Sequencing of lights on Moggill Road
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 10:15
I often get enquiries about how the lights are sequenced on Moggill Road. This is a complicated process that is shared between the Brisbane City Council and Main Roads. I thought you might be interested in an explanation of how this works that I recently received.
Of course no sequencing of lights can deal with the fact that many of our intersections are already at or above capacity.
Thank you for your email on behalf of constituents about the sequencing of traffic lights on Moggill Road between Kenmore and Chapel Hill. I apologise for the delay in this response. Officers of the Department of Transport Main Roads have investigated your concerns and I am advised as follows.As you are aware, the provision of a single integrated Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for all of Brisbane is currently being provided in partnership with Brisbane City Council. Using the locally developed STREAMS system with skilled operators, the whole network can be continually monitored for traffic changes, identifying incidents and congestion, thereby providing the appropriate network response regardless of jurisdiction boundaries.
A pilot trial was successfully carried out on Moggill Road and showed travel time reductions of up to 13% during the week-day periods and up to 17% on weekends.
The speed environment is one of many factors taken into consideration when undertaking the analysis of data to prepare the timing of signals. Several synchronised traffic plans are implemented for the differing traffic volumes that may occur during the morning and afternoon peak periods as well as other times during the day. Pedestrian movements at intersections vary and also impact on the coordination of traffic signals. These varying demands and incidents may interrupt the normal progression of vehicles from one intersection to the next.
Increased traffic volumes during peak periods may result in increased congestion, queuing and the number of stops experienced by motorists as intersections reach capacity. However, during these periods, generally morning and afternoon peaks, maximum throughput along the route will be provided, in this case on Moggill Road, for the principal traffic flows.
Council and the Queensland Government are committed to working together to reduce congestion on the city’s roads. The most obvious benefit of a single system control of traffic signals will be better traffic efficiency and more reliable travel times.