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Media Release

May 28 2003

Making Adelaide a great place to walk

Free lecture looks at better planning for traffic and pedestrians
 

A recent push to get people to embrace city living would be much more successful, according to UniSA’s Professor of Transport Systems Planning Mike Taylor, if there was better planning for the needs of pedestrians and motorists.

Professor Taylor will deliver a free public lecture, New horizons in traffic systems modelling, on Wednesday June 2nd at 6:00pm, Centenary Building, Level 3, Room 16, City East Campus, UniSA, the first in a series of lectures focussing on intelligent technologies.

“One of the most important challenges for local government policy makers today it to ensure our city streets are safer for pedestrians,” Professor Taylor said.

“There are many more pedestrians in the CBD than there are motor vehicles and there are traffic problems of substantial importance across the Adelaide CBD that need immediate attention.

“While we can’t just go about closing city streets to motor traffic, there are ways we can modify people movement, street layout and traffic control systems so pedestrians have the freedom to use footpaths and the roads without being intimidated by traffic.”

Professor Taylor says developments in traffic simulation modelling, intelligent transport systems and travel behaviour research are finally giving policy makers and planners the opportunity to visualise and project the impact and outcomes of various scenarios before they make decisions.

“This modelling technology is a breakthrough for urban design, not just traffic engineering,” he said.

“Our current project to build a micro simulation model of the Adelaide City Council traffic network using the power of advanced interactive graphics presentations to engage experts, policy makers and the general community in traffic planning issues will be crucial in improving the CBD.”

Professor Taylor says in any large urban centre it is only with deliberate positive support from local and state governments that pedestrian safety and improved traffic management can be achieved.

“It is achievable - we can make Adelaide’s streets safer, improve traffic flow, time management for industries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. With the technologies we have to work with and the good will to achieve these goals, it is all possible.”

Prof Taylor’s current research is a collaborative project bringing together a multidisciplinary team of UniSA research students in Transport Systems, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, geographers, planners and a group of visiting students from France.

Prof Taylor is the Director of UniSA’s Transport Systems Centre and is internationally acknowledged as an expert on traffic flow theory, travel demand modelling and traffic simulation and has extensive experience in consultancy with both government and the private sector.

More information about UniSA’s free lecture series Intelligent Technologies – creativity in innovation technology, engineering and systems is available at http://www.unisa.edu.au/itee/news/LecSem/Ser1_04/default.asp
 

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