Assessing Brisbane’s key suburban transport corridors

This project aims to develop a robust, data-driven framework to assess the performance of key suburban corridors in Brisbane. By integrating diverse transport datasets—including SCATS, Bluetooth, GTFS, and other external data sources—the project will generate new, person-centric indicators focused on productivity and travel time reliability.

These insights will be visualised through interactive dashboards tailored to Brisbane’s operational and strategic needs, enabling improved transport monitoring and informed decision making.

The outcomes will support evidence-based investment decisions and deliver a scalable model for citywide application, helping Brisbane optimise existing infrastructure and enhance its multimodal transport network.

Participants

• Brisbane City Council
• Queensland University of Technology

Project background

Brisbane is preparing to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a transformative milestone that demands efficient, resilient, and people-centric transport networks. At the same time, the city is experiencing rapid population growth, leading to increasing congestion and mounting pressure on existing corridors.

Traditional vehicle-centric performance metrics fall short in capturing how effectively a corridor moves people across multiple modes, especially as Brisbane seeks to optimise its current infrastructure and prioritise strategic investments — such as the proposed Brisbane Metro expansion.

To meet this challenge, Brisbane City Council (Council) is seeking innovative, data-driven solutions that go beyond vehicle-based indicators and provide a clearer understanding of person-based mobility and travel time reliability.

This project will deliver a robust proof of concept for assessing multimodal corridor performance by integrating diverse datasets (such as SCATS, Bluetooth, GTFS, and other data sources). The framework will generate new person-centric indicators, including:

• People-moving productivity; and
• Travel time variability.

The outcomes will include:

• A comprehensive, evidence-based baseline of corridor performance across modes and time periods;
• Novel dashboards tailored to Council’s operational needs; and
• A scalable and replicable modelling framework for citywide application.

Ultimately, this initiative will help Brisbane prioritise investments, optimise existing assets, and enhance corridor performance — laying the groundwork for a seamless, multimodal transport system ready to meet the demands of a growing city and the world stage in 2032 and beyond.

Project objectives

With a case study focused on selected corridors (or a sub-network) within the Council region, the project aims to:

1. Establish a multimodal corridor performance baseline by analysing multisource data available to Council (including SCATS, Bluetooth, GTFS, and other external data sources) to model the following for each transport mode along a corridor
   • People-moving productivity; and
   • Travel time variability
2. Develop dashboards to visualise corridor performance, supporting both operational and strategic decision making. Dashboards will be tailored to Council’s user interface preferences and fully aligned with its data warehousing, integration, and security standards.
3. Design a scalable, systematic framework for future citywide application and ongoing performance monitoring, enabling data-driven prioritisation of corridors for targeted infrastructure and technology upgrades.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!