Report 2

Main Roads Projects to Address Traffic Congestion

Executive Summary

Introduction

This report provides an assessment of whether Main Roads infrastructure and traffic management projects are effective in addressing traffic congestion in metropolitan Perth.

Our focus was on the information collection systems used by Main Roads to make decisions, how it prioritised congestion projects and if its projects were on time, on budget and successful.

Background

There is wide public agreement that traffic congestion in Perth has increased in the last 10 years and has become a major issue for Western Australia and its Government. However, there is no simple way to define the ‘problem’ or its causes, and nor is there any simple solution.

High population growth in the last decade has increased pressure on Perth’s road infrastructure and public transport network. Several transport challenges within the Perth metropolitan area compound this pressure. These include:

  • the low density of the population distribution
  • limited availability of public transport options in outlying suburbs
  • concentration of employment in and around the Perth Central Business District (CBD)
  • limited river crossings and routes in and out of the CBD
  • the high reliance on cars; over 80 per cent of trips taken in the metropolitan region are made by private car
  • low vehicle occupancy.

Consequences of congestion include increased costs to the community and businesses through longer, less predictable travel times, lost productivity, additional running costs of vehicles and environmental pollution.

In 2007, the Commonwealth Government Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) estimated that by 2020 congestion in Perth could cost the Western Australian economy $2.1 billion. In 2005, it reported this figure as $900 million.

International experience shows that addressing congestion is complex, and involves managing supply and demand. Encouraging less car commuting at peak times, more people per vehicle, and more use of public transport can reduce demand on the system. Doing this can include closing parts of the network to cars, increasing public transport capacity or imposing costs on people using roads. Managing supply can relieve congestion by adding extra road space and improving the efficiency and reliability of the existing road network.

Main Roads is directly responsible for 850 kilometres of freeways, highways and arterial roads in the metropolitan area (Appendix 1). The other 13 312 kilometres of roads in Perth are controlled by 30 local government authorities.

Beyond delivering and maintaining road assets, Main Roads is responsible for optimising the performance of the existing state road network. In doing this, it must consider safety, economic and cost benefits, new infrastructure projects and maintenance needs. Main Roads also has an important role in supporting wider transport decisions by providing accurate and reliable traffic congestion information. The Department of Transport (DoT) has the lead role in setting transport policy with input from the Public Transport Authority (PTA) and Main Roads.

Audit Conclusion

Demand on the road network has increased and although difficult to define, Main Roads predicts that traffic congestion will get worse. Part of the solution requires Main Roads to manage the road network to minimise the effects of congestion and to provide information for other policy makers.

Main Roads could not demonstrate that its projects and activities to address congestion have made the best use of resources. The broad transport-planning framework is incomplete. There are no agreed traffic congestion priorities, performance levels, measures and targets across Main Roads and its partner agencies, such as DoT. Although Main Roads collects a lot of data, coherent congestion information is limited to a small part of the freeway network, and not reported to DoT or publicly. While effective strategic and operational transport decisions require comprehensive, consistent and real time information, this is a challenge in many jurisdictions.

Main Roads has delivered a number of projects that have mitigated congestion on parts of the network and within the CBD. They have been delivered under budget, within expected time and they have achieved their intended localised outcomes. Modelling suggests Main Roads’ activity has helped slow the increase of congestion.

Main Roads has recognised it does not have the capacity to manage traffic congestion effectively and is introducing significant changes to the way it does business. It has begun the process of changing from an agency that builds roads and manages assets to one that manages a road network and is responsible for traffic flow. This will bring Main Roads in line with better practice in managing traffic congestion. These changes should also allow government to make more informed transport decisions.

Key Findings

Demand on the road network has increased and traffic congestion has worsened as Perth has grown, but the picture is not straightforward:

  • national analysis continues to rank Perth in ‘mid-table’ of Australian capital cities
  • there are an estimated 2.1 million vehicles on WA roads, up 17 per cent from 2009
  • peak hour trips take longer than 10 years ago, but performance against four nationally agreed indicators improved slightly in early 2014
  • Main Roads modelling in 2013 suggested that by 2020 significant parts of the Main Roads network will be heavily congested during peak hour travel. However, updated modelling shows a less severe picture
  • travel away from the CBD has improved, while travel into the city in the morning has worsened.

Neither Main Roads nor DoT have set clear objectives, service performance standards and targets for managing congestion. In part, this is because there is no overarching strategy for dealing with congestion, and no agency is clearly required to lead action. We note that Main Roads is considering how best to use four nationally agreed traffic performance indicators.

Main Roads does not have a clear process to prioritise funding for congestion projects, although major projects are assessed by Main Roads and DoT on financial and other broad factors. This means that although projects may achieve their intended local outcomes, they may not have been the most effective or efficient choices overall. In 2013, Main Roads developed a Traffic Congestion Management Strategy, which identified 49 projects and initiatives to address congestion, but it is not clear how these were selected, or how they were prioritised.

Of its 850 kilometres of metropolitan road network, Main Roads only has comprehensive traffic congestion information on 78.5 kilometres of the Kwinana, Mitchell and Graham Farmer freeways. Data from this section of road forms the entire set of information provided as national performance indicators for metropolitan Perth. Information about the rest of the network is collected through six other systems or approaches, but is not analysed to give a whole-of-network view.

Traffic congestion information is not well shared or analysed within Main Roads and is not regularly reported to DoT or publicly. It does not consistently measure or report the volume of cars and freight vehicles on the whole network, vehicle occupancy levels or the percentage of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion. We expected this information to be readily available and reported. We note that Main Roads is investigating the use of GPS based systems, such as Tom Tom and Google, and has entered into an initial contract to obtain this information while investigating other data sources.

Main Roads projects have mitigated congestion on parts of the road network. Extra lanes on the three main freeways have eased peak hour travel away from the CBD. New traffic signals have improved traffic flows around the Mounts Bay Road-freeway interchange at Point Lewis. Trials to optimise traffic signals on Canning Highway have proved effective. These projects achieved the immediate desired impacts, were under budget and, with one exception, completed within expected timeframes.

Main Roads has extended its influence to improve congestion in the CBD, where the great majority of roads are the responsibility of the City of Perth. Although it has a very limited formal mandate, it has contracted tow-away services for clearways, and has established incident response services to clear crashes on parts of the freeway system. It has also tested new pedestrian signals to increase vehicle flow.

Main Roads is undertaking a major review of its capacity to manage congestion. It has recognised the need to change how it operates. It has created new senior positions specifically to manage congestion, and is reviewing its information, technology and policy requirements. Transitioning from its historical role of building roads and maintaining assets to an integrated manager responsible for traffic flow across the network will be difficult but necessary if Main Roads is to optimise the performance of the road network and effectively address congestion within the Perth metropolitan area.

Recommendations

Main Roads and the Department of Transport should:

  • develop an integrated approach to managing congestion that will clearly define agency roles and responsibilities
  • formally agree on performance measures and targets for network performance
  • agree public and inter-agency reporting requirements for congestion information.

Main Roads should implement the changes outlined in its organisational review. Specifically, by the end of 2015 it should:

  • finalise how it will manage congestion as part of its future operating structure
  • determine staffing needs once its structural planning is complete
  • set internal performance measures that align with overall measures agreed with DoT
  • complete its review of data and information capabilities
  • finalise its five-year congestion program plan, including an implementation plan with budgets and timelines for each project.

Agency Response

Combined response from Main Roads and Department of Transport

Main Roads Western Australia (Main Roads) acknowledges that the purpose of the Audit was to provide an assessment of whether Main Roads infrastructure and traffic management projects are effective in addressing traffic congestion in metropolitan Perth in this moment of time. Main Roads agrees with point 3 of the findings, being that congestion is a major issue in Western Australia and there is no simple, single way to define the ‘problem’ or its causes and nor is there any simple solution.

In order to plan for and begin to address this problem, in August 2013 Main Roads established the Traffic Management Congestion Strategy and, as recognised during the Audit, has since successfully implemented several prioritised projects to address congestion. During this time Main Roads has also implemented structural organisational change and a review of its corporate strategy. Main Roads recognises congestion as a key driver of Keeping WA Moving – the new strategic direction transitioning Main Roads from a delivery agency whose primary purpose was to build and maintain road assets to an agency that provides world class outcomes for the customer through a safe, reliable and sustainable road based transport system.

Main Roads accepts that it is in a period of transition that includes the need for greater integration with the other agencies that form the transport portfolio. Main Roads also accepts all of the eight recommendations of the Audit. These recommendations are work in progress for Main Roads.

Expected timelines and milestones for implementing the recommendations are as follows:

In relation to collective recommendations (R) for Main Roads and Department of Transport:

R1: Develop an integrated approach to managing traffic congestion that will clearly define agency roles and responsibilities.

  • The current structure sees the Department of Transport responsibilities lying with demand management and policy and Main Roads managing network operations and providing input into policy.
  • An inter-agency workshop will be held before end June 2015 to clarify and more clearly articulate these roles and responsibility.

R2: Formally agree on performance measures and targets for network performance.

  • In order to agree on measures and targets we must first ensure the right data is being captured. A comprehensive study is being scoped to identify the road map and delivery plan for data fusion considering all data sources and portfolio user outcome requirements. This plan will be completed by December 2015.

R3: Agree public and inter-agency reporting requirements for traffic congestion information.

  • The agreement of these requirements forms part of the study referred to in R2

With regards to Main Roads specific recommendations:

R4: Finalise how congestion will be managed under Main Roads’ future operating structure.

  • A review has commenced with the objective of developing a World Class Road Network operations structure. The review will be completed by August 2015.

R5: Determine staffing needs once structural planning is complete.

  • A structure and resource recommendation will be formed as part of the review.
  • A draft operating structure will be ready by October 2015.

R6: Set internal performance measures aligned to the overall measures agreed with DoT.

  • Interim performance measures are in place based on current available data.
  • Corporate performance measures relating to congestion will be set following the completion of the technology plan in December 2015.

R7: Complete review of data and information capabilities.

  • This review will be completed as detailed in R2.

R8: Finalise Main Roads’ five-year traffic congestion program plan including an implementation plan with budgets and timelines for each project.

  • Main Roads will complete a business case including strategic rationale to secure funding for a five year congestion program by December 2015.

These recommendations will form part of Main Roads four-point plan to change our approach to managing the network, including dealing with congestion, which will:

a) get the right people in place
b) measure performance and set targets
c) optimise the performance of the arterial road and freeway networks
d) select the right projects.

Main Roads is committed to improving the mobility of people and efficiency of freight. This performance audit will play an important part in shaping Main Roads’ response to traffic congestion both now and into the future.

 
Page last updated: March 26, 2015

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