The Brisbane Metropolitan Transport Management Centre celebrates 10 years of managing busways
Brisbane’s state-of-the-art traffic management centre is celebrating 10 years of reducing congestion and improving safety on busways and roads across the region.
The Brisbane Metropolitan Transport Management Centre manages more than 21,000 traffic incidents each year.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says congestion on Brisbane roads cost $1.6 billion each year and the traffic management centre is vital in keeping Brisbane roads moving and helping Brisbane commuters get home sooner.
“Brisbane’s traffic centre uses data from 1000 Bluetooth traffic monitoring receivers, over 400 traffic CCTV cameras and on-the-ground reports to identify and manage unexpected traffic congestion,” he says.
“Traffic incidents across the network are carefully coordinated to minimise congestion, using techniques including manually controlling traffic light sequencing, providing information to motorists via digital signs, and assisting emergency services with priority access to sites.
“The traffic centre deals with vehicle-related incidents such as accidents, break-downs and illegally parked vehicles, as well as weather and debris on the roads.
“The road impacts of major events, such as the State of Origin and the G20 Leaders Summit, are also carefully monitored and managed by the centre, to keep peak-hour traffic moving, despite huge pedestrian and vehicle crowds attempting to travel to venues such as Suncorp.”
Quirk says data gathered by the traffic centre is used to pinpoint issues within the network to prioritise congestion reduction projects and road upgrades.
“This financial year, Council’s $5.9 million congestion reduction initiatives include 25 high-impact projects on suburban roads, designed to improve capacity at intersections,” he says.
“This is in addition to $49 million being invested in major road and intersection upgrades, this financial year.”
Quirk says Brisbane City Council’s continued investment into road network upgrades, bus services and new bikeways, had resulted in improved travel times.
“Brisbane’s last Key Corridor Performance Report showed that despite increases in traffic volumes, there had been a 5.6 per cent improvement in afternoon peak travel times, and a 3 per cent improvement in morning peak travel times.”