Skip to main content

Bluetooth technology to shorten travel times

A new traffic app recently launched in Adelaide, South Australia, is helping drivers avoid roadworks and traffic jams with real-time updates. AddInsight taps into more than 400 of Adelaide’s state-of-the-art Bluetooth receivers, which monitor the city’s road network in real-time and broadcasts verbal messages to drivers in about approaching delays through a vehicle’s hands free systems and mobile phones. The free app has been released at a time when the South Australian capital’s road network has been
April 20, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A new traffic app recently launched in Adelaide, South Australia, is helping drivers avoid roadworks and traffic jams with real-time updates.

AddInsight taps into more than 400 of Adelaide’s state-of-the-art Bluetooth receivers, which monitor the city’s road network in real-time and broadcasts verbal messages to drivers in about approaching delays through a vehicle’s hands free systems and mobile phones.

The free app has been released at a time when the South Australian capital’s road network has been plagued with disruptions caused by major infrastructure improvements such as new freeways and building projects.

Travel times determined using the information from the Bluetooth beacons are also broadcast on more than 47 electronic signs around metropolitan Adelaide to help motorists choose their fastest route.

The Bluetooth data allows traffic control centres to change traffic signals immediately in response to incidents such as crashes.

South Australian Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan said the unique traffic app would help shorten travel time. “The AddInsight app is like having a personal navigator in your car, giving you information in advance about hazards or delays ahead, so you can avoid them by finding an alternative route,” he said.

Related Content

  • Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    July 23, 2012
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers
  • NavFusion provides map updates via a smart phone app
    November 28, 2013
    A new app that connects a vehicle’s systems to the internet opens up a range of possibilities as Jon Masters discovers. Sometimes the most straightforward or simple of ideas can be the most significant. So it seems with the latest development from Hungarian navigation software supplier NNG. The company’s software features in-vehicle infotainment systems and has launched NavFusion – which connects a vehicles’ sat nav programs to smartphones. NavFusion is being incorporated into NNG’s iGO navigation s
  • UK driver information improvements near completion
    March 27, 2015
    A major investment in technology to help tackle congestion and give better information to drivers across parts of the UK’s north west will be completed by the Highways Agency by the end of the month. Improvements worth more than US$8.5 million, with extended CCTV coverage of the region’s motorways and new electronic variable message signs (VMS), are being delivered by the Highways Agency as part of the Government’ US$470 million pinch point programme. Work on installing new electronic signs and CCTV c
  • London takes action against dangerous commercial vehicles
    May 22, 2013
    Transport for London (TfL) and the Vehicle Operator Standards Agency (VOSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for closer collaboration and data sharing as part of their ongoing work to reduce the impact of dangerous and unroadworthy vehicles in London. The agreement will pave the way to allow TfL to provide details of every commercial vehicle involved in breakdowns and overheight collisions within the Blackwall Tunnel to VOSA.