Using Connected Vehicle data to monitor travel time and road safety during a highway upgrade
This case study uses Compass Real-Time API
The section of highway between Narrabri and Moree is a critical part of the NSW economy, surrounded by agriculture, mining and other industries, and is the only main route between key locations for goods, services and transport to essential services for residents.
Project managers on Australia’s largest-ever highway pavement upgrade of sections of the Newell Highway needed a dynamic, efficient way to gather information on traffic volumes and delay times, to communicate with road users and adhere to acceptable travel time delays.
The volume of traffic posed a challenge around keeping both drivers and roadside workers safe on different sections of the highway, where traffic must be slowed to 60 or even 40km per hour and sometimes diverted from the main road to breakdown lanes. Specifically, the project managers had 3 goals:
- To keep workers on the side of the road safe
- To maintain travel times within acceptable travel time delays bounds
- Back of queue protection and driver safety as the speed limits changed
The Compass Real Time API delivered vehicle speed and volume data to the project managers in real-time, enabling the delivery of accurate and timely instructions via variable message signage (VMS) to motorists.
Vehicle speed limits were influenced through dynamic messaging using the VMS further up the road before the roadwork sections, meaning vehicles were more likely to be travelling at safer speeds nearby road workers, minimising back spill and providing back of queue protection as drivers transitioned between the 40km/h or 60km/h roadwork zones and the 110km/h mainline.
These data insights enabled the customer to better manage:
- The flow of information to freight and heavy vehicles
- Updating VMS (variable messaging signage) for other motorists in the area.
- Management of delays
- Minimising back spill and providing back-of-queue protection as drivers transitioned between the 40km/h or 60km/h roadwork zones and the 110km/h mainline.