Editorial: Cameras unlikely to sort traffic

Motorists are frustrated by the fuel they waste in addition to the time spent waiting for light to turn green. Photo / Dean Purcell

More should be done to control lights, and in a less piecemeal way, to stop drivers getting impatient

Understandably, the Automobile Association sounded euphoric this week about the prospect that CCTV cameras will be used to reduce waiting times at traffic lights.

Its response was an indication of the anger felt by Auckland motorists over the haphazard phasing of too many signals. Any promise of improvement sounded, as the AA suggested, "fantastic". The problem is that the cameras seem more like a band-aid than a mechanism to get the city's traffic moving smoothly.

Cameras stationed at intersections are said to be capable of giving Auckland Transport more accurate information about traffic flow and congestion than is now available from magnetic loops in road surfaces. In theory, this will allow operators at a new traffic operations and incident management centre on Queens Wharf to adjust light phases to shorten traffic queues. The doubts about this in practice spring from the priorities of those operators and the resourcing of the centre.

Safety is the major priority for those monitoring the data coming in from the 1,800 cameras spread across Auckland's roads and railway stations. They are watching whether people are too close to the edge of station platforms, for example, and recording threatening behaviour towards parking wardens. Traffic-flow management will be a secondary concern.

As much as the operators will be helped by technology that alerts them to particular choke points, their major priority and the extent of the traffic congestion at various points around Auckland mean it requires a leap of faith to believe they will be able to make a substantial difference.

Much more will be necessary to overcome the legacy of under-investment that lies at the heart of the traffic-light woes. A Sydney Co-ordinated Adaptive Management System (Scats) was implemented on the cheap almost 45 years ago, with too few sensors to measure traffic demand accurately. Little has been done subsequently to improve it, even though the number of cars on Auckland's roads have increased rapidly, so much so that people are being encouraged to use public transport. It is worth noting that buses, as much as cars, are victims of the traffic lights' shortcomings.

Auckland Transport's response has included a "route optimisation" programme that involves the better co-ordination of traffic signals on more than 20 arterial routes. The most impressive result has been on Symonds St, where it says about 20,000 vehicles a day are having an average of two minutes each shaved off trip times. Lesser savings have been reported from, for example, St Lukes Rd and Dominion Rd.

This has been useful in tackling the most inefficient parts of the city's roading network. Helpful also is the better information being provided on congestion and alternative routes, through more electronic signs and website information. But these, too, smack of band-aids, rather than a comprehensive solution. That lies surely in improving the Scats system.

Traffic engineers suggest that better measurement of queue lengths should be a priority. But they note, also, the Auckland Council's tight budget for system upgrades.

More should be done, and in a less piecemeal way. Motorists are frustrated by the fuel they waste in addition to the time spent waiting for light to turn green. At its worst, this is a recipe for red-light running that endangers pedestrians and other drivers. The monitoring centre on Queens Wharf will have a supersized watching brief. Auckland drivers can only hope it works.