The Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) achievements at the National Infocomm Awards (NIA) generated much interest in land transport from industry partners and city authorities around the world, leading to many collaborations with global multinational corporations, local start-ups and renowned research institutions. This has benefited both LTA and Singapore in many ways.

Through these joint collaborations with the private sector, comprehensive traffic and transit information is now available to both motorists and commuters at their fingertips. These users now have more choices and different service channels to choose from to do their own mapping, directions and route planning for various forms of land transport such as buses, trains, cars and even on foot.

In a dense city-state like Singapore, having real-time traffic information on-the-go is critical for motorists to plan alternative routes or mode of transport. (Photo: LTA)

“Winning the prestigious NIA Award in 2008 is testament to our commitment towards achieving innovation breakthroughs with the adoption of technology in land transport solutions for Singapore,” said LTA’s Group Director of Innovation & Infocomm Technology and Chief Innovation Officer, Mrs Rosina Howe. ”Not only do these solutions improve our efficiency in managing complex land transport challenges, they also serve as effective daily tools for the man-on-the-street to plan
their journeys.”

LTA has also inked several collaborative agreements with leading technological companies to co-develop and test-bed next generation transport telematics solutions under an applied research programme called Singapore Urban Transport Solution (STARS), which was launched in November 2008. Some key research areas include an enhanced bus arrival prediction algorithm, which is a joint research and development collaboration by LTA and IBM to predict bus arrival times with up to 90 per cent (± 1 min) accuracy by incorporating real-time traffic conditions on the roads. The aim is to provide more accurate travel information and reduce waiting time.

In another similar collaboration, LTA worked with a local start-up to deliver real-time traffic information using open standards. The information can thus be used directly in dynamic route guidance applications developed by mobile device manufacturers for their customers.

Since its implementation, traffic data from LTA has powered numerous free-to-use as well as value-added commercial applications and solutions in Singapore with partners such as Google Maps Singapore, SingTel’s TrafficLIVE and other third-party portable navigation devices providers.

“In a dense city-state like Singapore, having real-time traffic information on-the-go is critical for motorists to plan alternative routes or mode of transport. Since heavy traffic conditions cannot be totally removed, easing the traffic load on our roads as motorists divert away with the aid of these real-time traffic information will improve overall road safety and driving experience,” said Dr Chin Kian Keong, LTA’s Group Director for Transportation and Ticketing Technology Group.

The STARS initiatives have also attracted attention from several international elite research universities. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Technical University of Munich are currently engaging LTA in mega research programmes such as the Future Urban Mobility, the Future Cities Laboratory and the Electromobility in Megacities respectively. The goal of all these programmes is to develop, in and beyond Singapore, a new paradigm for the planning, design and operation of future urban mobility system.

To find out more about the National Infocomm Awards, visit www.nia.org.sg.