AV technology ‘could reduce congestion’, says Australian minister

Congestion costs would drop by more than a quarter if automated vehicles (AVs) account for 30% of kilometres travelled, says Alan Tudge, Australia’s minister for cites urban infrastructure and population. Speaking at the Australia-New Zealand Cities Symposium in Sydney, Tudge revealed findings from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. “They estimate it would drop from $37 billion of avoidable congestion to $27 billion,” Tudge says. A 30km freeway journey in Melbourne has increas
February 26, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Congestion costs would drop by more than a quarter if automated vehicles (AVs) account for 30% of kilometres travelled, says Alan Tudge, Australia’s minister for cites urban infrastructure and population.

Speaking at the Australia-New Zealand Cities Symposium in Sydney, Tudge revealed findings from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.

“They estimate it would drop from $37 billion of avoidable congestion to $27 billion,” Tudge says. A 30km freeway journey in Melbourne has increased from 21 to 27 minutes in the last 10 years, while average morning peak-hour journeys in Sydney now take 65% longer than off-peak trips, he added.

He claimed that AVs will reduce congestion as the cars would be able to safely travel more closely together. He referred to data from autonomous mobility developer Zoox, which showed that today’s vehicles only occupy 8% of the freeway.

“If the vehicles were automated, then they could travel far more closely together,” Tudge went on. “If they occupied, for example, 16% of the space rather than 8%, you are effectively doubling the freeway capacity.”

However, many industry experts warn that AVs will not reduce congestion unless road users are prepared to share rides.

Tudge claimed that AVs could make ride-share more affordable, reliable and widespread, therefore taking other vehicles off the road: “Combining artificial intelligence with connectivity would also allow active management of transport networks in real-time through predictive modelling, enabling congestion to be addressed before it happens.”

Tudge acknowledges that uptake for AVs will be slow but predicted that the technology will “almost certainly” be a significant feature of large cities around the world within the next decade.

But he emphasised that governments must provide the right regulatory environment. Currently, the Australian government is working with regional authorities, the National Transport Commission and 7519 Austroads - the peak organisation of Australasian road transport and traffic agencies - and the Transport and Infrastructure Council to help deploy AVs in Australia.

Last October, the government pledged $10m to advance work to prepare Australia for AVs and other transport innovations which included the establishment of the Office of Future Transport Technology within the Infrastructure Department.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Avoiding a tangle
    September 4, 2018
    The ITS industry will get into a ‘terrific mess’ if it doesn’t sort out the question of interoperability, says Georg Kapsch. He talks to Alan Dron about data, connectivity – and why governments should stay out of technology issues Governments should set a regulatory framework to help shape the direction of road technologies - but then stand aside and allow industry to create the necessary technologies, according to a European pioneer in the field. Georg Kapsch, CEO of Kapsch Group and Kapsch TrafficCom,
    Read More
  • ACRS calls for Australian Government to commit to eliminating road trauma
    March 28, 2017
    The Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) has released its 2017 ACRS Submission to Federal Parliamentarians - The way forward to reduce road trauma, outlining what it says is Australia’s stalled progress against National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 targets for death and injury reduction. According to ACRS, road trauma is one of the highest ranking public health issues Australia faces , with 1,300 deaths and 37,000 injuries per year, and rising. The causes and consequences of road trauma contin
    Read More
  • Rethink required to reduce road transport’s environmental impact
    March 15, 2016
    Against a background of a renewed focus on limiting the rise in average temperatures, Colin Sowman looks at a project that is taking a holistic approach to the environmental impact and safety of road transport. At the COP21 meeting in Paris last December, almost 200 nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to keep the rise in global temperatures to 2°C) compared with pre-industrial levels. The transportation sector is a major contributor to the production of CO2, one of the main green
    Read More
  • How to outsmart the rat runners - use data
    June 12, 2023
    Proactively solving transport problems with powerful empirical evidence is appealing: Emily Bobis of Compass IoT explains how vehicle-generated data can be the missing link
    Read More

Highlighted Content