Background
NineSquared was engaged by Infrastructure Australia to provide advice on current issues and future directions of transport modelling as part of the 2019 Australian Infrastructure Audit. Infrastructure Australia has the responsibility to strategically audit Australia’s nationally significant infrastructure and develop 15 year rolling infrastructure plans that specify national and state level priorities. The 2019 Audit covered transport, energy, water, telecommunications social infrastructure, and considered major challenges and opportunities facing Australia’s infrastructure over the next 15 years. As part of the 2019 Audit, Infrastructure Australia released a supplementary report.
Our role
NineSquared was engaged to prepare a section of the supplementary Urban Transport Crowding Congestion report identifying opportunities to improve infrastructure decision making by strengthening existing models and evolving them to better respond to future uncertainty. The paper considered the commonly used, four-step strategic transport models and the scope and limitations of these. The paper also examined the potential to improve strategic models through:
- The consideration of new mobility and the implications of new technology
- Improved data accuracy and consistency
- Use of scenarios to look beyond averages
- New and emerging datasets
- Enhancing model capability
Final outputs from the work can be found in Section 11 of the Urban Transport Crowding and Congestion report.
