The following challenges are the ones we are encouraging participants to solve or work on at CongestionHack. However, if you have an idea which is not covered by these, you can still use it for your entry.
1. Real Cost of Driving vs Other Modes of Transport
How can we provide the public/community the real costs of every form of travel available?
Currently, people can access information on total fares for public transport trips but comparative information on the total cost of making the same trip by driving is limited.
Challenge: A tool or solution that informs and engages the public to compare the total cost of driving with other modes. This could include tolls, total operating costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance etc) and other costs such as parking.
2. Road Less Travelled
How do we make better use of capacity so customers can experience a quicker or more reliable journey?
How do we make more efficient use of road capacity by encouraging customers to drive on less congested routes and at less congested times?
Challenge: Create a solution that encourages and communicates alternate, less congested routes for all customers, potentially based on ‘socially optimal routing’ methodologies and crowd-sourced data.
3. Saturday Snarl Buster
Weekends are for leisure, not for studying brake lights. How do we fix it?
Weekend traffic is getting worse. How do we understand and monitor weekend traffic? Once patterns are identified how can we change peoples' behaviour and communicate likely weekend congestion events?
Challenge: Is there a geography of leisure in Sydney and what implications does it have on congestion? How do we change behaviour as a result?
4. Truckie's Angel
When trucks stop, Australia stops. How can we help our truck drivers avoid crashes, breakdowns and getting stuck in a tunnel which can have a huge flow on effect for all road users?
Provide drivers with relevant routing information based on their vehicles’ dimensions and weight and give relevant audible warnings of potential hazards. Examples of hazards are roads where there are tight bends or bridges and tunnels that are unable to accommodate the vehicle's dimensions. Drivers could be directed to alternatives routes in real time. Possibly activate an alert direct to the Transport Management Centre (TMC) in case of crashes or breakdown.
Challenge: Reduce impacts from truck breakdowns, crashes and impact with tunnels/bridges.