Managing Traffic Incidents - University of Queensland

TRANSPORT FUTURES 

EMERGING ISSUES AND TRENDS IN TRANSPORT 

Volume 2 No 1 ISSN 1444-4925 December 2001 

Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW 

CONTENTS 

Managing Traffic Incidents 1 

Public Transport 

Integration 

A Transport Policy for 

Europe 

UK Multi-modal Transport 

Studies 

5 

8 

10 

Report Card—Roads 15 

HDM-4 16 

My Fortunate Career 19 

A Day in Transport 21 

Undergraduate Research 22 

Research Grants 23 

Publications 24 

Free Flow Tolling 27 

Managing Traffic Incidents 

by Prof Phil Charles, Director, Centre for Transport Strategy, University of Queensland 

Increased requirements to manage traffic more 

efficiently has resulted in Australian transport 

infrastructure managers placing greater emphasis 

on incident management systems. 

Traffic incidents are one of the primary causes 

of congestion in major cities during heavy traffic 

periods. Transport authorities are being 

held more and more accountable for managing 

traffic congestion and as a result incident management 

intelligent transport systems are being 

deployed across Australia to reduce traffic delays, 

vehicle emissions and safety problems. 

Urban traffic congestion has been estimated 

to cost $A5 billion each year in Australia, with 

traffic incidents being major contributors, accounting 

for 60 percent of vehicle-hours of 

delay in major cities. 

These incidents result in delays and extra 

travel time, greater vehicle emissions and often 

involve secondary vehicle crashes. Considering 

that the value of travel time in Australia 

exceeds $A20 billion each year, that transport 

contributes 12% of 

greenhouse gas emissions, 

and that the cost 

of crashes exceeds 

$A10 billion annually, 

improving the response 

and clearance of traffic 

incidents is becoming 

an increasing priority 

for traffic agencies. 

Incident management, a 

key response to reducing 

congestion, is a coordinated 

and planned 

approach to responding 

to incidents involving 

systematic detection, 

response and clearing of 

traffic incidents. 

An incident is any event 

that causes a temporary 

reduction in roadway capacity, which may not 

be predictable in terms of occurrence time, extent 

or location. 

Predictable events include road works and 

sporting events and concerts. Unpredictable 

events can include crashes, disabled or stopped 

vehicles and spilled loads. 

The impact of incident-related congestion 

depends on the type and location of the incident. 

Research indicates that nearly 80 percent 

of disabled vehicles remain on the shoulder on 

average 15-30 minutes, causing 500-1000 vehicle-hours 

of delay during peak periods. The 

other 20 percent break down in one of the 

movement lanes restricting traffic with occasional 

disastrous effects. About 4% of reported 

incidents involve vehicle crashes, which block 

lanes between 45 and 90 minutes on average 

and result in 1,200 to 1,500 vehicle-hours of 

delay in peak periods. 

The primary objective of best practice incident 

management programs is to reduce the 

impact of incidents especially in peak periods. 

Performance is measured by: 

– time to detect incident 

– time to respond to incident 

– time to clear incident 

– reduction in traffic approaching incident. 

Planning and coordination 

The key success factor is coordination and cooperation 

between the key agencies responsible 

for various aspects of traffic incidents, especially 

police, traffic agencies, towing and emergency 

services. 

The Integrated Regional Transport Plan for 

South East Queensland predicted that gridlock 

on major roads is expected in the next 10 to 15 

years unless countermeasures are implemented. 

Queensland Main Roads has taken the lead by 

funding a Cooperative Road Management Project 

(CRMP) to coordinate a multi-agency approach 

to addressing incident management. 

CENTRE FOR TRANSPORT STRATEGY — THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND — TRANSPORT BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA 

FUTURES 1

Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW 

Managing Traffic Incidents 

Current integration of traffic management 

activities is fragmented. Communication is 

predominately by telephone, e-mail and fax. 

Closed circuit television coverage is transmitted 

between the Main Roads Traffic Management 

Centre, the Brisbane City Traffic Control 

Centre and Police Communications. 

A trail joint initiative by Main Roads- 

Queensland Police Service called Operation 

Freeflow was undertaken in the three months 

ending June 2001. The trial included motorcycle 

police performing mobile patrols on selected 

motorways within Brisbane during the 

morning and evening peak periods to significantly 

reduce the response time 

Traffic Control Centres 

Sydney’s Transport Management Centre 

(TMC) was commissioned in August 1999 in 

readiness for the Sydney 2000 Olympic 

Games. The Roads and Traffic Authority 

(RTA) purpose-built the new TMC at a cost of 

$A30 million. During the Olympic Games it 

was the command and control centre for 

Olympic public transport and traffic. 

RTA, Police and State Transit Authority 

(public transport) officers operate the control 

centre and professional and support staff are 

co-located to maximise support capabilities. 

The Victorian State government traffic authority, 

VicRoads, operates a Traffic Control 

and Communication Centre which manages 

the 3,400 traffic signals across the state and 

over 140 CCTVs in Melbourne (other than on 

the City Link Tollway) and handles 250,000 

telephone calls each year, of which over 

60,000 are requests for assistance. VicRoads’ 

automatic incident detection system, utilising 

loop detectors on the major freeways, is also 

being used in Adelaide. 

MRWA has recently established a new traffic 

control centre, 

which includes a 

system installed by 

MI Transport Systems 

similar to the 

CCCS being used by 

City Link in Melbourne. 

A digital 

camera based automatic 

incident detection 

system is also 

currently being 

evaluated. 

Incident Management Systems 

Queensland Main Roads has a manual incident 

management system, relying mainly on 

telephone calls from the public, which are 

verified through cameras, but also has a semiautomatic 

incident detection capability using 

in-road loop detectors. 

Incident management modules are being 

included in the redevelopment of Main Roads 

traffic management system (STREAMS), including 

automatic incident detection based on 

a combination of loop and video detection 

systems and sophisticated analysis and prediction 

algorithms. Systems will be available for 

incident logging, reporting and analysis and 

preset response plans. Future plans include 

extending incident management systems from 

freeways to heavy trafficked local streets and 

producing automated incident response plans 

for decision support. 

RTA NSW has been putting considerable 

effort is being focussed on progressively developing 

preset automated incident response 

plans (25 staff are currently involved in response 

planning and system configuration). 

Responses include providing a detour, changing 

traffic signal timing through SCATS, 

changing speed limits through variable speed 

signs and advisory messages to motorists over 

a network of variable message signs. 

The incident management system consists 

of a Central Management Computer System 

(CMCS) which is either activated through the 

automated incident detection system or by the 

operator. The CMCS supplied by Serco Systems 

is based on the NADICS system in Scotland. 

The Melbourne City Link comprising 22 km 

of upgraded and new freeways, transforms the 

existing freeway system, dramatically reducing 

traffic congestion. It is the world's largest 

application of electronic tolling technology at 

freeway speeds in an urban road setting, making 

the tollway one of the first to commit fully 

to the concept of cashless tolling. The focus 

on incident management is to ensure a high 

level of service to toll road users. 

It is a single operator controlled tollway using 

a Central Control Computer System 

(CCCS). The CCCS solution integrates traffic 

management and tunnel plant control systems 

into a single operator interface and includes a 

state-of-the-art incident management system, 

with automatic incident detection by real time 

2 DECEMBER 2001

digital image processing, automated response 

plans and decision support systems for response 

management by the operator. 

The key benefits of the CCCS include: 

– Single interface to all traffic and tunnel 

control functions 

– Able to manage the entire freeway with a 

single operator – resulting in reduced costs 

and training requirements 

– Cost effective PC based solution, with high 

availability (99.97%) 

– Enables incorporation of new developments 

in traffic forecasting/incident detection 

algorithms and automatic traffic control 

functions 

The CCCS provides an Incident Response 

Plan facility as a decision support system assisting 

the operator’s response to an incident, 

and reducing the chance of operator error. 

The Plans are pre-programmed and tested, but 

can be changed in real-time by the operator. 

The Plans allow a single operator to respond 

to multiple simultaneous events, in order of 

priority, with the lowest possible effort. 

The primary incident management systems 

in place in South Australia is on the reversible 

Southern Expressway in Adelaide (traffic flow 

is in one direction in the morning peak and 

reverses for the afternoon) and the Crafers 

Tunnel. The incident management system is 

based on the VicRoads system used in Melbourne, 

using loop detectors and automatic 

incident detection which generates an alarm. 

Detection 

The primary means of detection of incident 

used in Australia rely on phone calls from the 

Components of the Melbourne City Link Tollway 

System integrated into one interface: 

AID – Automatic Incident Detection System 

VMS – Variable Message Signs 

ADS – Advisory Signs (Ramp Signs) 

LUS – Lane Use Signs 

OHVD – Over-height Vehicle Detector 

CCTV – Closed circuit televisions (100 installed) 

PMCS – Tunnel Plant Monitoring and Control System 

TIMS – Tunnel incident management signs 

VSLS – variable speed limit signs 

RES – ramp exit signs 

WIMS – Weigh in Motion System 

METS – Motorist Emergency Telephone System 

RRB – Radio Rebroadcast System 

Brisbane City’s Traffic Response Units 

road users, Police and transport agency staff, 

supplemented by monitoring by cameras. 

Sydney’s metropolitan road network is 

monitored by over 400 CCTVs and detector 

loops are being progressively installed at 500 

metres intervals across the freeway network. 

These inputs together with information from 

the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System 

(SCATS), which controls the traffic signals, 

and information phoned or radioed in by 

road users to the call centre, enables incidents 

to be rapidly detected and verified. 

Sophisticated neural network incident detection 

models, developed by leading Australian 

ITS researcher Dr Hussein Dia at the University 

of Queensland, have been shown to outperform 

existing automated incident detection 

models in terms of providing higher detection 

rates, lower false alarms and faster times of 

detection. 

Similar models, using real-time data from 

loop detectors are running on a number of 

freeways in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. 

Dr Dia is currently developing the next 

generation of artificial neural network incident 

detection models based on recent advances in 

the theory of neural computation. 

Automated incident detection systems have 

not been widely used because the false alarm 

rates are typically higher than other detection 

methods and data requirements involve considerable 

investment. 

Response 

Brisbane City Council, who are responsible 

for the major urban roads other than freeways, 

have established Traffic Response Units in 

2000 primarily to clear blockages during the 

peak periods. 

National Response P/L 

TRANSPORT FUTURES 3

(Continued from page 3) 

Field based traffic controllers, covering four 

sectors across Sydney, have been introduced 

by RTA NSW to take charge of on-site traffic 

control at incidents. 

Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA) 

has recently introduced HEROs (Highway 

Emergency Response Operations), based on 

the US Georgia Department of Transportation 

program which gained prominence during the 

1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. HEROs operate 

primarily on the 60 km freeway network in 

the Perth Metropolitan area. Currently there 

are three HERO units during peak periods and 

one off peak, on week days. The officers have 

an innovative working arrangement where 

they spend 3-4 hours of their 12 hour shift on 

the road, followed by a period at the console 

in the control centre taking calls from the public, 

monitoring the freeway network through 

the SCATS traffic system and CCTVs and 

responding to incidents. 

Incident Management across Australia 

Their primary objective is to rapidly respond 

to incidents such as a stopped vehicles 

obstructing traffic to reduce the extent of the 

congestion impact, by coordinating responses 

from the automobile club, towing service or 

police to clear the blockage. 

An international conference on incident 

management Smart.Traffic was held in May 

2001 in Brisbane. For more information see 

www.transportroundtable.com.au. 

Links 

Main Roads Queensland – www.mainroads.qld.gov.au 

Brisbane City Council – www.brisbane.qld.gov.au 

University of Queensland – www.uq.edu.au/dia 

Roads & Traffic Authority of NSW 

– www.rta.nsw.gov.au 

VicRoads – www.vicroads.vic.gov.au 

Melbourne CityLink – www.transurban.com.au 

MI Transport Systems – www.mi-services-group.com 

Transport South Australia – www.transport.sa.gov.au 

Transport Roundtable Australasia 

– www.transportroundtable.com.au 

Main Roads Western Australia – www.mrwa.wa.gov.au 

Location Planning & coordination Detection Incident Management 

System 

Response 

Brisbane Queensland 

– Department of Main 

Roads (state roads) 

– Cooperative Road 

Management Project 

– Operation Free Flow with 

Police 

– Public telephone calls 

– CCTV 

– Some AID (loops) 

– STREAMS traffic system 

– Primarily manual 

– Developing DSS system 

under STREAMS 

– Towing service by auto 

club (RACQ) 

– VMS signs 

Brisbane Queensland 

– Brisbane City (local 

roads) 

– Incident Management 

Strategy 


– CCTV 

– BLISS traffic system 

– Primarily manual – Traffic Response Units 

(National Response) 

– Commercial radio 

Sydney NSW – Roads & 

Traffic Authority 

Melbourne Victoria 

– VicRoads 

Melbourne City Link 

Tollway 

Adelaide South 

Australia – Transport SA 

– Transport Management 

Centre 

– Network and Transport 

Operations business 

model 

– RTA-Police MoU 

– Public and agency 

telephone calls & radio 

– 400 CCTVs 

– AID (loops) under 

development 

– SCATS congestion alarms 


– CCTV 

– AID (loops) 

– Access to Police radio 


– CCTV 

– AID (video) 

– Mobile units 


– CCTV 

– Some AID (loops) 

– Developing integrated 

DSS 

– Manage planned incidents 

and events 

– Semi-automatic DSS 

– Manage planned incidents 

and events 

– Fully integrated DSS (MI 

Transport Systems) 

– Traffic Commanders 

– Towing service 

– Traffic Emergency Patrols 

– VMS, VSL and 

commercial radio 

– Incident management 

teams 


– Incident response units 

(National Response) 


– VMS 

– Manual system – Towing service 

– VMS 

Perth Western 

Australia – Main Roads 

WA 


– CCTV 

– Trialling AID (video) 

– Manual 

– Implementing integrated 

DSS (staged) 

– HERO 


– VMS 

AID – automated incident detection CCTV – closed circuit television DSS – decision support system 

HERO – Highway Emergency Response Operations MOU – Memorandum of Understanding VMS – variable message signs 

VSL – variable speed limits 

4 DECEMBER 2001

Public Transport Integration 

in South East Queensland 

by Mark Streeting, Booz·Allen & Hamilton & Adrian Webb, Queensland Transport 

T 

he Integrated Regional Public 

Transport Plan (IRTP) established 

a target to increase public 

transport mode share in South 

East Queensland (SEQ) from the current 

7% to 10.5% by 2011. There is no single 

policy initiative that will guarantee the realisation 

of this target. It rests on the development 

and implementation of a number of 

initiatives including infrastructure investment 

(eg South East Busway) and a range 

of policy initiatives directed at creating a 

customer friendly, fully integrated public 

transport system that provides on-going incentives 

for service innovation. This article 

reviews the role that the three public transport 

integration dimensions (ie fares, ticketing and 

service integration) will play in enhancing the 

appeal and quality of public transport. 

Fares and Ticketing Integration 

The introduction of integrated fares and ticketing 

to SEQ presents a number of unique challenges 

that have not been confronted by integrated 

ticketing projects elsewhere in the world. 

The area is in excess of 6,300 km 2 and involves 

over 15 operators covering rail, bus and ferry 

services. Currently, there is little commonality 

between public transport operators, with 

Queensland Rail (ie 'CityTrain), Brisbane 

Transport and private bus services operating on 

different fare structures, fare levels, concessions 

and ticket types. 

It is important to recognise that integrated 

ticketing could be introduced in SEQ without 

fares integration, as was the case in Hong Kong 

and is proposed in Sydney. However, without 

fares integration, passengers would have to 

continue to pay two flagfalls when completing 

multi-operator trips and fare level anomalies 

between operators would remain. Simply automating 

the ticketing function, or moving to another 

form of automation (ie magnetic stripe to 

smart card) would be unlikely to generate significant 

patronage gains, relative to a scenario 

of fares, ticketing and service integration where 

significant passenger benefits accrue. It was 

not therefore considered that ticketing integration 

alone would achieve the desired outcomes 

for SEQ. 

The integrated ticketing system proposed 

for SEQ will use a contactless smart card 

(CSC) operating within a 'closed' fare collection 

environment. The system will be 'closed' 

in the sense that passengers will validate 

'smart cards' on both system entry and exit (ie 

'tag on – tag off') as per Hong Kong’s rail and 

light-rail systems. As such, it is entirely independent 

of issues pertaining to the physical 

closure of the Queensland Rail system (ie via 

fare gates) or whether the ticketing system 

operates within a closed (ie proprietary system) 

or open (ie non-proprietary) environment. 

The proposal to migrate to a closed fare 

collection environment presents a number of 

advantages/opportunities: 

– facilitates the specification and calculation 

of distance-based fares based on 'point to 

point' distances or a relatively fine zonal 

structure; 

– removes the need for fixed price periodical 

tickets offering unlimited travel (ie fare 

products can be entirely consumptionbased); 

and 

– improves data capture for service planning 

purposes, will potentially reduce fare evasion 

and provide the necessary data to facilitate 

farebox revenue sharing where integrated 

tickets are used. 

TRANSPORT FUTURES 5

6 DECEMBER 2001 

Public Transport Integration 

Detailed consideration was given to the respective 

merits of applying the four fundamental 

fare structures (ie flat, time-based, distance-based 

and zonal structures) across the 

entire SEQ region, and it was concluded that 

flat and time-based structures were not suitable. 

Neither of these structures permit cost 

reflective fares to be established, which is of 

paramount importance in an environment of 

economic efficiency, commerciality and high 

cost recovery. 

A distance-based fare structure was found 

to be superior in terms of revenue raising efficiency, 

however this had to be traded off 

against the practical requirement to maintain a 

customer friendly public transport fare structure 

that is easy to understand, use and market. 

Accordingly, work is being directed at 

designing a customer friendly zonal fare 

structure for SEQ which strikes an appropriate 

balance between both requirements. 

Although it was concluded that the market 

is not ready at this time to embrace a pure distance-based 

fare structure, state-of-the-art fare 

collection equipment is well equipped to support 

it. The decision to move to a 'closed' fare 

collection environment will retain the future 

capacity to employ 'point-to-point' pricing, 

which would not have been available had an 

'open' fare collection system been specified. 

The product range (or 'tickets') available to 

public transport customers is a critical element 

of the fare system as it represents the 

actual point of contact between the system 

and the customer. In developing an appropriate 

product range for the SEQ integrated ticketing 

environment the following strategic issues 

must be addressed: 

– What are the key market segments the 

product range needs to cater for and what 

are the differentiating features of these 

market segments? 

– What are the operational advantages and 

disadvantages of specific ticket types, are 

these consistent for all operators, and how 

do these align with the operator's objectives? 

– What are the dominant product features 

which need to be replicated to ensure the 

maximum patronage potential is achieved? 

– To achieve a consistent product range 

across all operators, what product rationalisation 

is required? 

The SEQ product range is still under development. 

A review of international evidence 

highlighted the wide usage of the concept of 

stored value, with the primary difference being 

the fare media used (ie smart card or magnetic 

stripe). Results of focus group research 

conducted with SEQ residents indicated that 

there was general support for the use of a 

smart card with stored value functionality, 

provided that the system was transparent 

enough for users to understand how the benefits 

were determined and when such benefits 

would be realised. 

Significantly, the proposed 'tag on tag off' 

ticketing system will create an environment 

where it will be possible to 

offer consumption-based travel to 

Queensland Rail commuters for the 

first time. A number of innovative 

approaches that utilise the stored 

value capability of a smart card are 

being considered to address some of 

the limitations associated with the 

longer term periodical tickets traditionally 

used by rail commuters. 

It is important to acknowledge that it 

will always be necessary to accommodate 

the irregular cash paying passengers 

and accordingly to retain a capacity 

to issue paper tickets for infrequent 

or casual users that do not have a 

smart card. At the same time, incentives 

will be offered to smart card users 

to minimise the number of cash

fare payers using 

the public transport 

system. 

Concession 

fare policy is 

presently under 

review, with a 

view to standardising 

and simplifying 

entitlements 

across 

SEQ. The complexity 

of current 

concession arrangements 

has a 

significant impact 

on operational 

efficiency from an operator perspective and 

simplicity/service delivery from a customer 

perspective. 

Service Integration 

The proposed introduction of integrated ticketing 

in SEQ will facilitate the development 

of a fully integrated public transport network. 

Additional patronage is expected to be generated 

from passengers making multi-modal 

journeys using existing services, and from 

services that will be re-designed to facilitate 

intermodal/inter-operator integration. 

Traditionally, rail/bus timetable coordination 

in SEQ has been limited to the 

'TrainLink' bus services contracted to Queensland 

Rail and services operated by bus companies 

in a number of outer suburban areas. 

'CityTrans', which is a joint venture of Brisbane 

Transport and Queensland Rail City- 

Train, is in the process of implementing a 

number of coordinated rail/bus services - 

similar in concept to the 'TrainLink' services. 

Improved infrastructure has been provided at 

key stations to ensure that transfers occur as 

easily as possible. 

Initiatives such as those being undertaken 

by 'CityTrans' are essential, particularly in 

light of the increase in demand for public 

transport services expected to be generated by 

integrated fares and ticketing. For outer suburban 

areas with little or no public transport, 

the cost of providing a direct bus service to 

the CBD may be prohibitive. However, 

within an integrated public transport system, 

it may be cost effective for feeder bus services 

to be established, requiring fewer vehicles 

and/or enabling a higher frequency to be provided. 

It should be emphasised that an integrated 

transport network does not mean that complete 

timetable coordination will be pursued 

or is indeed desirable. Distributor services 

and uncoordinated transfers generally cater 

for instances where service coordination is 

impractical. The Melbourne tram system is a 

perfect example of a highly successful CBD 

distributor service. The high frequency of the 

Melbourne tram network allows passengers to 

make integrated journeys that are actually 

more attractive than formally coordinated services. 

Uncoordinated transfers can be facilitated 

by ensuring that bus routes are altered to 

pass near railway stations, that service frequencies 

are improved so that average waiting 

times are reduced and by providing suitable 

passenger waiting facilities (ie shelter and 

seating). 

Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Integrated 

Ticketing project is to ensure that the 

public is able to understand that the benefits 

of an integrated ticketing system extend beyond 

having a convenient common payment 

system. The primarily objective is the development 

a user friendly, seamless public transport 

system capable of further development. 

! 

For further information, contact 

Mark Streeting or Adrian Webb by e-mail: 

streeting_mark@bah.com 

adrian.s.webb@transport.qld.gov.au 

TRANSPORT FUTURES 7

A Transport Policy for Europe 

The European Commission’s objective 

for the next ten years is to refocus 

Europe’s transport policy on the 

demands and needs of its citizens as 

outlined in the White Paper European 

Transport Policy for 2010: 

Time to Decide. 

The first of 60 measures is designed 

to shift the balance between modes 

of transport by 2010, by revitalizing 

the railways, promoting maritime and 

inland waterway transport and linking 

up the different modes of transport. 

The Commission is proposing initiatives 

aimed at bringing about substantial 

improvements in the quality 

and efficiency of transport in Europe 

and designed to gradually break the 

link between constant transport 

growth and economic growth in order 

to reduce the pressure on the environment 

and prevent congestion 

while maintaining the EU’s economic 

competitiveness. 

It is proposing 60 or so measures to 

develop a transport policy for 

Europe’s citizens. 

– Promoting passengers’ rights – 

including compensation where travellers 

are delayed or denied boarding 

due to overbooking by airlines, and 

later extending passenger protection 

measures to other modes of transport, notably 

rail, maritime and, as far as possible, 

urban transport services 

– Improving road safety – over 41,000 

Europeans lost their lives on the roads in 

the year 2000 and every effort is to be 

made to halve the number of road deaths 

by 2010. Proposals include the development 

of appropriate signposting of blackspots, 

combating excessively long driving 

times, harmonising road transport penalties 

at European level, and considerably increasing 

the use of new technologies, safe 

new vehicles, the protection of vehicle occupants 

in the event of impact, and the setting 

of safety standards for the design of 

car fronts in particular 

– Making safety a priority – more generally, 

the objective is to ensure that safety 

takes priority in all circumstances. Citizens 

must be guaranteed the highest possible 

level of safety as a result of appropriate 

legislation and the strict application of controls 

and penalties for modes of transport 

such as aviation, shipping and the railways 

– Preventing congestion – if nothing is 

done, Europe will rapidly be threatened 

with "apoplexy at the centre and paralysis 

at the extremities". The Commission is 

proposing to put an end to current trends 

and shift the balance between the different 

modes of transport through a proactive policy 

to encourage the linking-up of the different 

modes and promote rail, 

maritime and inland waterway 

transport. A new program will 

be created to promote intermodality, 

called Marco Polo, with 

an annual budget of around 30 

million euro 

– Towards sustainable mobility 

– transport in Europe must, 

as a matter of priority, be compatible 

with environmental protection. 

A wide range of measures 

are being proposed to develop 

fair infrastructure charging 

which takes into account external 

costs and encourages the use 

of the least polluting modes of 

transport, to define sensitive ar- 

8 DECEMBER 2001

eas, in particular in the Alps and Pyrenees, 

which should be eligible for additional 

funding for alternative transport, and to 

promote clean fuels 

– Towards harmonised taxation of fuel for 

professional transport – harmonising 

taxes on diesel for professional use would 

reduce distortions of competition in the 

liberalised road transport market 

– Ensuring a quality of transport services 

in Europe – the development of transport 

in Europe must go hand in hand with a 

high level of quality. Harmonisation of 

working conditions, especially in road 

transport, maintenance of high-quality public 

services and, in compliance with the 

subsidiarity principle, encourage good 

practices to ensure a high quality of urban 

transport services aimed at making better 

use of public transport and the existing infrastructure 

– Carrying out major infrastructure 

work – in the context of the trans- 

European networks, it is proposed to concentrate 

on the missing links (in particular 

the trans-European high-speed passenger 

rail network, including airport connections) 

and infrastructure with genuine potential 

for transferring goods from the roads to the 

railways (in particular the large-capacity 

rail link across the Pyrenees) 

– Galileo, Europe’s radionavigation system 

– this satellite technology is at present 

in the hands of the United States and Russia. 

The time has come to offer Europe's 

citizens a reliable European system offering 

everyone everywhere new universal 

services: location of vehicles, telemedicine, 

and geographical information systems 

for agriculture for example. The Commission 

is proposing that the Galileo system 

should be operational in 2008 

– Managing globalisation – often Europe's 

appearances on the world stage is uncoordinated 

or inadequate, to the detriment of 

efficiency. The White Paper is proposing 

to raise the European Union's profile 

within international organisations such as 

the International Maritime Organisation 

(IMO) and the International Civil Aviation 

Organisation (ICAO) to make Europe more 

assertive and place the EU at the forefront 

of the efforts to improve safety and protect 

the environment 

The new White Paper advocates a qualitative 

change of direction in transport policy in order 

to ensure that measures to promote an environmentally 

friendly mix of transport services 

go hand in hand with the measures to 

open up the markets. The competitiveness of 

Europe’s economy and the establishment of a 

high-quality European model for citizens will 

depend upon the common desire to bring 

about the proposed changes. ! 

Photographs courtesy Audiovisual Library European Commission 

The full text of the White Paper is be available at the website: 

 

TRANSPORT FUTURES 9

The UK Multi-Modal Transport Studies 

– are there any ideas for Australian transport planning? 

Figure 1: Typical MMS Area 

Underinvestment in 

transport 


by Stephen Luke, PPK Environment and Infrastructure, Brisbane Australia 

T 

Deprivation 

his article provides an overview of 

the strategic Multi-Modal Transport 

Studies (MMS) currently underway 

in the UK and is based on research 

documents and UK publications and experience 

from an interurban multi modal transport study 

between London and Ipswich. The purpose of 

this article is to identify and stimulate discussion 

about techniques and ideas which could be 

appropriate to Australasian transport planning 

practice. 

Multi Modal Studies – what are they? 

Transport issues are becoming increasingly important 

to economic prosperity and quality of 

life. To plan for the future, the UK Government 

has commissioned a number of major transport 

studies throughout England. These are looking 

at current transport problems and issues, how 

these might change in the future, and what 

transport solutions might be found to best address 

them. 

The studies are large-scale regional studies 

and are very important since they collectively 

encompass a large part of England and are expected 

to address complex problems of transport, 

the economy and the environment. 

Figure 1 shows the study area for the MMS 

covering the south west of England from London 

to Cornwall. This particular region has a 

Links to South Wales 

Environmental 

Preservation 

Peripherality 

Population growth 

and Tourist Traffic 

Links to Europe 

Economic 

growth 

Rurality 

number of transport problems including summer 

congestion on road and rail links, daily 

peak period congestion on key motorways, rail 

capacity constraints and infrequent rail services 

to some destinations. Air services provide only 

limited access to the national and world network. 

There are significant pockets of deprivation 

in some areas whilst other areas have very 

buoyant local economies. The region also suffers 

peripherality from the remainder of the UK 

and Europe. The south west of England also has 

very significant natural and built environmental 

assets that need to be protected. 

As the above example demonstrates, instead 

of focussing on a particular mode, MMS examine 

the role of each of the transport modes in 

the area or corridor concerned to identify the 

contribution that each can make to meeting objectives 

for the sustainable development of the 

region, area or corridor under consideration. 

Therefore MMS do not simply look at a congested 

or unsafe stretch of road to decide what 

improvements could be made, but will also examine 

what scope there is for expanding the 

role of public transport, or for using traffic 

management or other measures to manage the 

demand on the existing infrastructure, as well 

as other options improve the road in question. 

In most cases the solution is likely to be a 

combination of measures which together meet 

the national, local and regional objectives. 

The UK Department of Environmental, 

Transport and the 

Regions has drawn up guidance 

on the methodologies to be 

used when undertaking the 

MMS (GOMMS). 

The studies should identify 

transport and other policy options 

to cater for future demands 

and to assess the contri- 

Links to Europe 

butions which different modes 

of transport can make to meet 

future demands. These options 

could include: 

– Measures to make better use 

of existing transport infrastructure; 

Links to Midlands

– Measures to manage transport demand; 

– Urban and inter-urban road charging; 

– Access controls; 

Measures to give priority to certain transport 

modes; 

– Provision of new infrastructure and modal 

opportunities; 

– Landuse planning measures; 

– Measures to reduce the need to travel; and 

– Measures that make use of developments in 

information and communication technology 

Methodology 

The fundamental aim of the studies is to develop 

multi-modal transport strategies through 

objective analysis. It is therefore critical that a 

particular recommendation is not arrived at due 

to any underlying bias in the conduct of the 

study, and that all modes of transport are given 

equal treatment as well as considering both noninfrastructure 

and infrastructure measures. More 

information on the development of transport 

strategies can be sourced from the Institute of 

Highways and Transportation (1). 

To help achieve this aim the main stages in 

establishing transport strategies or plans should 

include (2): 

– Agreement of a set of objectives which the 

strategy or plan should seek to satisfy; 

– Analysis of present and future problems on 

or relating to the transport system; 

– Exploration of potential solutions for solving 

the problems and meeting the objectives; 

– Appraisal of the ideas, seeking combinations 

which perform better as a whole than the 

sum of the individual components; and 

– Selection and phasing of the preferred strategy 

or plan, taking into account the views of 

the public and that of transport providers. 

Objectives 

The studies are based on five over-arching objectives: 

– To protect and enhance the built and natural 

environment; 

– To improve safety for all travellers; 

– To contribute to an efficient economy, and to 

support sustainable economic growth in appropriate 

locations; 

– To promote accessibility to everyday facilities 

for all, especially those without a car; 

and 

– To promote the integration of all forms of 

transport and land use planning, leading to a 

better, more efficient transport system. 

To avoid the common situation where environmental 

concerns act as a constraint rather than a 

driver of study outcomes it may be worthwhile 

considering positive environmental aims as 

study objectives. This would help ensure that 

the environment enjoys equal status with other 

objectives. 

On a more detailed level, study objectives 

should also encompass the notion of 

"endstates", which describe in reasonable detail 

the desired conditions in the study area at a defined 

future point in time. These could be 

couched in SMART terms (specific, measurable, 

attainable, relevant and timed) (3) rather 

than a general objective such as "reduce congestion". 

A specific statement of a future state of 

affairs would be made in sufficient detail to allow 

a thorough appraisal of its likely achievement. 

One example of a SMART endstate is 

"that average journey speeds by car and public 

transport within the study area should not be 

lower than 15 kph in the year 2006". 

Mode Shift 

Multi-modal studies identify long-term, sustainable 

solutions to transport related problems, in 

particular through modal shift. Research has 

suggested, however, that in some cases modal 

shift is not as relevant in travel patterns as other 

changes in areas such as trip length, journey 

purpose or journey time (4). 

Consultation/Participation 

One of the key features of the MMS is significant 

community and stakeholder consultation 

and participation at all stages of the studies. A 

particular challenge of the studies, due to their 

regional nature, is to recognize that there may 

well be a number of different sub-areas, each 

with a strong sense of local identity and culture. 

Therefore, consultation strategies need to encourage 

regional perspectives, discouraging 

"parochialism" whilst taking into account local 

concerns. Therefore, it could be argued, consultation 

should meet at least four key aims: 

– Strategic - to ensure all key issues are identified; 

– Embracing - to include all groups; 

– Imaginative - to get across technical and potentially 

complex information; and 

– Fair in outcome - to ensure reasons for reaching 

conclusions are understood. 

Although the tools to undertake consultation are 

well recognized and established, for example 

web pages, travelling exhibitions, newsletters 

and press releases, there has been a far greater 

TRANSPORT FUTURES 11

that land uses are fixed, both in location and 

magnitude. However, it may be relevant to consider 

the relationship between 'land-use' and 

'transport' for three reasons (5): 

– Land-use activities and the interactions between 

them generate the demands for transport; 

– These activities and interactions are influenced 

by the availability of transport; and 

– The linkages between transport and activities 

may be important to the appraisal of transport 

strategies - especially when trying to 

consider whether the transport system is providing 

the kind of accessibilities that people 

and businesses require, rather than simply 

providing mobility. 

It may be feasible to explore these issues without 

adopting land-use models. Different land 

use inputs can be employed to explore the sensitivity 

of transport models to land-use, while 

the impacts on land-use of different transport 

strategies can be assessed, based on the outputs 

of transport models. However, where these relationships 

are complex the use of a formal 

modelling approach may be required. 

'Land-use/transport interaction models' represent 

the influences of transport upon different 

groups of economic agents (individuals and 

household, firms and other productive organisations, 

and national and local government) by 

modelling some or all of the markets (property, 

labour, and goods and services) through which 

they interact. As their name indicates, they 

model both the transport and land-use systems, 

though physical land-use is generally less important 

than the behaviours of residents and 

firms. 

The economic interactions between activities, 

such as flows of workers to workplaces or of 

services to consumers, are obviously related to 

transport demands. Land-use/transport interaction 

models can be classified into the following 

two broad groups according to their treatment 

of these interactions: 

– Group 1 consists of modes where the economic 

interactions between activities are 

used in predicting where land-uses will lo- 

The emphasis UK placed Multi-Modal on the participation of stake- 

Transport models work Studies 

on the assumption 

holders and the community in the development 

of the studies. 

As the table below shows, there are a number 

of Consultation Models that have been 

adopted in transport planning. 

Participation is fundamentally different to 

consultation in that it allows participants to 

have a direct influence in the development and 

outcomes of the studies. 

It could be argued that studies would deliver 

the best results if the highest practical degree 

of participation were achieved throughout the 

study process from identification of transport 

objectives and possible options to be assessed. 

This would help ensure that all reasonable options 

were considered and would maximise the 

chances that the preferred transport strategy 

would succeed and be accepted given the potential 

level of ownership from stakeholders 

and the community. 

To achieve this requires a fully integrated 

and responsive approach from the study management 

and study consultants to the consultation/participation 

process. The outcomes of the 

study (including consultation/participation 

process) need to be disseminated at timely intervals 

throughout the study process. It is also 

important that as many local people and organisations 

as possible know about the studies 

and that the consultation/participation process 

encourages a healthy and lively debate as well 

as some excitement about the studies. This is 

best achieved if the teams undertaking the 

studies fully value the contributions that can 

be made from stakeholders and communities, 

and crucially that these groups can have a direct 

influence on the outcome of the studies. 

Transport Modelling/Assessment Tools 

Four groups of tools or procedures that have 

been used in the studies are: 

– Transport or a land-use/transport interaction 

models; 

– Environmental impact assessment procedures; 

– Cost/benefit analysis procedures; and 

– Geographic information systems. 

One of the main features of the studies is the 

use of strategic land use/transport models. 

Greater community/stakeholder involvement 

Non Participation Manipulation? Information Tokenism? Collaboration Empowerment 


Decide – Announce 

– Defend 

Public Relations 

Marketing 

Public Information Consultation Participation Coproduction

cate. These are referred to as 'interactionlocation' 

models (because interactions determine 

locations) or as 'integrated' models 

(because the land-use and transport algorithms 

are inextricably interwoven); and 

– Group 2 consists of models where the economic 

interactions between activities are, in 

the short term, controlled by the location of 

land-uses. These are referred to as 'locationinteraction' 

models, (because locations determine 

interactions), or as 'linked' models, 

(because they can be created by linking a 

complete transport model including generation 

and distribution to a land-use model). 

One particular model which has been used is 

LASER. This is a high level model which includes 

economic activity, land use and transport 

within a single integrate framework representing 

all modes including car, bus, slow modes, 

freight and rail. It has been used to examine the 

interaction between land-use and transport and 

has been used on a number of Multi Model 

Studies. 

Obviously land-use/transport interaction 

models need to cover a large area if they are to 

show how activities will change in response to 

a transport intervention in a reasonably realistic 

manner. This, and the additional complexity 

and data requirements of these models, means 

that they will nearly always require greater resources 

than transport modelling alone. 

Transport and the Economy 

The studies are also notable for addressing the 

wider economic effects of transport interventions. 

There are many ways in which transport 

interventions could improve economic performance 

(6): 

– Rationalisation of production, distribution 

and/or land-use; 

– Effects on labour market catchment areas, 

and hence on labour costs; 

– Increases in output resulting from lower 

costs of production; 

– Stimulation of inward investment; 

– Unlocking inaccessible sites for development; 

and 

– Triggering growth which in turn stimulates 

further growth. 

One very important report published by SAC- 

TRA (7) (the UK Standing Advisory Committee 

on Trunk Road Assessment) concerned the 

relationship between traffic growth, transport 

investment and economic growth. The report 

covered issues such as: 

– Do transport improvement lead to increased 

economic activity? 

– Can traffic be reduced without having a 

negative impact on the economy? and 

– How should economic impacts be appraised? 

Economic Activity 

At a local level it is often considered that improved 

roads will enlarge the market for goods, 

services and workers but there may also be 

"two way road" effects due to increased competitive 

pressure from outside the local area 

which could actually weaken the economic 

base. Therefore there may be a requirement to 

undertake local economic assessments to cover 

such aspects as: 

– The economic and market conditions in the 

local area and competing areas; 

– Expected impact on economic activity and 

jobs in the local area; and 

– Displacement effects in the local area, and 

between the local area and other areas (ie 

distributional effects). 

Traffic Reduction 

There is a strong correlation between economic 

growth and road traffic growth in most developed 

countries and in many instances, for example 

the UK, traffic growth has exceeded economic 

growth. Consequently, the transport intensity 

of economies has been increasing (i.e. 

each unit of output is associated with a greater 

amount of movement of people or goods). 

SACTRA investigated if traffic could be reduced 

without having a negative economic impact. 

There are traffic restraint measures (both 

price and non price) which would improve economic 

efficiency. This of course relates to the 

fact that, in many cases, the social cost of a 

journey exceeds the cost incurred by road users 

- most significantly in congested traffic conditions. 

Where this occurs, there is scope for 

net economic benefits through reducing congestion 

and environmental costs. This is the rationale 

underpinning the use of congestion charging 

(for example electronic road pricing in Singapore 

and congestion charging in central London 

- proposed for 2004). 

Economic Impacts 

SACTRA recommended an "Economic Impact 

Report" be prepared for transport schemes in 

conjunction with conventional traffic and environmental 

appraisals. The aim of the report 

would be to try to address the questions of eco- 


The UK Multi-Modal Transport Studies 

nomic impacts and their distribution and may 

cover such aspects as: 

– The rationale for transport improvement; 

– Transport costs and benefits; 

– Total economic impacts; and 

– Pattern of gains and losses, in both economic 

activity and jobs. 

Overall, it appears that current appraisal of 

transport and economic effects is not fully developed 

or applied (in the UK at least) and the 

key issue is to develop best practice in the use 

of transport/economic appraisal. 

Environment: 

– Noise 

– Local air quality 

– Climate change 

– Landscape 

– Townscape 

– Biodiversity 

– Heritage 

– Water resources 

– Other health impacts 

– Quality of journey 

Safety: 

– Accidents 

– Security 

Economy: 

– Economic efficiency of 

the transport system 

– Reliability 

– Wider economic impacts 

Accessibility: 

– Access to the transport 

system 

– Option values 

– Severance 

Integration: 

– Transport interchange 

– Land-use policy 

– Other Government policy 

Appraisal and Concluding Remarks 

The approach to appraisal developed to meet the 

requirements of multi-modal studies, is a costbenefit 

analysis tool nested in a multi-criteria 

analysis tool. 

The box below provides a summary of the 

appraisal criteria. 

Other specific appraisal criteria include: 

– Distribution and equity 

– Affordability and financial sustainability 

– Practicality and public acceptability. 

Information is provided 

in the Guidance 

(GOMMMS) 

to assist in quantifying 

these criteria 

in a consistent way. 

In appraising alternative 

transport 

strategies there 

may be a need to 

take into account 

external issues (i.e. 

national and international 

transport 

and fiscal policy as 

well as general economic 

conditions). 

This could be 

achieved by undertaking 

sensitivity 

tests of a particular 

strategy against 

external influences. 

It is possible that 

transport policy 

strategies may not 

be the best way to 

tackle particular 

issues. Aspects, such as health or education 

policy, may also be significant factors (eg 

hospital and school locations). 

When examining costs and benefits a single 

benefit- cost ratio or net present value may 

conceal significant underlying issues, for example, 

the distributional effects of benefits 

and costs, and also when benefits and costs 

are likely to occur. A strategy that delivers 

benefits earlier than a strategy that delivers 

benefits only in the long term may be preferable. 

All these issues should be taken into account. 

The UK Government has also indicated that 

it will investigate the use of a cost effectiveness 

approach to transport evaluation. Cost 

effectiveness differs quite significantly from 

cost-benefit analysis because it measures the 

ratio of the number of objectives achieved by 

a strategy relative to the cost incurred in delivering 

them. This contrasts with cost-benefit 

analysis which measures "welfare benefits" 

irrespective of whether they have been established 

as a goal of the strategy. This indicates 

a need to address the true objectives of transport 

intervention. 

References 

1. Guidance on Developing Urban Transport 

Strategies, IHT, 1996 

2. Guidance on the Methodology for Multi 

Modal Studies, Volume 1, DETR, 1999 

3. Cohen T Multi-Modal Corridor Studies: 

Conclusions of Research On the Study 

Programme and Implications For appraisal, 

paper presented at the European 

Transport Conference, Cambridge, 2000 

4. Research into Multi Modal Studies, Steer 

Davies Gleave for Transport 2000, 2000 

5. Guidance on the Methodology for Multi 

Modal Studies, Volume 2, DETR, 1999 

6. Department of the Environment Transport 

and the Regions website, accessed on 16 

January 2001 www.roads.detr.gov.uk/ 

roadnetwork/sactra/report99/summ.htm 

7. Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk 

Road Assessment, 1999: Transport and 

the Economy ! 

Stephen Luke can be reached on: 

sluke@ppk.com.au 

14 DECEMBER 2001

Report Card on ROADS 

Conditions 

While passenger and commercial travel on US 

highways has increased dramatically in the past 

10 years, America has been seriously underinvesting 

in needed road and bridge repairs, and 

has failed to even maintain the substandard 

conditions. This is a dangerous trend that is affecting 

highway safety, as well as the health of 

the US economy. 

Congress and state and local governments 

have begun to address the investment crisis and 

crumbling infrastructure through the enactment 

of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st 

Century (TEA-21), which provided $218 billion 

for the nation's highway and transit programs. 

TEA-21 funds, combined with additional revenues 

from state and local governments, have 

begun to make an impact on road projects. Total 

highway expenditures by all levels of government 

and all expenditure types (including 

capital outlays; maintenance; and research, policing 

and administrative) have increased from 

$93.5 billion in 1995, before TEA-21 was enacted, 

to $111.9 billion in 1999. 

Even with TEA-21's commitment, the US 

must increase annual investment by $27 billion 

at all levels to improve conditions and performance 

adequately, according to the Federal Highway 

Administration (FHwA). A FHwA report 

concludes that the nation should be investing 

$94 billion a year in its road and bridge system 

over the next 20 years. This refers only to capital 

investment. 

In 1999, the total capital investment by all 

levels of government was $59.4 billion, well 

short of the needed $94 billion. 

Yet even with this added attention, 58% of 

America's urban and rural roadways are in 

poor, mediocre or fair condition, according to 

the FHwA. Although this is a slight improvement 

from previous years, conditions remain at 

substandard levels. 

The FHwA ranks "poor" roads as those in 

need of immediate improvement. "Mediocre" 

roads need improvement in the near future to 

preserve usability. "Fair" roads will likely need 

improvement. "Good" roads are in decent condition 

and will not require improvement in the 

near future. "Very good" roads have new or 

almost new pavement. 

Substandard road conditions are dangerous. 

Outdated and substandard road and bridge design, 

pavement conditions, and safety features 

are factors in 30% of all fatal highway crashes, 

according to the FHwA. 

Americans' personal and commercial highway 

travel continues to increase at a faster rate 

than highway capacity, which cannot sufficiently 

support current or projected travel 

needs. Between 1970 and 1995, passenger 

travel nearly doubled in the US, and road use is 

expected to increase by nearly two-thirds in the 

next 20 years. Growth can be attributed to 

changes in the labour force, income, makeup of 

metropolitan areas and other factors. 

More than 70% of peak-hour traffic occurs in 

congested conditions. The cost to the economy 

– in wasted time and fuel – in just the 10 

most congested urban areas is $34 billion each 

year. In addition, poor highway conditions hinder 

effective transport of goods that help support 

the American economy. 

Policy Options 

Solutions to ease the increasing demands on the 

US transportation system and improve highway 

conditions, capacity and safety, are multifaceted 

and do not always mean building more 

roads and bridges. America must change its 

transportation behavior, increase investment at 

all levels of government, and make use of the 

latest technology. Cities and communities 

should be better planned to reduce dependence 

on personal vehicles for errands and work commutes, 

and businesses must encourage more 

flexible schedules and telecommuting. 

Congress must provide adequate funding to 

meet current highway and transit needs, and 

include enough funding for long-term fundamental 

highway research and development of 

civil engineering innovations that offer costeffective 

solutions to our transportation needs. 

Establishment of a federal, multi-year capital 

budget for public works infrastructure construction 

and rehabilitation is needed, similar to 

those used by state and local governments. 

Other solutions include private-public partnerships 

where appropriate, and multi-year capital 

and operating budgets. 

The use of life-cycle cost analysis principles 

to evaluate the total costs of projects should 

also be encouraged. ! 

For more information see: 

www.asce.org/reportcard/index.cfm 

ASCE – American Society of Civil Engineers 


A Management Tool for Investigating 

Road Investment Choices 

by Gary Hayes and Brad Lawrence, Booz·Allen & Hamilton 

R 

oads are big business, with the 

operational and capital budgets of 

road's authorities in developed 

countries often approaching or 

exceeding the turnover of the largest global 

commercial corporations. In addition, the 

political pressure for the efficient and effective 

allocation of public funds requires the 

optimal allocation of these scarce financial 

resources to road maintenance and capital 

works programmes. Very often, the commercial 

principles, and hence financial transparency, 

within which road's authorities are 

expected to operate make it critically important 

for them to be able to justify and motivate 

spending allocations. 

HDM-4 is a planning and management tool 

developed for road's authorities to be able to 

make technical based financial road investment 

choices. The development of the HDM-4 

(Highway Development & Management) suite 

of programs was funded by the World Bank, 

and carried out at the University of Birmingham 

in the United Kingdom. Extensive further 

research into the physical and economic 

relationship of roads in India, Kenya, Brazil 

and the Caribbean have resulted a much 

improved product, and the latest (4 th ) version 

of the program offers some improvements 

over version three, specifically: 

– effects of traffic congestion 

– simulation of rigid pavements and a range 

of flexible pavement types 

– effects of road texture and skid resistance 

– effects of freeze-thaw conditions 

– traffic safety effects 

– environmental impacts 

HDM-4 Applications 

Essentially HDM-4, based on the models of 

road deterioration and maintenance, together 

with user cost inputs, determines the net 

financial benefits and hence enables project 

prioritisation to be determined within specified 

budget constraints. The economic analysis 

can be performed using the full life cycle 

approach (say 15 to 20 years), or the budget 

life cycle approach (say 3 to 5 years). 

HDM-4 enables the following types of 

technical, economic and policy applications to 

be undertaken: 

– Individual project financial and technical 

evaluation 

– Project formulation 

– Road network maintenance needs forecasting 

– Road network upgrade programme formulation 

– Network strategic planning 

– Technical standards investigations 

– Vehicle policy investigations (e.g. axle 

limit investigations and road fleet changes) 

– Road use cost and damage attribution, 

particularly in the context of transport 

pricing and taxation 

It is important to note that HDM-4 is not a 

replacement for any existing management and 

planning tools, such as pavement management 

systems (PMS's), and nor is it a database tool. 

Rather, it should be seen as a complementary 

management tool, used in conjunction with 

other road infrastructure planning tools. 

HDM-4 Input Requirements 

To be able to fully utilise the program a substantial 

amount of input data is required. This 

data defines the road network, road conditions, 

maintenance resource data, productivity 

data, unit costs, economic parameters, fleet 

definition and volumes, environmental issues, 

maintenance cycles and road congestion 

levels. This data is often available from other 

sources, such as strategic transportation planning 

tools such as Emme/2 and TransCAD, 

pavement management systems, etc. 

An important aspect of the input, is the 

pavement deterioration profiles, which ideally 

should be based on historical pavement research 

and practical experience. 

16 DECEMBER 2001

HDM-4 Analysis Modules 

The program allows analyses to be carried out 

a three different levels, ie: 

– Strategic level 

– Programme level 

– Project level 

Strategic Analysis 

As the name suggests, this module allows for 

strategic road network planning in the medium 

to long term. The objective is to provide 

funding estimates for road network development 

and maintenance within these time 

frames. The main outputs are: 

– Estimates of medium to long term budget 

requirements for the entire road network. 

– Forecasts of network performance under 

various levels of funding (i.e. scenario 

analysis) 

– Optimal allocation of funds according to 

defined budgets for routine and periodic 

maintenance, as well as capital budgets 

– Optimal allocation of funds to subnetworks 

within the total network, for 

example gravel roads 

– Policy investigations, for example, the 

impact of changes to axle load limits, 

maintenance standards, pavement design 

standards, etc. 

Programme Analysis 

This is the next level down from Strategic 

Analysis, and considers individual road sections. 

This module is used to prepare a rolling 

work programme in which individual road 

sections are identified and assigned maintenance 

or improvement options. Net Present 

Value (NPV) or Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 

calculations based on expenditure requirements 

and user benefits over the period investigated 

are undertaken. Thus the output of this 

module is: 

– a prioritised schedule of optimum pavement 

and/or road improvement projects 

based on an unconstrained budget approach 

for the road section under investigation. 

– a prioritised schedule of projects based on 

an objective function and constraints for 

the road section under investigation. This is 

a linear programming approach to optimisation. 

Project Analysis 

This is the next level down from Program 

Analysis, and investigates the feasibility/ 

viability of individual projects with alternative 

selected treatments over the selected analysis 

period. The output is thus a set of economic 

indicators for the range of alternative treatments 

considered. 

Typical individual project analysis applications 

are: 

– Road maintenance surface treatment options 

– New road construction design and standards 

options 

– Staged road construction options 

– Road upgrading pavement options – eg 

asphalt versus concrete. 

HDM-4 Implementation Examples 

Two brief examples of the implementation of 

HDM-4 are given. Firstly, an example of the 

application of HDM-4 in a developing country 

characterised by a lack of input data, and 

secondly, an example of the application for a 

developed national road network in South 

Africa. 

Vietnam 

As part of a Highway Management Capacity 

Improvement Project for the Vietnam Ministry 

of Transport (MoT) and Vietnam Road 

Administration (VRA), a five-year Strategic 

Road Maintenance Plan (SRMP) was developed 

using HDM-4. 

Due to the paucity of available road network 

data and project resourcing constraints, the 

SRMP was developed from 2000 km of 

representative road sections from across the 

country. 

A "bottom-up" approach was taken to the 

data collection exercise – all HDM-4 data was 

collected at a level of detail sufficient to carry 

out Program and Project Analysis. The advantages 

of this approach are that the generalisations 

required to develop a Strategic Road 

Network Matrix for analysis in HDM-4 would 

be based on hard data and that he VRA would 

have a network available for undertaking inhouse 

training for Project and Program analysis 

comprising local roads. 



The most significant activity of the entire 

SRMP development was the creation of the 

HDM-4 input file for the road network(s) 

using the Microsoft Access database management 

software. Access was used to: 

– combine the road network data retrieved 

and uploaded from various sources; 

– create the Strategic Road Network Matrix 

by grouping, averaging and totalling collected 

information; 

– store and update adopted "constants" 

within the input file; and 

– format the input file ready for importing 

into HDM-4. 

Access also proved a valuable tool for making 

global or parameter-specific changes to 

the input file, as required. 

Calibration of most pavement deterioration 

profiles for various forms of damage could 

not be carried out due to a lack of reliable 

historic pavement data. In these cases 

HDM-4 default calibration factors were 

adopted. Some guidance on calibration 

parameters for Penetration Macadum pavements 

was provided in a road maintenance 

study undertaken by another consultant. 

The strategic analysis optimised the mix 

and timing of preventative, restoration, 

rehabilitation and reconstruction as well as 

defining the required budget and resourcing. 

It also identified the upgrading of all but the 

least trafficked of the unsealed roads in the 

National Highway Network on a total cost of 

ownership basis. 

This project component highlighted a 

number of issues relating to the implementation 

of HDM-4 that may be of interest to any 

road agency: 

– Analysis of more than 1000 road sections 

at a time remains impractical (it is believed 

that the development team in 

Birmingham University will address this 

issue in Version 2 of the model); 

– Concrete deterioration model is strongly 

biased towards multi-lane freeways, 

where in Vietnam, jointed concrete pavements 

are primarily used for local roads; 

– Sustainability of HDM-4 as an investment 

planning tool is highly dependent on both 

data access and its co-ordination with 

other road management/planning tools 

used by the agency; 

– In its current form, significant IT capability 

is required to set-up and maintain the 

HDM-4 model; and 

– A comprehensive understanding of the 

sensitivities of the input data to the HDM- 

4 analysis outputs is the key to achieving 

the greatest benefit from the analysis. 

South Africa 

The South African National Roads Agency, 

(SANRA), are currently implementing 

HDM-4 across the national road network. 

The Agency has responsibility for managing, 

maintaining, financial planning, administration 

and law and road safety enforcement on 

the South African primary road network. 

For the implementation of HDM-4, the 

Agency has the advantage of having substantial 

historical research data, existing economic 

analysis models, and comprehensive 

road network data. 

The implementation of HDM-4 is being 

phased, with the initial phase consisting of 

validating HDM-4 with the existing stand 

alone economic analysis tools used by the 

Agency. Once validated, HDM-4 will be 

used to undertake the economic analyses for 

strategic, programme and project analysis. 

The HDM-4 implementation program 

consists of: 

– Development of the strategic road network 

matrix, based on existing data 

contained in pavement management 

systems, strategic transportation planning 

tools, etc. 

– Validation of the HDM-4 pavement 

deterioration models by means of comparison 

with existing, calibrated, deterioration 

models used by the Agency. 

– Input of all economic and user cost data, 

obtained from existing economic analysis 

models. ! 

HDM4 Website: 

http://hdm4.piarc.org/main/home-e.htm 

For further information, contact 

Gary Hayes and Brad Lawrence by e-mail: 

hayes_gary@bah.com & lawrence_brad@bah.com 

18 DECEMBER 2001

My Fortunate Career 

— or was it just an accident? 

by Trevor Parminter, Principal Consultant - Rovert Reviews 

T 

he article "Your Future Transportation 

Career" written by Professor 

Phil Charles in Transport Futures 

(June 2000) prompted me to jot 

down a few things which I hope will augment 

the sound advice it contained. 

Firstly, let me summarise some of the experiences 

which I now see as "my fortunate 

career". 

For some reason I seemed to struggle with 

the early years of my full time engineering 

study. A combination of support from family 

and from the agency which provided me with 

a scholarship to university as well as work 

experience enabled me to emerge as an honours 

graduate with a confident outlook on 

what lay ahead. 

My graduation coincided with the commencement 

of new management of the Main 

Roads Department where the leadership style 

of Charles Barton put in place a decentralised 

model for a significant expansion of the road 

building program in Queensland. His advice 

to me was direct and simple : "your job is to 

make decisions; its better to make a decision 

which makes things happen than to create uncertainty; 

if you get it wrong, I'll back you 

up". 

In next to no time I found myself closely 

involved with initial bitumen surfaced construction 

of sections of the Bruce Highway - 

part of the government policy "bitumen from 

Coolangatta to Cairns within 3 years". I was in 

effect the local representative of the Principal 

to the contract. My immediate boss expected 

me to be involved and to follow Barton's instruction, 

but was never far away when I 

needed someone to talk to. Another eminent 

engineer happened to be the boss of the consulting 

engineer who was Superintendent for 

these highway projects. The net result of this 

situation was a rapid learning curve for me in 

the art of firm, fair and technically competent 

contract administration. 

My next posting was in north west Queensland 

where the program of construction of 

beef roads was getting into full swing. To give 

some indication of the scale of this program 

and the significance of this phase of my fortunate 

career: 

– the Julia Creek - Normanton beef road was 

built over 4 years as single lane bitumen 

surface extending 425 kms; 

– limited supplies of suitable paving materials 

were available; 

– inhospitable climatic conditions for many 

months each year exacerbated the difficulty 

of engaging and retaining capable staff in 

such remote areas; 

– difficult terrain due to high plasticity soils 

over much of the region and major flooding 

implications during wet seasons; 

– very few staff (contractors, inspectors and 

engineers) with experience with these circumstances; 

– construction staff on site during flooding 

were able to observe behaviour of major 

gulf country water courses vastly different 

from what was previously thought to occur 

- major design changes and road relocations 

resulted, all of which necessitated negotiations 

with contractors aimed at a fair 

result for all parties. 

The net result - an opportunity to practice the 

firm, fair and technically competent style of 

contract administration which I had been 

shown not long before. 

Career advancement and promotions continued 

in a number of locations, all with specific 

responsibilities and opportunities for discussion 

with superiors and colleagues - result : 

continuing professional development and 

growth in confidence. 

Throughout all of these postings a learning 

and teaching environment pervaded the organisation 

of the Main Roads Department. For 

example, delivery of training courses to field 

supervisors on a range of the skills needed in 

construction and maintenance of roads and 

bridges necessitated customising of centrally 

prepared course material to the specific needs 

of the local staff and circumstances. My superiors 

not only expected me to undertake these 

tasks in a professional and competent manner, 

but were readily available for advice on structure 

of the courses themselves and techniques 

for their presentation. 



There have been many more examples 

throughout my fortunate career which illustrate 

a continuum of interaction and professional 

development, but practical limitations 

dictate that I not list them all. However, 2 

which arose during the 6 years in which I 

was privileged to serve as Chief Engineer of 

Main Roads warrant mention here: 

i. I was asked to establish and lead a team of 

professionals for the purpose of defining 

and implementing a system of performance 

assessment of engineers and technicians 

throughout the Department (to be 

applied to about 700 technically qualified 

staff). Implementation of this system was 

initiated among the Senior Management 

Team before we cascaded it down through 

the ranks. This gave me the opportunity to 

experience first hand a professional approach 

for setting of objectives for my 

own responsibilities and subsequent assessment 

of their achievement in a positive 

way with my own superior - and then 

with my subordinates (all senior officers 

of high calibre). 

ii. On my own initiative I arranged for a 

team of professionals to assist me in defining 

a document which enunciated the 

attitudes and policies of Main Roads in 

development of its graduate engineers; 

respective responsibilities for the graduates, 

their superiors and for the Department 

itself were defined - the concept of 

mentoring was recognised in this and 

guidelines for its performance were denied. 

Now what does this all mean? I have no 

doubt that my fortunate career did not just 

happen (by accident). Those responsible for 

my activities always made themselves available 

to encourage me and to guide my development. 

It was clear that I was given "lots of 

rope", but never left in a position whereby "I 

might hang myself". It needs to be recognised 

that opportunities for development and 

career advancement were there to be taken 

up - I did not have to grasp them, but the environment 

in which I operated gave me the 

confidence to "have a go". 

On reflection, if there was one ingredient 

missing in the early days of my fortunate 

career it was that these principles and attitudes 

were not expressed and openly discussed 

- they were just applied. 

When we realise that the fundamental responsibility 

for a professional engineer's development 

rests with him or herself, we 

might be excused for saying that we don't 

need to have these things written down and 

talked about. Nevertheless, my own experience 

tells me that the potential of any professional 

engineer is more likely to be realised 

if the principles and attitudes relevant to professional 

development are documented and 

discussed with him/her. I draw a parallel 

here with experience in the latest phase of 

my fortunate career - as a specialist consultant 

in quality management : the very action 

of documenting the processes involved in 

any significant activity leads to better understanding 

of them and initiates improvements. 

Some final words of advice: as you go 

about defining how you will achieve all of 

the ideas set out so well by Professor Charles 

in his article, make sure the following 2 dimensions 

are clearly defined in your plan 

and your tactics for its implementation: 

– be clear on your own responsibility for 

your professional development - if you 

don't see it this way, others who do will 

gallop past you; and 

– seek out a mentor who you can rely upon 

and confide in - this may be your boss, 

but doesn't have to be; you may even need 

a series of mentors over the first years of 

your career; the key is to consciously and 

earnestly make this happen. ! 

Contact Trevor Parminter by email : 

tparmin@tpgi.com.au 

20 DECEMBER 2001

A Day in Transport 

Photographs by Lisa Charles 


Undergraduate Research at UQ in 2001 

Traffic Congestion in South-East Queensland 

M Ferro, C Papa and J Gunawan 

Supervisor: Prof P Charles 

The research that has been carried out, with 

regards to South-East Queensland involved the 

investigation of current government policies and 

action plans. These formed a basis for a 

qualitative analysis of traffic congestion in the 

region. A case study was undertaken to allow 

specific congestion measures to be evaluated, as 

well as determine trends that may affect the 

effectiveness of these plans and policies. 

Milton Road located in Brisbane's inner, 

western suburbs was chosen as it met the set 

criteria. Finally, recommendations for the 

application of feasible solutions to the areas, 

both South-East Queensland as well as Milton 

Road were made based on the above analyses. 

What we have learned from Intelligent Transport 

Systems (ITS) - Incident, Freeway and Emergency 

Management and Electronic Toll Collection 

A Chamber, S Jones and D Mansfield 


This thesis involves reviewing the current 

practices of ITS with respect to Incident, 

Freeway, and Emergency Management, and 

Electronic Toll Collection in Australia. A study 

of these practices, both Australia wide and in 

each of the individual states, has enabled a 

comprehensive review and comparison of 

current implementation levels to be 

documented. To ensure an accurate assessment 

of the overall status of ITS in Australia, 

research of individual technologies was 

conducted. This research involved interviews 

and surveys conducted on representatives of the 

ITS industry, to establish information such as 

deployment levels and limiting factors of 

current technologies. 

Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in 

Public Transport 

A Hope, L Hogg and P Zlatkovic 


This research aims to outline the extent of the 

deployment of ITS in public transport in 

Australia, with an emphasis on South-East 

Queensland. It covers the degree of success, 

limitations of deployment and future 

recommendations of various technologies. 

Verification and Validation of a Traffic Simulation 

Model - K Makridakis and T Matacin 

Supervisor: Dr H Dia 

This thesis determines the major factors which 

affect network performance- headway and 

reaction time. By varying both headway and 

reaction time and analysing the output, 

combinations which best reflect driver 

behaviour and emulate the real road network 

were chosen. 

Local Area Traffic Management 

M Smith Supervisor: Dr H Dia 

This study aims to outline the current practices 

relating to LATM installations in Caboolture 

Shire Council. Through an investigation the 

problem identification and part of the scheme 

development issues would be addressed in 

relation to the effectiveness of the most 

commonly installed device, the squeeze, as a 

device and as part of a wider scheme. It is 

expected that this data will then be correlated to 

form a part of installation warrants for LATM 

schemes as appropriate locations for the 

squeeze point will be more efficiently identified 

through an adjusted point allocation system of 

warrants. 

Hierarchical Risk Assessment of Roadside Safety 

Barriers for B-Doubles & Type 1 Road Trains in 

Queensland W Arthur Supervisor: Dr D Dia 

Roadside safety barriers are an important 

feature of roadside furniture. Road authorities 

around the world have recognised the 

importance of standardising the design of 

barrier systems including both barrier selection 

and site specific requirements. Current 

guidelines provide limited information in 

addressing heavy vehicles over 36 tonne, their 

impact conditions and the design of barriers to 

provide the containment needs for these 

vehicles of high mass and high centres of 

gravity. With proposed expansions of road 

freight routes and increasing numbers of these 

design vehicles on road networks, there is an 

increasing need to develop risk management 

practices to address their needs. This study has 

developed risk assessment methods in an 

attempt to quantify this risk and to compare 

current practices to provide professionals with 

means of assessing the requirements of risk 

assessment for roadside safety carriers for 

heavy vehicles. 

Pavement Management Systems - Practice and 

Prospect in Queensland J Leong and 

G Miszkowycz Supervisor: Dr Z Hoque 

The objective of this thesis is to compare and 

investigate fully, the Pavement Management 

Systems used by the Department of Main Roads 

and the Brisbane City Council and to suggest 

possible improvements to the current systems 

used. 

22 DECEMBER 2001

The Ability of Road Roughness Measures to 

Predict Cost Effective Pavement Maintenance 

Intervention Levels - W Trevor, S Roberts & P 

Roberts Supervisor: Dr Z Hoque 

This thesis proposes to prepare a cost effective 

analysis method and model for local councils to 

assess their road infrastructure and some 

guidelines to help them judge the best economic 

decision in terms of future maintenance 

procedures. 

Effectiveness of Pavement Data Base System in 

GIS for the Road Network of University of 

Queensland G Fuller and J Arneil 

Supervisor: Dr Z Hoque 

Our thesis is GIS based pavement Management 

System of the University of Queensland rod 

network which is a user friendly and easily 

recognisable GIS Map which is far easier and 

faster to use than the traditional tables and lists. 

This pavement management system will be an 

improvement on those that have preceded it due 

to its user-friendly nature, both fast and efficient 

to use, and it's capacity to anticipate future 

works. 

Research Grant 

Intelligent Transport Systems Research Facility - 

Australian Research Council Infrastructure Grant, 

2001 

The University of Queensland led a consortium 

of Australian universities, road and transport 

authorities and the private sector in an ARC 

submission to establish a $655,000 Intelligent 

Transport and Smart Vehicle Systems Research 

Facility. The Australian Research Council has 

announced it will provide a $350,000 Linkage 

Infrastructure grant, with the consortium 

partners' contributing $305,000. 

The Facility is aimed at establishing the basic 

research infrastructure needed for developing, 

testing and evaluating advanced transport 

technologies and smart vehicle control systems. 

It will enable researchers to accelerate 

deployment and comm.-ercialisation of 

advanced transport technologies such as traffic 

management and information systems; collision 

avoidance; and short-range vehicle-to-vehicle 

and vehicle-to-infrastructure devices. 

The Facility will comprise high-end 

computing and traffic simulation workstations 

with live real-time connections to selected 

instrumented test-beds and traffic control 

centres. The provision of live, real-time 

connections between the Facility, test-beds and 

other research centres is a unique feature of the 

research facility. It will provide researchers 

with direct access to field data from loops, 

sensors and videos to test prototypes of systems 

and evaluate their performance under live traffic 

conditions. The Facility is expected to be 

operational in January 2003. A web site is being 

developed at www.uq.edu.au/~webce 

Partners: 

– The University of Queensland (lead partner) 

– Griffith University 

– The University of New South Wales 

– Queensland University of Technology 

– Queensland Department of Main Roads 

– Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW 

– Gold Coast City Council, Queensland 

– Queensland Transport 

– Thiess Pty Ltd 

Professional 

Development 

Undergraduate Courses 

The University of Queensland offers core and 

elective Transport Engineering courses in the 

under-graduate program. 

– Traffic Flow Theory and Analysis 

– Transport Systems Engineering 

– Intelligent Transport Systems 

– Traffic Systems Operations and Management 

– Transport Systems Analysis 

Postgraduate/Professional Development Courses 

All postgraduate courses listed below are 

offered as professional development (noncredit) 

flexible delivery courses. Participants 

provided with access to on-line web-based 

modules supplemented with study guides and 

CDs. These courses are designed for transport 

professionals interested in broadening their 

knowledge of planning, designing and 

implementing ITS projects. The targeted 

audience primarily includes postgraduate 

students, engineers, consultants, project 

managers and planners. 

– Advanced Transport Technologies 

– Advanced Traffic Flow Theory 

– Applied Systems Engineering for Transport 

Projects 

– ITS Applications 

– Traffic Systems Operations and Management 

(Coordinated by Dr Dia) ! 


Publications 

Dia, H (2000a) A conceptual framework for modelling 

the environmental impacts of intelligent transport 

systems, Proceedings of the XI Pan American 

Conference in Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 

19-23 November 2000, Gramado, Rio Grande do 

Sul, Brazil. 

The work reported in this paper is part of an ongoing 

research project which aims to evaluate a 

modelling framework that can be used to assess 

the environmental impacts of Intelligent Transportation 

Systems (ITS). 

These systems aim to reduce traffic congestion 

and enhance air quality through the application 

of advanced communications, electronics 

and computing technologies. It is still not clear, 

however, whether the potential environmental 

benefits of improved system efficiencies could 

be partially offset by the induced travel associated 

with ITS services. The techniques currently 

available to evaluate the impacts of ITS on the 

environment are not capable of addressing this 

question because they do not take the induced 

travel, demographics, land use and growth-indemand 

changes into consideration. As a result, 

a number of new techniques aimed at evaluating 

the full traffic and environmental implications 

of ITS deployment have been proposed in the 

literature. 

This research will contribute to progressions 

in the needed methodologies by evaluating a 

number of modelling platforms that address the 

short and long-term potential deployment 

outcomes, including induced travel effects, for 

specific ITS components. Emissions and fuel 

consumption models can then be linked to these 

modelling frameworks to assess the effects of 

ITS deployment. 

This paper first highlights the limitations of 

using conventional transportation and emissions 

models to assess the environmental impacts of 

ITS services. It also describes the modelling 

approaches needed to capture the short and 

long-term impacts of ITS deployment. A 

generic modelling framework for assessing the 

environmental impacts of ITS, based on techniques 

that integrate travel demand and traffic 

simulation models, is then presented. In this 

modelling approach, the travel demand models 

are used to assess the impacts of ITS services 

that affect traveller behaviour, while traffic 

simulation models are used to analyse the 

effects of specific ITS services on network 

performance. 

The paper then describes how this generic 

approach will be applied to develop and evaluate 

modelling frameworks suitable for addressing 

the short and long-term impacts of two 

specific ITS components: incident management 

and traveller information systems. The paper 

also discusses a number of challenges related to 

the implementation of feedback mechanisms 

between traffic simulation and travel demand 

models, the limitations of the approach and data 

collection requirements. 

Dia, H (2000b) A conceptual framework for modelling 

dynamic driver behaviour using intelligent agents, 

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on 

Applications of Advanced Technologies in Transportation 

Engineering, 28-30 June 2000, Singapore. 

This paper presents a dynamic driver behaviour 

modelling framework based on Intelligent 

Agents. This is a relatively recent computing 

paradigm comprising autonomous software 

components that can each be assigned a set of 

goals to achieve (e.g. travel between points A 

and B in a network) and a database of knowledge 

comprising certain beliefs, intentions and 

preferences concerning the task under consideration. 

The characteristics of Intelligent Agents 

suggest that they have the potential for successful 

implementation in modelling dynamic driver 

behaviour and driver response to information. 

The work reported in this paper is part of an 

ongoing research project which aims to demonstrate 

the feasibility of using Intelligent Agents 

to model travel behaviour on a congested traffic 

commuting corridor based on a behavioural 

survey of drivers. The Intelligent Agents 

modelling framework represents a departure 

from the classical view of route choice as an 

individual issue and attempts to study the 

collective behaviour of individual drivers as 

more than rational decision makers who react 

only according to pre-defined rules. 

The modelling approach proposed in this 

study allows for modelling the interaction 

between drivers, co-ordination of their goals 

and updating of their decisions on a real-time 

and day-today basis. The Intelligent Agents 

model developed in this study will be used in 

conjunction with a traffic simulation component 

to evaluate the impacts of providing drivers 

with real-time information. The proposed 

models will provide road authorities with a 

valuable tool to evaluate and design effective 

traveller information systems aimed at influencing 

travel behaviour, reducing congestion and 

enhancing the performance of the road network. 

24 DECEMBER 2001

Dia, H (2000c) Towards Sustainable Transportation: 

The Intelligent Transportation Systems 

Approach, Proceedings of "Shaping the Sustainable 

Millennium- Collaborative Approaches" 

Conference, Queensland University of Technology, 

Brisbane, 5-7 July 2000. 

This paper explores how Intelligent Transportation 

Systems (ITS) support the three pillars 

of sustainable development: environment, 

economics and social equity. The paper first 

presents a brief introduction to ITS and 

describes the policy context surrounding 

transportation and ITS deployment. Examples 

of ITS technologies and applications are then 

presented and their potential contribution to 

sustainability is demonstrated. It is argued that 

ITS can promote sustainable transportation in 

three ways: first, advocating a paradigm shift 

in the way transportation needs are met by 

moving away from building more resource 

intensive roadway capacity towards placing 

more emphasis on improving efficiencies 

through using information technologies; 

second, enhancing the performance of the 

transportation system by reducing the system's 

negative externalities; and third, by influencing 

traveller behaviour and decisions on trip 

making. While the paper highlights the 

potential promise that ITS holds towards 

making the transportation system more 

compatible with sustainable development, it 

also emphasises that this can only be achieved 

if ITS deployment is part of a comprehensive 

strategy that integrates social, environmental 

and economic goals. 

Dia, H, Harney, D and Boyle, A (2000) Analysis of 

Commuters' Responses to Travel Information: 

Implications for ATIS Deployment in Brisbane, 

Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of Australian 

Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2000), 6-8 

December, 2000, the Australian National University, 

Canberra Australia. 

The provision of real-time travel information 

is recognised as a potential strategy for 

influencing traveller behaviour on trip making, 

route and mode choices and times of 

travel. Understanding travellers' response to 

this information is therefore critical to the 

design and implementation of effective ITS 

strategies such as mobile or fixed advanced 

traveller information systems (ATIS). 

This paper presents some initial results from 

a travel behaviour survey that was conducted 

on a congested commuting corridor in Brisbane. 

Commuters' responses to travel information 

from a variety of sources are analysed 

and presented. A number of probit models 

being formulated to analyse the impacts of 

socio-economic, context and information 

variables on individual behaviour and the 

propensity to change route and adjust travel 

patterns are also presented. 

The results obtained from this study provide 

a useful insight into the factors influencing 

travel behaviour, route choice and departure 

time decisions. These results also provide a 

much needed database that can be used for 

current research projects on modelling dynamic 

driver behaviour and evaluating the 

impacts of traveller information systems. 

These models will provide road authorities 

with a valuable tool to design and evaluate 

effective ATIS strategies aimed at influencing 

travel behaviour, reducing congestion and 

enhancing the performance of the road 

network. 

Cottman, N and Dia, H (2000) A Methodology for 

Modelling the Environmental Impacts of Intelligent 

Transport Systems, Proceedings of the 22nd 

Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport 

Research (CAITR 2000), 6-8 December 2000, 

Australian National University, Canberra Australia. 

The work reported in this paper is part of an 

on-going research project which aims to 

develop a modelling framework for assessing 

the environmental impacts of Intelligent 

Transport Systems (ITS). ITS has been 

promoted as a strategy for reducing environmental 

emissions through improved system 

efficiencies. 

However, it is not known how the induced 

demand phenomenon may offset the system 

improvements derived from ITS. The methodologies 

currently available for assessing the 

short and long-term impacts of ITS do not 

take into account the induced travel, demographics 

and land use interaction. A new 

approach is needed which combines the 

behavioural underpinnings of macroscopic 

modelling, and the ITS modelling capability 

of microsimulation. An environmental model 

can then exploit detailed speed-time data from 

the microsimulation model to assess emission 

levels and changes in fuel consumption. 

This paper presents the background to this 

project; describes the proposed methodologies 

and reports progress to date on data collection 

and calibration of a microsimulation model 

for a commuting corridor in Brisbane, which 

will form a test bed for evaluating the proposed 

methodologies. 



Thomas, K and Dia, H (2000a) A Neural Network 

Model for Arterial Incident Detection Using Probe 

Vehicle and Loop Detector Data, Proceedings of 

the 22nd Conference of Australian Institutes of 

Transport Research (CAITR 2000), 6-8 December 

2000, Australian National University, Canberra 

Australia. 

This paper describes a research project which 

aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using 

real-time traffic measurements to develop an 

automated arterial incident detection model 

using a neural network. The travel time data 

needed for model development will be collected 

from probe vehicles (public transportation 

buses) that transmit travel time data as 

they traverse various links of the road network; 

and from fixed electronic detection 

devices (inductive loop detectors) embedded 

in the pavement of the road. 

The models proposed in this research will 

use the probe vehicle and fixed detector data 

to automatically detect any incidents (e.g. 

accidents, disabled vehicles, spilled loads etc.) 

that reduce the capacity of the road and result 

in queues, delays and increased travel times 

for travellers. Early detection of such incidents 

can help traffic authorities respond 

quickly, dispatch emergency services to the 

incident site and divert traffic in order to 

reduce delays. Unlike previous studies which 

relied on simulated probe vehicle and loop 

detector data, this project will be based on 

real-world data to be collected from Gympie 

Road in Brisbane. The models proposed in 

this research project will provide road authorities 

with quick and reliable incident detection 

aimed at reducing congestion, improving air 

quality and enhancing the performance of the 

road network. 

Non-recurrent congestion resulting from 

accidents, breakdowns and other incidents 

accounts for about 60% of the delays on 

freeways. Therefore, the sooner an appropriate 

incident response is implemented, the less 

impact the incident will have on road user 

safety, congestion and the environment. 

Various models have been developed for 

AID from a variety of theoretical backgrounds 

and data sources. However, most of these 

models have limitations, namely high false 

alarm rates or difficulties with portability and 

configuration. Artificial neural networks have 

had the most success, with low false alarm 

rates and relatively easy configuration. 

The use of fractal dimension analysis is 

becoming widespread. Experts in fields as 

diverse as Medicine, Physics, Seismology, 

Economics, Meteorology and Ecology are 

using fractal dimension analysis to quantify 

various phenomena. Fractal analysis has been 

used to model traffic flow, but does not 

appear to have been used for incident detection. 

Two fractal models were developed and 

tested on a data set of 100 incidents which 

were collected by VicRoads for the development 

of artificial neural network incident 

detection models. A similar methodology to 

that presented by Dia and Rose was used in 

this project so that the results of the fractal 

models could be compared with those of the 

ARRB/VicRoads and the Artificial Neural 

Network Models. ! 

Copies of papers can be downloaded from 

http://www.uq.edu.au/dia/publications.html 


Thomas, K and Dia, H (2000b) Incident Detection 

by Fractal Dimension Analysis of Loop Detector 

Data, Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of 

Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 

2000), 6-8 December 2000, Australian National 

University, Canberra Australia. 

This paper describes a research project 

which aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of 

using Fractal Dimension analysis of speed, 

occupancy and flow data for automatic 

incident detection (AID).

Free Flow Tolling ― it works! 

experience with the Melbourne City Link 

by Prof Phil Charles, University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia 

A 

ustralia's Melbourne City Link has 

been successfully using one of the 

most advanced multi-lane free flow 

electronic tolling system for the past 

18 months. 

The Melbourne City Link, Australia's largest 

private infrastructure project (costing AUD$2.2 

billion), opened for business in January 2000 - 

the result of combining local project management 

with component and system suppliers 

from Europe, the Americas and Asia to create 

one of the largest, most advanced and innovative 

open highway toll collection systems in the 

world. 

The technology to deploy multi-lane, free 

flow electronic tolling is now proven. The project 

has combined leading edge tolling technology 

with a complex and mature business environment 

that expects a high level of customer 

service and ease of use. 

Toll Roads 

Tolls have been collected for the use of highways 

and turnpikes for hundreds of years, primarily 

to provide the money to build bridges 

and tunnels that could not have been built from 

government sources. Although Australia is a 

relative newcomer to the use of electronic toll 

collection, the more conventional methods of 

collecting cash tolls have been used on the Sydney 

Harbour Bridge for many years. In recent 

times there has been a move across Australia to 

implement electronic tolling to supplement conventional 

processes. 

In Europe there are several examples of large 

infrastructure projects funded by public or private 

funds - the bridge linking Denmark to 

Sweden, the rail tunnel linking England to 

France and the mountain roads between Austria 

and Italy - all built and funded over many years 

by direct payments by users to the operating 

company. Only the users pay. Those that do not 

use these roads do not pay. 

The Melbourne City Link Project 

The Melbourne City Link, Australia's largest 

urban road development, is a major road infrastructure 

project funded by tolls levied against 

users. It addresses the high daily cost of congestion, 

estimated to exceed AUD$5 million per 

day in Melbourne and is dependent on European 

multi-lane free-flow technology to reliably and 

efficiently collect tolls from users. 

The privately-funded toll road project involves 

22 km of urban freeway standard road 

providing a bypass of the Melbourne Central 

Business District (CBD) and importantly, links 

the major sea, rail and air terminals. The Link 

joins three existing freeways - Monash, Tullamarine 

and Westgate - that terminate on the 

fringe of the CBD. The project is in two parts: 

the Western Link and the Southern Link. 

The conventional approach to tolling roads is 

to build toll plazas. Although these are used 

worldwide, they occupy more space and cause 

the vehicle to stop, which creates congestion 

and pollution. In the case of City Link, the impact 

of the delays associated with conventional 

toll plazas would have reduced the travel time 

savings to such an extent that it is likely that the 

project would not have been viable. Further, the 

real estate required by conventional plazas 

could not be accepted on environmental 

grounds. As a result a decision was made early 

on to implement electronic tolling without toll 

plazas. 

There are a number of striking architectural 

and city landmark features included in the construction, 

including the International Gateway, 

the Sound Tube and Bolte Bridge. 

Melbourne City Link 

Western Link 

– Substantial upgrade to the Tullamarine Freeway (to 

eight lanes) between Bulla Road and Flemington 

Road 

– Six-lane elevated road through West Melbourne 

– Bridge over the Yarra River to the West Gate 

Freeway 

Southern Link 

– Two three-lane tunnels beneath the Yarra (Burnley 

Tunnel 3.4 and Domain Tunnel 1.6 kms long) 

– Upgrade to the existing freeway (to five and six 

lanes) between the city and the city end of the 

Monash Freeway 


Melbourne City Link Key Dates 

– Aug 1999 - Western Link opened to traffic 

(8 months after contracted completion date) 

– Jan 2000 - tolling commenced 

– April 2000 - Southern Link and Domain Tunnel open 

to traffic 

– Jan 2001 - repaired Burnley Tunnel opened to traffic 

The Concession 

CityLink has been developed by Transurban 

CityLink Limited, which have a market capitalisation 

in excess of AUD$1 billion, making it 

one of Australia's top 100 listed companies. 

Transurban was awarded the 'operating concession' 

to build, own, operate and transfer the 

City Link project on the basis of an agreement 

which allows the company to collect payment 

from users who wish to travel on the Link. The 

toll charges are controlled by a strict formula 

agreed with the local transport authorities. 

Transurban is committed to maintaining a 

high quality of service to its customers the road 

users, to collect tolls accurately and fairly 24 

hours a day, 365 days of the year. After 34 

years, the Melbourne City Link will be returned, 

in good operating condition and debtfree, 

to the state. The collection of tolls over 

this period is expected to pay for the initial investment. 

Tolling 

At the forefront of Transurban's highway revolution 

is its tolling system. CityLink is the 

world's largest application of electronic tolling 

technology in an urban road setting, making the 

project one of the first to commit fully to the 

concept of cashless tolling - which can be referred 

to as 3rd Generation Electronic Tolling. 

Experience — problems arise on major complex 

projects like City Link. 

Challenges 

Because all CityLink tolls are collected by 

this sophisticated electronic scanning system, 

there is no need for drivers to slow down or 

stop. Tolls are paid at freeway speeds resulting 

is fast, safe and stress-free travel. The benefits 

of multi-lane free-flow electronic tolling include 

no toll booths or boom gates, and no need 

for cash or tokens. The system has the capacity 

to collect fees and check a large number of vehicles 

simultaneously, which ensures that are 

never stop-and-go situations or queues. It is not 

a problem, however, to debit queuing vehicles. 

Each regular user fixes a small transponder, 

about the size of an audio cassette, behind the 

rear view mirror on the windscreen inside their 

vehicle. The transponder, known as an e-TAG® 

device, identifies the road user when the vehicle 

passes under gantries located every few kilometres 

along the tollway. There are nine Tolling 

Zones distributed along the roads forming the 

Melbourne City Link. The tolling strategy 

adopted for City Link is an open system with 

screenline gantries located along the route. 

For the whole City Link there are 17 tolling 

gantries ranging from two lane configurations 

to freeway standard cross sections involving 

four running lanes and emergency stopping 

lanes on each side. The tolling strategy incorporates 

a trip toll cap, which effectively places an 

upper limit on the toll payable for a single journey 

on the Link. 

Road safety and occupational health and 

safety were further issues in relation to the selection 

of a fully electronic tolling system. The 

stop start driving conditions associated with 

conventional plazas are eliminated. In addition, 

the exposure of employees to the relatively hazardous 

environment of a toll plaza is avoided. 

Outcome 

– Western Link opened to traffic, eight months after contracted 

completion date, tolling delayed for further four 

and half months 

– Delay in opening and tolling of Domain Tunnel and 

Monash Freeway sections of the Southern Link until 

three months after the contracted completion date 

– Unavailability of the Burnley tunnel due to the need to 

undertake major repairs to the floor slabs 

– Adverse impact on financial performance and the basis 

for a liquidated damages claim from construction joint 

venture contractor 

– Significant commercial issues and threat of major litigation 

– Late delivery of the Central Toll Computer System 

(CTCS), prevented tolling of the Western Link until four 

and a half months after opened to traffic 

– Significant inefficiencies in customer service and very 

high administration costs 

– Additional costs in manual transactions during critical 

period, plus adverse public perception due top customer 

service difficulties 

– Takeover of full responsibility for CityLink customer 

services from Translink Operations 

28 DECEMBER 2001

Despite the enormous scale of this project the 

local environment was also a major 'driver' in 

relation to all aspects of the construction and 

operation. The tolling points were designed so 

that all equipment was installed on a single gantry. 

This meant that they would not be an eyesore 

and take up more land than absolutely necessary. 

System Description 

The Electronic Toll Collection system for the 

Melbourne City Link is a multi-lane free-flow 

system based on the Tollmatic® MCLP system 

and Tags developed by Combitech Traffic Systems, 

now owned by Kapsch AG. Multi lane 

configuration means that normal driving is allowed 

in the toll collection zone, eg overtaking 

and change of lane is allowed. This is possible 

since the system has capacity to check a large 

number of vehicles simultaneously and charge 

the passages correctly. 

Free-flow operation means non-stop traffic 

flow due to automatic payment of toll fees. This 

is accomplished through the 5.8 GHz Dedicated 

Short-Range Communication (DSRC) microwave 

link between the Toll Gantry and the vehicle 

mounted Tag. All the data necessary for 

charging is transferred at the passage of the Toll 

Gantry. 

All vehicles are automatically tracked to guarantee 

that the correct vehicle is charged. The 

tracking is performed by two autonomous measuring 

subsystems; one based on the microwave 

communication with the Tag and the other 

based on the processing of stereoscopic images. 

Developments in Toll Collection 

1st generation 

Toll Collection 

Cash (Coins, Notes, Token) 

Electronic - contact - swipe card, 

touch tags, through toll booth 

2nd generation Electronic - contactless - 

transponders, through toll booth 

3rd generation Electronic - contactless - 

transponders, NO toll booths 

Free Flow Tolling 

The measurements are matched to ensure that it 

is the correct vehicle to charge. 

A Tag equipped vehicle that passes the Tolling 

Point will be charged from a central account, 

through pre-payment or post-payment. 

The toll fee depends on the vehicle class. The 

system measures the vehicle's dimensions, classifies 

the vehicle and checks that the claimed 

class (Tag data) is correct. 

The system also allows passages of vehicles 

not equipped with a Tag, but have their license 

plate numbers registered on a Day Pass List. 

The enforcement system of the ETC system 

supports free-flow operation by enabling the 

system to charge vehicles violating the toll payment 

in any way (called exception passages) 

afterwards. The enforcement system is based on 

the capture of video images of the car and its 

license plate and by evaluation of license plate 

number through Optical Character Recognition 

(OCR). 

Collection method 

Description 

Comparative Toll Throughput 

Vehicle speed 

Tolls per lane per 

hour 

Manual Stop 250 - 500 

Coin machines Stop or near stop 400 - 1,000 

Lane-based retrofitted 

electronic toll collection 

(contactless) 

Open road highway speed 

electronic toll collection 

10-60 km/h 1,000 - 1,500 

+100 km/h Over 2,000 

Samuel (2000) Putting Customers in the Driver's Seat: the case for tolls 

– Convenient, readily available payment media 

– High cost of revenue collection 

– Stopping vehicles - reduced vehicle throughput - increase 

delay, vehicle operating costs, emissions 

– Need to prearrange payment media, variety of payment options 

(cash payment still available) 

– Lower cost of revenue collection 

– Slowing vehicles - increased vehicle throughput - reduced 


– Lower 'real estate' demand (fewer toll booths) 

– Potentially variable pricing 

– As above, but 

– Faster vehicles - further increased vehicle throughput - reduced 


– As above, but 

– Highway speeds - maximum vehicle throughput - limited delay, 

reduced vehicle operating costs, emissions 

– Lowest 'real estate' demand (no toll booths) 

– Zonal and Variable pricing 



Each toll gantry has a roadside computer to 

store data and to transmit data to the central 

computers at the City link Control Room. Each 

subsystem is dedicated to serving a zone of the 

highway: the vehicle enters the classification 

zone prior to the changing zone. Finally, if the 

vehicle rear license plate is to be recorded 

(optional) the image is captured in the enforcement 

zone. These zones overlap and their relative 

sizes and positions is known collectively as 

the system 'geometry' as shown in the figure 

above. 

The combination of proven system geometry, 

backed up by extensive field trials and simulation 

demonstrated that a single gantry design 

was possible for reliable e-TAG device and 

CityLink Pass operation. Meeting the charging 

and enforcement accuracy requirements in a 

pleasing gantry design was possible while ensuring 

accurate charging and enforcement for 

vehicles driving at twice the speed limit without 

compromising security. The same Tolling Point 

geometry is applicable to areas prone to congestion 

and interurban highways subject to frequent 

high speed traffic and a combination of 

commuters, commercial vehicles and visitors - 

a mix typically found in interurban corridors. 

The complete City Link concession area is 

served by nine Tolling Points, each comprising 

a CEN standards-compliant DSRC system, 

stereoscopic Vehicle Detection and Classification, 

an array of Vehicle Recognition cameras 

and associated low impact lighting. 

Every vehicle using the highway has either to 

apply for an e-TAG device or use the innovative 

CityLink Pass system that matches a vehicle's 

license plate with a prepaid CityLink Pass 

list. The two methods work together and provide 

commuters and casual users alike with the 

possibility to pay tolls at mainline speeds. 

Purchase or Payment 

Customer service 

The CityLink Pass system serves infrequent 

users and also serves those motorists who wish 

to try the City Link before applying for an e- 

TAG device. CityLink Pass allows unlimited 

travel on the City Link on any nominated day 

and can be purchased in advance with a credit 

card by phone or by midday of the day following 

travel. CityLink Pass effectively makes the 

City Link available to both commuters and visitors. 

Embracing all Users - a Tag or a Daypass? 

One of the major challenges of a fully electronic 

toll system is to ensure that the system is 

also convenient for all users, whether or not 

they have an e-TAG device. So the concept of 

CityLink Pass was born. Drivers merely have to 

call the CityLink Pass office before they travel, 

or visit a customer centre, or use one of many 

Touch kiosks located at Shell service station 

outlets across the state, and by giving their 

credit card number and license plate details, 

they can register to use the highway for an 

unlimited number of times during any 24 hour 

period they choose. 

CityLink Passes proved to be very popular 

with infrequent users and daily sales have been 

over 5,000. When a CityLink Pass registered 

vehicle travels past the Tolling Point an image 

of the license plate is captured by digital cameras 

mounted on each gantry and the decoded 

numbers compared with the CityLink Pass List. 

If there is a match the user is allowed to pass. 

The same camera system is also used for enforcement. 

Vehicles without a valid e-TAG account 

and not on the CityLink Pass list are recorded 

by means of the digital image taken by 

the roadside cameras. This image is confirmed 

by the Link Operator and a check is made to 

ensure that the vehicle is not linked to an ac- 

Accounts can be topped up on line 

CityLink Customer Centres 

Shell Touch Outlets 

an electronic self-contained vending unit, which in addition 

to selling other products and services, sells CityLink 

Passes and accepts Account Top Ups for Standard 

Accounts 

Australia Post Offices 

Automated telephone service 13 26 29 

Mail 

using a credit card 

CityLink Passes; e-TAGs and top up account 

electronic Touch Machines have been installed in 120 

Shell Touch Outlets across Melbourne and Victoria - they 

dispense all types of CityLink Passes and allow customers 

to top up their CityLink Accounts. The machines accept 

debit cards (EFTPOS) as well as all credit cards 

sell CityLink Passes; e-TAGs and can top up accounts 

CityLink Passes; e-TAGs and find out account balance or 

top up account 

Can open a CityLink Account by mail, print out Application 

form from web site 

30 DECEMBER 2001

count. If the vehicle is not linked to an account 

the image is forwarded to the government enforcement 

agency for the issue of a fine. This 

agency also operates the red light and speeding 

cameras in the State of Victoria. 

As a result of there being no toll booths, the 

customer service and account management 

back-office operations become much more important 

and significant in the cost and public 

perception of the toll road. 

Significant inefficiencies in workflow processes 

in the customer service organisation and 

very high administration costs were experienced 

initially, resulting in Transurban City 

Link taking over full responsibility for customer 

services from Translink Operations 

(TLO) in the first part of 2000. In addition due 

to the opening and tolling of sections and delays 

in functionality of the Central Toll Computer 

System, peak levels of customer service 

demand were underestimated and necessitated 

the use of expensive manual processes. 

Customer service costs for the second half of 

2000 were 30% lower than the previous six 

month period. Further cost reductions are forecast 

as the customer base stabilises and becomes 

more familiar with the tolling and account 

system and the greater use of the internet, 

touchscreen kiosks and interactive voice response 

technology. 

Free Flow Tolling 

Ramp up 

Forecasts included in The company's prospectus 

in 1996 set out estimates of traffic load volumes 

expected on the City Link in 2001, at that 

time based on the expectation that the tollway 

would be in its second full year of operation. 

Traffic ramp up has been behind estimates, primarily 

as a result of delayed and staged opening 

of the tollway. Consequently toll revenues 

have also been short of estimates. 

As of June 2001 the total traffic load involved 

an average of 580,000 transactions per 

day, with a peak of 640,000 just prior to a holiday 

weekend. There have been surges in usage 

following significant new sections opening to 

traffic and the flat traffic load in the last quarter 

were as a result of continuing water ingress 

problems in the Burnley Tunnel, which was 

only returned to full operation in mid June 

2001. 

Toll road and fee (primarily for road side 

advertising) revenue for the half year to December 

2000 was AUD$53.6 million, with 

monthly toll revenue rising to AUD$17.9 million 

in June 2001, indicating an emerging 

stronger financial position. 

Driving into the future 

The CityLink e-TAG system provides opportunities 

for the future. The data that has been collected 

from the City Link can be used to play a 

part in the development of advanced ITS applications 

sometimes, such as telling a motorists 

how long it would take to travel to downtown 

Melbourne and providing information to users 

to be able to better plan their journey. 

Smart card use in electronic tolling, as proposed 

to be considered by the recent Transurban-ERG 

alliance, has the advantage of reducing 

the clearinghouse issues, as financial matters 

are then handled by financial institutions, 

provides a much greater network to add funds 

to an account and as well privacy concerns are 

reduced as private information does not have to 

be handled by the toll operators. ERG's smart 

card based transaction processing system currently 

processes more than six million transit 

transactions a day in Hong Kong. Introduction 

of ERG's technology to the City link tolling 

system is expected to lead to a significant improvement 

in operating costs as well as provide 

a wide range of new services to customers. 

Fries with that? 

Further application developments are only limited 

by the imagination, for example a partnership 

between McDonald's restaurants and 

SIRIT Technologies in Orange County California 

is enabling ETC users to purchase items at 

McDonald's drive-throughs. 

Melbourne City Link Average Daily Transactions 

700,000 

600,000 

500,000 

400,000 

300,000 

200,000 

100,000 

0 

Jan-00 

Feb-00 

Mar-00 

Apr-00 

May-00 

Jun-00 

Jul-00 

Aug-00 

Sep-00 

Oct-00 

Nov-00 

Dec-00 

Jan-01 

Feb-01 

Mar-01 

Apr-01 

May-01 

Jun-01 


Interoperability 

National policy agreed by Transport Ministers 

seek to permit a customer of one toll road operator 

to be able to seamlessly use other toll 

systems. At present in Melbourne this is not a 

significant problem as there is only one toll 

road and infrequent users from Sydney or Brisbane 

have other mechanisms available. Agreement 

has not yet been reached between all toll 

road operators in Australia on interoperability 

procedures and revenue sharing. 

Summary 

Toll lanes are continuing to grow at over 15 per 

cent per annum globally and developments in 

electronic road pricing (zone or area based 

rather than link based) could well accelerate the 

growth in electronic toll collection in the next 

decade. 

The Melbourne City Link Project marks a 

new standard in toll road operations and technology. 

Overall the combination of e-TAG devices 

and CityLink Pass has made the toll collection 

system on CityLink one of the most advanced 

in the world and demonstrates that the 

necessary technology is available and proven 

for urban and interurban highways. Transurban 

is committed to taking the technology further 

and in this respect will be driven by customer 

service objectives as the basis of delivering an 

even more successful project. Transurban are 

looking for further opportunities to take advantage 

of the unique skills they have developed. 

! 

Web links 

Transurban City Link Ltd - www.transurban.com.au 

Kapsch AG (Combitech Traffic Systems) - 

www.trafficsystems.com 

Professor Phil Charles is Director of the Centre for 

Transport Strategy at the University of Queensland 

He can be contacted at p.charles@uq.edu.au 

Transport Futures is a newsletter prepared 

by the Centre for Transport Strategy to outline 

some of the emerging issues and trends in 

transport and to promote discussion and debate, 

and inform transport professionals and those 

interested in transport of the future. 

The Centre for Transport Strategy is a 

collaboration between the University of 

Queensland and three Queensland State 

government transport agencies – Queensland 

Transport, Main Roads and Queensland Rail. 

The key activities of the Centre are to 

undertake research, provide professional 

development, collate transport related data, 

provide professional services and develop 

methodologies and policies in transport strategy. 

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Transport Futures 

Volume 2 No 1 December 2001 

ISSN 1444-4925 

EDITOR: Professor Phil Charles 

Director, Centre for Transport Strategy 

University of Queensland, Brisbane Qld 4072 

tel: +617-3365 1569 fax: +617-3365 4599 

e-mail: p.charles@uq.edu.au 

website: uq.edu.au/cts 

The ideas and opinions contained in this 

newsletter do not represent the policy of the 

Queensland Government or its agencies. 

© 2001 Centre for Transport Strategy 

32 DECEMBER 2001

Managing Traffic Incidents - University of Queensland

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