Geomatic Technologies completes VicRoads Traffic Management Audit
VIC, Australia 2005– Geomatic Technologies (GT), has successfully completed on behalf of VicRoads a city-wide audit of road traffic control measures across Melbourne’s tram network.
Project Brief - In 2004 VicRoads determined an audit of Traffic Management Measures on the Melbourne Tram Network was required to improve tram priority across the city’s shared roadway environment. The project was instigated under the auspices of the ‘Growing Victoria Together’ target to increase the number of motorised trips taken by public transport from 9% to 20% by the year 2020. General "2020" initiatives included the coordination of all transport modes through improving transport integration, choice and balance.
To deliver these outcomes, VicRoads planned to implement a range of improvements for trams and spend $30M over a two year period on infrastructure improvements to shorten tram travel times and increase timetable reliability. GT was awarded the job of collecting the physical information about the arterial roads that currently support tram operation (Melbourne is home to 255 km of on-road tram route).
Project Solution - Data was captured by GT staff throughout the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Field staff collected data relating to the on-road parts of the tram network, this includes locations where traffic can travel with trams or undertake turns from the tram track area.
Specifically GT collected spatial, photographic and description data including:
- Tram lanes and “Do Not Delay Trams” - broken yellow lines.
GT staff recorded locations of the yellow lines and relevant signage i.e. hours of operation.
- Stopping/Parking Controls along On-road Tram Routes.
GT staff recorded Clearway or No Stopping areas and relevant signage i.e. location. hours of operation, days of operation of all clearways, no stopping and no parking zones along all
on-road tram routes.
- Tram Stop Locations and attributes
GT staff recorded the location and type of all on-road tram stops, and the width of the road adjacent to all kerbside and safety zone tram stops.
- Stopping and Parking Controls Adjacent to Kerbside Tram Stops
GT staff recorded location, hours of operation, time limits and days of operation of all parking and loading zones adjacent to all kerbside tram stops for a distance of 30 metres prior to the tram stop pole.
- Right Turn Bans from Roads with Trams
GT staff recorded locations of all right turn bans from roads with trams, as right turning traffic often causes delays to trams.
- Arterial Road / Side Street Intersections
The traffic restrictions at road intersections was recorded. The locations of parking controls and No Standing bays in from the arterial road were also mapped.
All data was collected to a spatial accuracy of +/-0.5m and all linear features (eg Clearway Zones) were recorded with start and end coordinates.
All field data was transferred from the field personnel’s PDA device and formatted into a generic database format for loading into VicRoads corporate systems.
The project was completed in a two month timeframe and all data was assessed by VicRoads traffic engineers as exceeding the specification in terms of spatial accuracy and feature completeness.
GT completed the project using a combination of differential GPS receivers, laser technology and GT’s own RAMS mapping system that was successfully deployed on the NSW bus stop mapping survey (2001 & 2004).
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