RTA and NICTA: Innovating on Successful Traffic Management

The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales (RTA) and NICTA are engaged in an ongoing research collaboration. SCATS is an area wide adaptive traffic control system developed during the 1970's that continues to be developed by the RTA. SCATS is one of the most widely used and successful traffic control systems, with installations in 141 cities across 24 countries. The RTA is working with NICTA to further develop some of the innovations emerging from previous research and development. The RTA is the New South Wales (NSW) State Government's road authority, responsible for roads and traffic throughout the state of NSW in Australia. NICTA is the Australian Government's Centre for Excellence for research into Information and Communications Technology. The collaboration is allowing the RTA and NICTA to research methods for improving traffic control in specific, difficult situations. This paper briefly outlines the research being currently conducted by NICTA as part of this collaboration.