SOFTWARE, COMMUNICATIONS AND CONNECTIVITY
USING LIDAR IN AUSTRALIAN-FIRST
ROAD SAFETY Currently, around one third of lives lost and 44 per cent of serious injuries on Victorian roads happen at intersections. VicRoads is currently trialling groundbreaking new technology that will be able to predict crashes and near misses at intersections – and tell us how to prevent them.
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March 2020 // Issue 14
by Imogen Hartmann, Journalist, Infrastructure magazine
I
magine if every time a road crash occurred, you could go back and see exactly what went wrong and how you could stop it from happening in the future. Better yet, imagine if you had a warning to avoid it happening all together. This is the idea behind Omni-Aware, VicRoads’ Australian-first trial of LIDAR technology currently being tested at a Melbourne high-crash intersection. Following a successful off-road trial in September 2019, the intersection of Williamstown Road and Somerville Road in Yarraville was fitted with four
LIDAR sensors and four cameras to detect and map the movement of all road users through the intersection. The system aims to detect all crashes and near misses in real time, and in the future could send warning messages to connected vehicles. The research will also provide significant insight to inform the way intersections are designed in the future. Member for Williamstown, Melissa Horne, said, “This technology will play a key role in keeping Victorians safe on our roads – that’s why we’re investing in it and beginning the roll out on our roads.”
www.infrastructuremagazine.com.au
