Australia’s councils are at the forefront of transport management, ensuring transport networks operate efficiently and provide users with a satisfying experience. It can be challenging to achieve this, but with the right investments, councils can increase efficiency, improve resident experiences, and maintain compliance and safety.
Councils face many challenges when it comes to transport management. At some point, everything from road construction to public transport and pedestrian safety can fall under the remit of local government agencies.
Councils are dealing with a combination of increasing numbers of journeys and new modes of transport entering the system, all within the capacity of existing transport networks. Expanding network capacity with capital works is always tricky, and limited resources and growing cities make it more challenging.
LGAs have also been hamstrung for decades by a lack of adequate, resilient transport management systems. Transport vehicle technology has evolved quickly, but the technology and processes used to manage transport networks have not kept up with the pace of change.
Traditional approaches to transport planning, such as ‘counter’ devices, are expensive to install at many locations and often do not provide timely data. A lack of centralised data processing can hamper a council’s ability to get the analytics needed for better decision-making.
Doing more with less
While building more capacity in existing networks is an option (albeit expensive), councils can now also use advanced IoT and artificial intelligence technologies to improve existing network capacity.
Smart transport solutions not only improve infrastructure efficiency and enhance transport management compliance, but they also positively impact the resident experience.
By making transportation more convenient and efficient, these solutions can foster a stronger sense of community and connectivity.
An excellent example of how a modern, smart transport management system works in the real world is in production now at Transport for NSW (TfNSW).
TfNSW is one of Australia’s largest transport management agencies, with diverse systems and networks that keep the state moving efficiently and safely.
Optimal transport management – including people and vehicle movement, crossings for cyclists and pedestrians, road space allocation and environment optimisation – requires the correct type of data to influence decision- making, which, if solely dependent on human resources or cumbersome methods such as road tubes, would not scale.
Introducing Secure Agility
Traditional video monitoring cannot provide the insights required for TfNSW’s Active Transport programme. Hence, TfNSW partnered with Secure Agility to develop an innovative movement-driven IoT solution. The result is a smart edge platform that takes field data and creates visualisations for multiple use cases. The solution provides TfNSW with the exact data needed without overwhelming volumes of recordings or staffing teams of manual inspectors.
This solution also provides local councils with data and analytics into cycleway behaviour, ensuring cycleways are safe and optimised. From a planning perspective, there’s no more guesswork. Transport planners can see precisely what is happening, get alerted, and plan accordingly. Julian Dagher, CTO at Secure Agility, says, “The arrival of digital sensor and data-driven transport management solutions is the biggest change in transport management capability since the traffic light.”
The agency calculated a return on investment in its Active Transport program, determining that $6 is saved for every kilometre cycled and $2 for every kilometre walked.
Secure Agility works with councils around Australia, gathering movement data and turning it into insights and actions.
This sponsored editorial is brought to you by Secure Agility. For more information on Secure Agility’s smart transport solutions, head to www.secureagility.com.
Image: Have a nice day Photo/shutterstock.com
