The city of Melbourne is launching what is being described as an "ambitious and unique hi-tech" transport project focused on reducing future congestion and improving road safety.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne's School of Engineering will study connected data from vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and infrastructure in a busy five square km test area in the city centre.
Thousands of sensors and wireless units fitted to roads, traffic signals and vehicles will generate the connected data.
They say results of the world-first 'National Connected Multimodal Transport Test Bed' project will provide an unprecedented insight into how to manage emerging smart Australian transport systems and road networks in a more efficient way.
The University of Melbourne project includes a variety of public and private sector partners including Smart Highways columnist David Bonn and the modelling company PTV, and is supported by the Victoria State Government.
The test bed pilot is scheduled to be launched in April.
Victoria Minister for Roads and Roads Safety Luke Donnellan said, 'We're embracing advances in technology to ensure Victoria can create the highly-integrated, smart transport network our state can thrive on. We look forward to working closely with the University of Melbourne to ensure Victoria can reap the maximum benefits from this world first project.'
Miller Crockart, a Vice President at PTV Group added, "PTV Group see the developments in the Australian market towards intelligent mobility and in particular the ambitions of the city of Melbourne as world leading, especially when you bring the caliber of research found at Melbourne University. Therefore, for PTV Group to be invited to be one of a handful of the private sector companies supporting this initiative is a privilege. We are bringing our traffic and transport planning and realtime traffic optimisation technologies to the party and these component software programs can reside on the intelligent mobility platforms that are being developed, in this case for the city of Melbourne."
