Bluetooth sensors show great savings in major highway project

Bluetooth traffic sensors installed on a four-lane highway in the Waikato region of New Zealand demonstrate significant journey time savings, according to a report by New Zealand engineering consultants Beca and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), Money well spent? The challenge of finding primary data.
October 16, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Bluetooth traffic sensors installed on a four-lane highway in the Waikato region of New Zealand demonstrate significant journey time savings, according to a report by New Zealand engineering consultants Beca and the 6296 New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), Money well spent? The challenge of finding primary data.

To measure the effectiveness of the new expressway, Bluetooth sensors recorded traffic flows on the first stage of the Waikato Expressway for approximately three months before and after its opening. The sensors were configured to not only detect the journey time changes but also the relative proportion of traffic using the new and old routes.

The Bluetooth solution used by NZTA utilises BlipTrack sensors from Danish company 3778 Blip Systems installed in the road network. By anonymously tracking Bluetooth devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and hands-free installations in cars, it is possible to measure traffic flow and calculate journey time. This real time traffic flow data enables road authorities to proactively manage the road network to minimise delays and congestion.

BlipTrack sensors now cover over 600 km of state highway network on the North Island of New Zealand and are constantly being expanded.
Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection Networking & Communication Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    January 11, 2013
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010. The IT giant was looking for a local transport authority as partner for testing IBM’s
    Read More
  • New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    January 11, 2013
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010. The IT giant was looking for a local transport authority as partner for testing IBM’s
    Read More
  • Sony helps Rio get a better view of the Olympics
    June 29, 2016
    With the Olympics approaching, Sony’s Stephane Clauss examines how the latest camera technologies can help cities cope with the huge crowds attending major events. This August will see more than 10,000 athletes head to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics Games. Alongside them will be their coaching staff, a hoard of logistics teams, thousands of volunteer marshals (London 2012 had 70,000) and millions of spectators. All such major events have nervous jitters on the way to the opening ceremony. This year has see
    Read More
  • Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    June 11, 2015
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi
    Read More

Highlighted Content