Skip to main content

Swinburne ITS Laboratory launched in Australia

The Swinburne Intelligent Transport Systems Laboratory has been launched in a joint collaboration between VicRoads, the road agency of the Australian state of Victoria, and Swinburne University of Technology. The state’s first dedicated traffic analysis research centre, it will analyse live traffic data to gain insight into network congestion and develop better mechanisms for managing vehicle flows. The research will be fed directly back to VicRoads' head office in order to improve traffic management strate
April 24, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The Swinburne Intelligent Transport Systems Laboratory has been launched in a joint collaboration between 4728 VicRoads, the road agency of the Australian state of Victoria, and 5192 Swinburne University of Technology. The state’s first dedicated traffic analysis research centre, it will analyse live traffic data to gain insight into network congestion and develop better mechanisms for managing vehicle flows. The research will be fed directly back to VicRoads' head office in order to improve traffic management strategies, such as timing for traffic lights, variable speed limits, and freeway ramp signals.

Analysis of traffic data across the city will enable the laboratory to develop models on ways to improve traffic flow, relying on efficient communication of information within the transport network.

"Traffic congestion costs our economy billions of dollars in petrol and lost time each year,” said associate professor, Hai Vu, head of the new laboratory. “Helping our roads to flow more smoothly is a vital goal for our Lab, but will also have a significant environmental impact, with lower carbon emissions as people spend less time in their vehicles.”

Related Content

  • October 29, 2015
    Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
  • February 22, 2013
    ITS ‘could save Australia US$500 million a year’
    According to Australia’s federal infrastructure and transport minister, Anthony Albanese, an Australia-wide electronic freeway management system has the potential to greatly reduce congestion and save Australian families and businesses more than US$500 million a year. Albanese said as much as he announced the US$21 million contract to deliver an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and communications infrastructure to the Westgate freeway managed motorway project in Victoria under the national smart managed m
  • March 14, 2012
    Bridging the highway travel information gap
    A new traffic management solution is attempting to bridge the gap in information available on freeways and arterial roadways. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Agencies responsible for national networks of roads around the world have the ability to measure, analyse and disseminate accurate travel information to drivers. Millions of dollars go into data collection infrastructure to collect traffic congestion and travel time information on major freeways or highways. For example, a driver on the I-210 in the Lo
  • July 21, 2016
    Keeping traffic moving on Melbourne’s M80
    As a result of collaboration between VicRoads and the Technical University of Crete in Victoria, Australia, to find new ways to reduce congestion, drivers on the M80 are to benefit from new technology. Following a manual trial in 2014, the Adaptive Variable Speed Limit has now been implemented on the M80 ring road in Melbourne. The system recognises when traffic is starting to build up and adjusts traffic speed, regulating traffic flow and providing a safer and more reliable journey for the 160,000 drive