Victoria names connected road 'laboratory'

A grid section of roads in Melbourne's inner north has been nominated by the Victorian government for a real-world trial of sophisticated electronic systems aimed at improving traffic flow.

Named the National Connected Multimodal Transport (NCMT) test bed, the road section is an area bounded by Alexandra Parade and Victoria Street north to south, and by Hoddle Street and Lygon Street east to west. Both Hoddle and Alexandra are noted bottlenecks, distributing traffic from the Eastern Freeway and Eastlink (pictured).

The NMCT will be a joint effort undertaken by Intelligent Transport Systems Australia (ITS Australia) and the University of Melbourne, which is located one block west of Lygon Street. ITS Australia and the university signed a memorandum of understanding late in 2016, around the same time as the 23rd ITS World Congress held in Melbourne.

A plan is in place for an inaugural test programme to commence in April of this year, according to ITS Australia, which "advocates the application of communication, data processing and electronic technologies for in-vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure and mode-to-mode systems to increase transport safety and sustainability, reduce congestion, and improve the performance and competitiveness of Australia's networks."

Although ITS Australia has carefully avoided mentioning the word 'autonomous', the NMCT is a toe dipped in the water for vehicle-to-infrastructure communications that would make autonomous motoring more efficient. This would have flow-on effects, reducing traffic congestion and fleet fuel use.

"The digital revolution has enabled better connectivity and by understanding real world situations and customer needs, we can take a considerable step towards providing better services and focused innovations," said Majid Sarvi, the university's Professor in Transport for Smart Cities.

The announcement of the NMCT coincides with the release of a study by VicRoads revealing that traffic congestion and crashes on freeways are worsened by frequent lane changing – and the reluctance of road users to allow others to diverge. Based on a study of traffic flow patterns on the Monash Freeway to Melbourne's south east, the announcement hints at the difficulty of implementing an autonomous traffic network while self-driving vehicles share the roads with human drivers.

Image courtesy of BlackCab/Wikimedia Commons