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News | Archives While working for Transit New Zealand, traffic engineer Blair Monk, used his travelling time from Howick to the city to think about ways of helping drivers now with traffic congestion. His great idea – the Auckland Traffic WebInfo site, part of Transit’s new traffic information service launched in May - won him the 3M Traffic Engineer of the Year Award 2004 recently. (Monday, 6 September) Blair Monk’s award was announced after his presentation to a panel of traffic professionals at the IPENZ Transportation Group Annual Traffic Management Workshop and Technical Conference held in Wellington. The Auckland traffic website www.trafficnz.info gives Auckland commuters some certainty as to how long a trip is going to take them, where the traffic snarl-ups are to be avoided, and gives them options to adjust plans in the light of relevant information that is timely, accurate and reliable. “Auckland’s transportation is a fundamental challenge, affecting the economy and society. In 2002 myself and then colleague Terry Brown were working for Transit New Zealand, and we recognized that Auckland road users weren’t getting sufficient information to help them with their journeys,” said Mr Monk. “At that time there were systems in place that could alert operators in the Auckland Traffic Operations Management Service, emergency services, radio stations and some road users like taxi’s and buses to problems on the roads. However, the bulk of the drivers were unaware of problems until they saw a Variable Message Sign or Lane Control Signals which meant drivers could be stuck in traffic for hours. “We realized that the previous system had limited effectiveness as it was expensive, subject to delays in transmission and took a significant amount of operator time to generate and send. It was mainly used to detect, respond and clear incidents,” said Mr Monk. “Now we are giving travelers some options, and since the launch of the www.trafficnz.info in May 2004 the feedback has been positive. Although we have noticed that no matter how much coverage we achieve, it will never satisfy demand. One of the most important lessons has been to realise how much untapped desire there is in Auckland from commercial operators and the public for good traffic information,” he said. “The future direction of the website is to add more Closed Circuit Television, incident coverage maps and webcam views for the public, to create streaming video, rollout travel time graphs and current speed graphs from live data, and to extend the accessibility by disseminating information to other sources,” said Mr Monk. The 3M Traffic Engineer of the Year Award is the premier award for traffic and road safety engineers practicing in New Zealand and is awarded for projects that have been effective, show inspiration and demonstrate innovation in technology and thinking. The major prize is a trip to the annual Institute of Traffic Engineers Conference in America combined with a tour of 3M’s global headquarters for Transportation Safety in Minneapolis. Blair Monk is now the Special Projects Manager for GHD, Auckland. ENDS For further information contact: Blair Monk, Special Projects Manager, GHD Auckland, Ph: 09 261 1588, or 0272 613 455, or email Blair_Monk@ghd.co.nz Larry Cameron, Central Branch Chairman of the IPENZ Transportation Group,
and Principal - Consultant, Cameron & Associates, Ph: (04) 385 3146
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