The State of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia will conduct a trial using connected technology in order to handle road congestion in Sydney.

The trial will deploy vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) connected technology and aims to reduce the number of times trucks stop at traffic signals.

The technology is expected to ease traffic flow by increasing travel time at over 100 intersections across Sydney.

"We could potentially expand the use of this kind of technology to emergency vehicles and buses which could improve daily commutes, the opportunities are vast."

NSW Minister for Roads Duncan Gay said: "Heavy vehicles take a long time to stop and start which can cause delays for all road users.

"This trial will detect a heavy vehicle approaching traffic lights and provide more green time, which will hopefully show us how we can ease delays for all motorists across the whole network in the future.

"We could potentially expand the use of this kind of technology to emergency vehicles and buses which could improve daily commutes, the opportunities are vast."

The project will be conducted by the joint collaboration of NSW and Australian technology company Codha Wireless.

The partnership will trial approximately 110 trucks by using the new Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (CITS) technology that enables vehicles to communicate with road infrastructure.

The trucks will be fitted with Cohda’s Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) on-board units that use the automotive-grade RoadLink chipset and incorporate unmatched radio performance in adverse outdoor, mobile environments, reported Traffic Technology Today.

Gay added: "The results of this project will inform the way we look at incorporating connected vehicle technology on other vehicles and is a key step towards making Sydney infrastructure-ready for connected and automated vehicles in the future.

According to Gay, road congestion costs Sydney $5bn each year.

To conduct the trial, the CITS technology will be deployed on major freight corridors that include sections of Parramatta Road, Pennant Hills Road and King Georges Road.

During the trial, the traffic monitoring will be done through the Transport Management Centre.