The SH59 Grays Road safety assessment forms part of a review by the Wellington Traffic Operations Centre (WTOC) into the strategies for validating and enhancing safety and efficiency at the SH59 and Grays Road intersection, in Plimmerton. Given the significant decline in traffic flows (approximately 75%) at the intersection since the opening of Transmission Gully, an opportunity has emerged to improve pedestrian crossing time and protection, as identified by WTOC.
- Client:
- Scale:
- Services:
- Date:
-
Wellington Transport Operations Centre
- Small
- AI Technology / SMART Safety
- 2024
Safety Concerns
Optimisation Plan
- High-Speed Left Turn: The southbound left turn from Grays Ave presents a risk due to its blind corner approach, creating a potential danger for pedestrians.
- Dual Right Turn Lanes: The dual right turn lanes from Grays Avenue onto SH59 impact pedestrian crossing time, leading to hurried crossings, particularly challenging for older community members.
- Where are our blackspots? Conduct a survey to understand baseline safety risks and flows
- Extended Crossing Times: Increase pedestrian crossing times to improve safety and protection.
- Traffic Flow Adjustments: Address the high-speed left turns and consider reducing the dual right turn lanes to ensure safer pedestrian movement.
Solution
- Urban Connection was commissioned to deploy a temporary AI camera onsite for a 7-day SMART Safety survey to establish a baseline – capturing data on speeds, flows, trajectories, conflicts and near misses, to confirm pedestrian conflict risks.
- A further post 7-day survey was carried out once optimisation changes were made to validate the impact of pedestrian involved conflicts.
A SMART Safety survey is a deep-dive Safe Systems analysis into road safety. As part of the survey, data is recorded via a stationary camera. The data is then analysed using artifical intelligence (AI) technology and video analytics. It monitors near-misses, finds the trends of traffic behaviors, and provides insight into the likelihood and causes of crashes.
Results
The SMART Safety Assessment of the SH59 Grays Road intersection was conducted to evaluate potential road safety risks and crash precursors before and after improvements for the Wellington Traffic Operations Centre (WTOC). Using video survey, analytics, and AI technology, the assessment monitored near-misses, traffic movements, and speed behaviours over periods before and after the improvements to provide a comprehensive analysis of the intersection’s safety.
The SMART Safety technology proved effective in capturing critical traffic behaviours, particularly vehicle speeds and near-miss conflicts, offering data-driven insights to enhance both urban intersection and pedestrian safety. The results from the assessment demonstrated that the recent improvements to the intersection, including adjustments to pedestrian crossing times and additional protection measures, were successful in improving the overall safety and efficiency of the SH59 intersection.