VicRoads Smarter Roads Project
Keeping you moving with Smarter Roads
Making your journey as smooth as possible
Smarter Roads is a $340 million Victorian Government program keeping people and goods moving in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east.
We're improving our traffic light network so you can have a better run at the lights.
Keeping you moving by adding more staff to monitor our roads and clear disruptions quickly.
Improving your journey by rolling out the best technology.
Providing better travel info while you’re on the road.
Improved transport
technology rollout
We’re rolling out transport technology assets on busy suburban roads in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east.
Select the green areas on the map to explore.
Improving travel information
Smarter Roads is transforming how we collect and analyse travel and journey information to ensure we have the most accurate live picture of what’s happening on our roads in Melbourne. We’re updating how we manage our travel and journey data by combining and adding new travel information. We’re also gathering more data from new technology on road network like our travel time sensors and traffic monitoring cameras.
All this work is aimed at ensuring you get the most accurate and reliable travel information to make the best decisions about your day-to-day trips.
A new congestion management team
Smarter Roads is introducing Melbourne’s first dedicated Congestion Management Team to tackle traffic hotspots. This team actively monitors roads in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east and works within our Transport Operations Centre to keep making changes to improve traffic flow.
This team will monitor your local roads in the Smarter Roads zones to arrange rapid responses to blockages and analyse travel patterns to identify changes that improve your journey.
Improving our traffic light network to improve traffic flow
Smarter Roads is carrying out the biggest review of Melbourne’s traffic light network since signals were introduced almost 100 years ago. Our team of expert engineers is reviewing traffic light sequencing at more than 850 locations across Melbourne’s west, east and south-east to optimise the performance of our roads.
This work will reduce your stop-start trips in the Smarter Roads zones by giving you a clear run through multiple sets of lights and create a smoother journey for you.
Better safety at pedestrian crossings
Smarter Roads is installing the latest pedestrian crossing technology at 75 locations in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east. This technology uses high-definition cameras and sensors to tell how many people are waiting to cross in real-time and adjust the crossing times to the group.
This will improve traffic flow at busy crossings, reduce unnecessary wait times, and improve your journey if you’re driver or a pedestrian in the Smarter Roads zones.
Faster response to incidents and disruptions
We are responding to incidents on roads in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east faster. Increasing the size of our Incident Response Service, with six new vans and 13 new team members, means we can now get more incidents across the network.
Getting to incidents faster in your area means we can get the road moving, reduce delays and create smoother journeys for everyone on the road.
Increased safety during incident response
Smarter Roads is adding more than 700 live traffic monitoring cameras to the road network in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east means we can now safely monitor incidents in real time from our Transport Operations Centre. When an incident occurs in the community our Transport Operations team can use new state of the art cameras to support first responders including VicPol and Ambulance Victoria.
If there’s an incident on a road in the Smarter Roads zones we can safely monitor the situation until we can get people moving again.
Increased visibility of our roads
Smarter Roads has doubled our ability to see what’s happening on the busiest traffic hotspots in Melbourne’s suburbs. Adding over 700 live traffic monitoring cameras to the busiest routes in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east, means our Transport Operations team can see and respond to planned and unplanned disruptions faster and more effectively.
Our roads are ready
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease road traffic increases to higher levels. We’re responding to the extra traffic demand by increasing our front-line staff and improving our transport technology across Melbourne’s west, east and south-east.
All these investments will mean you’ll have smoother journeys when you’re travelling around Melbourne once restrictions ease.
New air quality stations
Smarter Roads is setting up new roadside air quality monitoring sites for the Department of Transport. This work will begin in seven locations across Melbourne and will measure particulate matter, noxious gases, GHG gases, noise, and meteorology.
All the research collected from these new sites can be used to guide future Government policy and planning.
Melbourne’s roads are getting smarter
Vehicle detectors
As part of the Smarter Roads program we’re installing 120 new vehicle detectors that send traffic data to our Transport Operations Centre. Vehicle detectors give us real time and historical data on factors like traffic volume, speed, density, and vehicle length. This data is used in the management of our road networks.
Traffic light optimisation
Smarter Roads is delivering the biggest review of Melbourne’s traffic light network since signals were introduced almost 100 years ago. Our team of expert engineers is reviewing traffic light sequencing at more than 850 locations across Melbourne’s west, east and south-east to optimise the performance of our roads.
This work will reduce your stop-start trips in the Smarter Roads zones by giving you a clear run through multiple sets of lights and create a smoother journey for you.
Safer pedestrian crossings
Smarter Roads is installing the latest pedestrian crossing technology at 75 locations in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east. This technology uses high-definition cameras and sensors to tell how many people are waiting to cross in real-time and adjusts the crossing times to the group.
This will improve traffic flow at busy crossings, reduce unnecessary wait times, and improve your journey if you’re driver or a pedestrian in the Smarter Roads zones.
Traffic cameras
Smarter Roads has doubled our ability to see what’s happening in the busiest traffic hotspots in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east. Adding over 700 live traffic monitoring cameras to the busiest routes in Melbourne’s suburbs, means our Transport Operations team can see and respond to planned and unplanned disruptions faster and more effectively.
Having a live picture of what’s happening on our roads in the Smarter Roads zones means we can respond to incidents and disruptions quickly, get everyone moving, and ensure you have an improved journey.
Live travel signs
We’re installing 42 live travel signs to ensure you get up to date travel information as your driving. These digital signs will help you make decisions about how to get around possible disruptions and delays in real time. The signs use data from our travel time sensors and in-road sensors to give you more accurate live travel information during your journey.
Travel time sensors
As part of the Smarter Roads program, we have installed 260 new travel time sensors that send traffic data to our Transport Operations Centre in Kew.
This new smart technology will allow our traffic team to quickly identify incidents, blockages and unplanned disruptions minimising delays. Increasing the use of travel time sensor technology is providing us with more accurate and reliable information and providing a better view of what’s happening on our roads.
New congestion management team
Smarter Roads dedicated Congestion Management team is focusing on tackling traffic hotspots. This team actively monitors our road network and works within our Transport Operations Centre making changes to improve traffic flow. This team of six area managers is responsible for arranging rapid responses to blockages and analysing network performance information.
Bamdad, Area Manager – East
Congestion Management Team
"We’ll be working together with our operations team to use new systems, tools and data to work faster and minimise the impacts on the network, by assisting with detours and traffic signal changes. This will lead to faster, safer, and more reliable journeys for all transport modes in Melbourne."
More Incident Response Officers
Smarter Roads has added 12 new Incident Response Service Officers and six new Incident Response vans to cover our local roads in Melbourne’s west, east and south-east. VicRoads Incident Response Service (IRS) patrols Melbourne’s road network, clearing incidents and helping maintain traffic flow. This includes crashes, vehicle breakdowns and debris on the road.
Martin, Incident Response Services Officer
Congestion Management Team
“My role provides a timely response across the network for unplanned disruptions and keeps the traffic flowing. This means road incidents can be dealt with promptly, hazards removed, and lanes reopened.”
New signal operations team
Our signals operations team has recruited 14 new cadet signal engineers to support the signals operations team as they tackle traffic hotspots, incidents, and blockages on the network.
Syrina, Signal Services Team Leader
Real Time Signals Operations
“I am passionate in leading and supporting the development of new cadets who are going to contribute to create safe, efficient, and reliable journeys for all road users.”
Additional Transport Operations Centre staff
Our transport operations team have also recruited dozens of extra staff to support our customer service team and network operations team. Our Transport Operations Centre in Kew is our central hub to manage and monitor our transport network. Our customer service team, signal engineers and transport engineers are constantly monitoring the network and responding to incidents and disruptions to keep everyone moving.
Traffic Light Network Optimisation (TLNO)
We’re undertaking the most comprehensive review and optimisation of our traffic light network since it was introduced to Melbourne almost 100 years ago. More than 850 traffic signals sites in west, south-east, and east of Melbourne are being analysed and updated by our recently expanded team of signal engineers to create smoother journeys for road users. You can see the TLNO corridor review status in the map.
We're rolling out more transport technology across Melbourne's west, east and south-east to keep you moving. Select the technology above to learn more.