithim (software) collating information from hundreds of sensors and cameras and then using that to manage traffic lights and speed signs on those roads with the goal to optimise travel time for the collective benefit of all travellers , even the pedestrians!.   It was interesting to note that at any one time there were three operators and they had the capacity to override or adapt system parameters to address and thwart potential traffic jams.    (At last I was able to rationalise why at some intersections I have had to wait for the green light for what seemed an eternity!)  

It was explained that this Australian developed software had been recognised for its merit and investigated and used widely overseas.