UNSW Faculty of Science

Industry Research Forum RTA presentation

Presented6 October 2010
By

Christian Chong-White
Traffic Algorithm Development Manager
Traffic Management
Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW

Contributed content sourced from Fraser Johnson, RTA and David

Shteinman, MASCOS.

Roads and Traffic Authority

of New South Wales

The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (RTA) is

here to present:
background on its traffic systems capability
an industry research project
some personal thoughts about collaborative research.

Traffic Systems

The RTA (and its former constituent organisations) has a long

history of traffic systems development.
The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) is an
adaptive traffic control system that was first developed in the
1970s.
The RTAs Traffic Management Branch continues to develop
SCATS.
Additional traffic systems products are available that
complement SCATS.

SCATS worldwide

SCATS has been distributed to 141 cities in 24 countries,

controlling almost 32,000 intersections worldwide.
SCATS installations can be found in:
Australia
New
Zealand

Poland
Columbia

China
Singapore
Iran
Ireland

Brazil
Mexico
USA

SCATS on the web

The SCATS web site can be found on the internet at:

www.scats.com.au

Network Performance Development Section

Network Performance Development (NPD) is a section

of
Traffic Management Branch
Fraser Johnson
Manager, Network Performance Development
Christian Chong-White
Traffic Algorithm Development Manager

Network Performance Development Section

Network Performance Development (NPD) specialises in:

Traffic control policy rules for traffic control systems
Traffic performance travel time/delay, capacity and
queuing
Traffic control system design
traffic signal control, ramp metering, lane control, motorway
management systems, bus priority

Traffic
Traffic
Traffic
Traffic

behaviour related to traffic control systems

measurement from and for traffic control systems
analysis of traffic control system results
modelling

RTA project. Business need.

Traffic modelling plays an important part in advising

decision makers on the impacts of traffic performance.
As a result, a research topic in traffic modelling was
identified

RTA project.

Project title:
Development of a statistical framework
to guide traffic micro-simulation studies.
Project partners:
RTA (funder/mgr) business problem and domain
expertise.
MASCOS statistics and cross-industry expertise.
Azalient modelling technique and practice
expertise.
(MASCOS: Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems)

RTA project. People.

Project People:
David Shteinman*
Sandy Clarke
Gary Millar

MASCOS / UNSW
MASCOS / UMelb
Azalient

Fraser Johnson
RTA
Christian Chong-White**

RTA

(* key contact | ** project initiator / manager)

RTA project. High-level objective.

Project objective:
The project aims to provide enhanced
statistical rigour in
the design, planning and evaluation of
traffic simulation studies to
provide measured confidence in results.

RTA project. Outcome.

Science-based guidelines for:

1. Statistically rigorous & effective analysis of model results.
2. Quantify confidence in simulation outputs.
3. Quantify & correct bias due to model scope (boundary conditions).
4. Diagnose model problems before finalising results.
5. Predict cost of simulation as function of network features,
precision.
This advice is not readily available to traffic modellers and
stakeholders.
(Source: David Shteinman 2010)

RTA project. Guidelines.

Part 1. Design Stage

Quantify precision required
Predict simulation costs as a function of
precision and network complexity
Part 2. Output analysis
A statistical framework to
Automate/simplify analysis stage
Pair-wise comparison of model runs (Scenario A vs. B)
Diagnostic tests for simulation outliers
Method to identify critical interactions between
variables
(Source: David Shteinman 2010)

RTA project. Expected contributions.

Quality example of productive investment in

business intellectual infrastructure.
Outcomes can make a valuable contribution to RTA modelling
practice in line with project objectives.
National advice through Austroads guidelines and standards.
Expected to result in design changes to traffic simulation
applications.
International advice academic paper and special session at
Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Busan, Korea.
Potentially more publications and specifications in the future.

RTA project. Debrief.

Project has proved a particularly successful example of a

complex systems development project.
Initial project management design a key contribution:
crystallised vision of desired target deliverables.
tight scope, defined objectives and focussed methodology.
Collaboration between parties has worked very well:
parties formed clear roles and contributions.
Potential to re-apply the successful strategy both within the
transport modelling problem and beyond.

RTA project. Take away.

The project demonstrates the opportunity to deploy

specialised knowledge (University) to specific industry
problems (industry).
Industry often does not have the critical expertise.
This is particularly true where industry is managing and
outsourcing.
This is particularly needed for the development of new and
enhanced: policies, products and services.

Concluding comments.

Industry has many, many problems that need to be solved.

The key challenges are:
identifying the problems that have the potential to
maximise value.
identifying appropriate collaborating teams to develop
productive solutions.
creating the initiative and the matching to facilitate
the exercise.

The end.

Thankyou.