Modelling: Pain points and success factors review 

Transport modelling has become an integral function within the field of transport planning, management and design; particularly as our transport systems networks become increasingly congested and complex. This comes with challenges, and anecdotal evidence suggests that commonly cited pain points relate to technical specifications, scope, data sources, processes, stakeholder influence, range of technical knowledge, timeframes and budget/cost; to name a few.

Looking towards the future; over the next 10 years, it is anticipated state and federal governments will invest over $75 billion in new nationally significant transport infrastructure. In addition, the ongoing spending for locally significant projects, network management, planning and policy will continue. These projects range from $10 thousand to $10 billion in magnitude with a high proportion of these projects, particularly the larger more significant investments, are likely to require some level of transport modelling to help support the project shaping to the political system, financiers, or to support the design development itself. Furthermore, emerging trends relating to data availability and travel behaviour change and economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to add to the underlying need for transport modelling.

Poorly managed transport modelling projects result in poorer outcomes and repeated cycle of failed activities. The negative outcomes then result in poor business case decision making, lesser infrastructure design outcomes and/or reduced reputation of the transport modelling profession. Conversely, successfully managed transport modelling projects generally result in better outcomes, with improved support to business case development, network and infrastructure design process, policy development and reputation of the profession.

This research project aims to conduct a review and research on the factors which have led to successful/unsuccessful outcomes on modelling projects such that these can be shared across the industry and action taken to address/promote common themes.

• The research project will not aim to define ‘success’ as an outcome as this will be subjective to each participant and functionality of the model. We will however aim to rate the relative impact of each item.
• The objective of the research is to investigate pain points and success factors from the perspective of project delivery. It will not review the technical details of these and how these relate to best practice (for example).
• The project will explore the influence that external forces that data, guidelines, software/tools and frameworks can have on projects, but it will not (unless overwhelming evidence exists) detail the specifics of these.
• The project will aim to be agnostic with respect to model types, software, however, should the need arise to link common themes, then this may be necessary.

Our research project will involve interviewing owners, custodians, project managers, at government agencies that can successfully articulate the ‘pain points’ and ‘success factors’ of their recent transport modelling projects. Our aim is to speak to representatives from each state and territory in Australia, and time permitting, New Zealand. We will also seek to discuss this topic with a number of national bodies. The outcomes of this research will be used to help inform possible strategies to maximise the benefits of success factors, and minimise the impact of pain points. We will also look to validate research findings through the online AITPM platform with the broader industry. All research data points will be anonymised.

View the research findings

Ted Huxtable Research Grant Awarded to Callan Stirzaker and John Trieu of WSP, 2022-2023

Ted Huxtable Research Grant

Ted Huxtable was AITPM’s first life member who passed away in 2014 at the age of 88. Ted was also NRMA’s first traffic engineer who was pivotal in guiding the organisation’s policies in traffic engineering, transport planning and road safety. Ted was a devoted AITPM member, and he bequeathed $10,000 to the Institute on his passing.

The purpose of the Ted Huxtable Research Grant was to foster research or investigations into emerging areas of interest to the traffic and transport industry. The desired outcome of these investigations will represent leading edge efficiency, safety and/or sustainability and have clear and direct benefits to the Australian transport system and its users. The research may be conducted in Australia or overseas.