Skip to main content

ITS Australia supports Melbourne’s world first ‘urban laboratory’

ITS Australia has welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement of a unique hi-tech transport project for Melbourne. The National Connected Multimodal Transport (NCMT) test bed will develop pilots and facilitate collaborations between government, industry and academia. It will utilise thousands of sensors and wireless units fitted to roads to provide insight into how to manage transport systems and road networks in a more efficient way. The urban laboratory would cover approximately 7 kilometres
January 6, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
858 ITS Australia has welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement of a unique hi-tech transport project for Melbourne.

The National Connected Multimodal Transport (NCMT) test bed will develop pilots and facilitate collaborations between government, industry and academia. It will utilise thousands of sensors and wireless units fitted to roads to provide insight into how to manage transport systems and road networks in a more efficient way.

The urban laboratory would cover approximately 7 kilometres of roadways in Melbourne.

ITS Australia confirmed its participation in the project by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with test bed leaders, the University of Melbourne, late last year.

The first pilot NCMT test bed is scheduled to be launched in April 2017.

ITS Australia CEO Susan Harris said the test bed and a recent iMOVE CRC submission to the Federal Government show just how seriously Australia takes real-time, data-driven research to find the best possible outcomes.

Professor Iven Mareels, Dean of the Melbourne School of Engineering said a connected community was the key to improved transport options, while founding director of the NCMT test bed and University of Melbourne Professor in Transport for Smart Cities, Majid Sarvi, said the urban laboratory will be a living experiment of connected vehicles and transport networks, people movements and city infrastructure.

Related Content

  • ITS America historic meeting welcomes industry leaders
    June 1, 2015
    Welcome to ITS America’s 25th Annual Meeting Anniversary in Pittsburgh! This historic silver anniversary brings together more than 2,000 of the nation’s top transportation and technology policymakers, business leaders, engineers, investors and researchers. The event’s theme – Bridges to Innovation – is appropriate in that the issues to be discussed and debated and the technologies on display are representative of how important ITS is to America’s – and the world’s – transportation future.
  • Hayden AI’s Renee Autumn Ray: ‘It’s about problem solving’
    December 6, 2022
    Renee Autumn Ray is senior director of global strategy for Hayden AI. She has also admitted to impostor syndrome, has no time for people who scorn the public sector and offers one simple rule about social media. Adam Hill meets her to find out what that is, among other things
  • Australian tolling industry debates tag replacement
    June 11, 2014
    Australia’s 2014 National Electronic Tolling Conference (NeTC) inspired lively debate among the 130 delegates about tackling the need to replace seven-plus million tolling tags that are reaching the end of their life. In his opening address, Australian Toll Road Users’ Group Chair Rex Wright said the industry was potentially facing a US$94 million bill over the next five years to replace old tags. As Australian tolling authorities operate a harmonious national tag system, all toll operators are committed
  • ITSA’s Shailen Bhatt looks to the future
    March 6, 2018
    The new boss of ITS America is fizzing with ideas. Shailen Bhatt talks to Adam Hill about the need to rebrand the ITS industry, how technology can leverage tax dollars – and where the Star Wars universe fits in to his philosophy. Shailen Bhatt has a big job on his hands. The CEO and president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America is the second to hold the post in two years following the resignation last July of his predecessor Regina Hopper. It has not been the easiest time for the