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Tag: traffic

  • Jakarta Seeks To Introduce ERP By End Of This Year

    Jakarta Seeks To Introduce ERP By End Of This Year

    JAKARTA — The Jakarta provincial government is expected to begin an intensive public campaign to educate motorists on its Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system in the next few months.

    The city’s administration wants to implement ERP by the end of 2015. It has been studying the system to reduce traffic congestion since 2006.

    “We have prepared the concept for an intensive socialisation in two to three months’ time on how the community can be informed of the ERP concept in a big and complete way,” said Mr Leo Armstrong, head of the ERP management unit at Jakarta Transportation Agency. “The government will lead the campaign.”

    Two ERP gantries have been erected at two busy roads to test the system. Trials have already been completed and the local government says the results are encouraging.

    PUBLICITY STUNT

    However, transport analysts are not convinced. “This is like a publicity stunt where they just put some fancy gantries in the middle of the road,” said Mr Yoda Adiwinarto, country manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

    “The transport agency claimed that they want to try the effectiveness of the gantry; they want to try whether the on-board unit will work well. The problem is that all the on-board units that they installed were only for the official vehicles. So why bother putting the giant gantries on the public roads? Just try it somewhere nobody knows.”

    The tender for the implementation of the ERP system is expected to be released in June. A one-day workshop will also be conducted among various stakeholders to discuss road pricing regulations.

    One of the challenges facing the implementation of ERP concerns motorists using small shortcut roads. Jakarta has a complicated network of roads which includes small shortcut roads.

    The provincial government is well aware that motorists may try to bypass the ERP by using shortcut roads. But while taking such a route may save some money, it may not save time because during peak hours shortcut roads are even more congested.

    Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has set a target for the ERP system to be completed by the end of 2015.

    Transport analysts believe this may not happen because of the lack of progress on the ground. In addition, the project has been hit by numerous delays over the years.

    MIXED VIEWS

    Motorists have mixed views about the effectiveness of electronic road pricing.

    “Sometimes electronic pricing can be a solution for the traffic but sometimes I think a collaboration system electronic and manual system could be integrated to be a solution in Jakarta because not all the people in Jakarta support electronics,” said one motorist.

    “I think we need more, wider roads,” added another motorist. “The ERP will not have any effect on congestion.”

    Jakarta is struggling to keep vehicle population down, and it hopes electronic road pricing, which means higher costs for private vehicles, will help to solve the problem.

    At the same time, it is improving the public transport infrastructure to encourage motorists to turn to buses and trains instead.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • More Digital Speed Enforcement Cameras To Be Installed By Year End

    More Digital Speed Enforcement Cameras To Be Installed By Year End

    Speeding motorists will soon find it harder to slip past the authorities, with 20 digital speed cameras to be installed at 11 locations around Singapore by the end of the year.

    Six of the 11 locations already have mobile speed laser cameras, while the remaining five have no speed cameras. The colourfully-painted digital speed cameras, which will complement the mobile speed laser cameras, are able to operate around the clock, even during inclement weather. These cameras will also have enhanced capabilities to better identify speeding vehicles.

    This was announced by the Traffic Police today (Jan 29), as it revealed that there has been a 6.5 per cent increase in speeding violations, adding that the offence is the major cause of fatal and injury accidents.

    There were 278,545 accidents last year with 42 related fatalities, up from 261,540 in 2013 with 39 fatalities.

    Describing the offence as “one of the very bad habits motorists (in Singapore) have”, Assistant Commissioner (AC) Sam Tee, the Traffic Police Commander, said the police are working harder to reduce the number of speeding violations.

    The police are also continuing with the replacement of film red light cameras with digital ones, with 30 more to be up by Sept 30, adding to the 120 already in place.

    There were 971,871 vehicles on the road last year. The number of fatal traffic accidents and fatalities, which has been on a downward trend, has dipped. There were 149 fatal accidents last year, compared with 150 in 2013, while the number of fatalities fell to 154 from 160 in 2013. In 2012 and 2011, there were 162 and 192 fatal accidents, respectively.

    The number of fatal accidents that involve running the red light also fell last year to four from eight in 2013.

    Other concerns raised by the Traffic Police include the increase in the number of elderly pedestrians killed on the road — from 17 in 2013 to 25 last year. These were mainly caused by motorists who were not alert and turning vehicles that failed to give way to pedestrians when traffic lights were in the favour of pedestrians.

    And of the 25 elderly pedestrian fatalities recorded last year, seven occurred while they were jaywalking.

    AC Tee said this is an area of serious concern, given Singapore’s ageing population. He said more efforts would be put into educating the elderly on how to look after themselves on the road.

    “The hearing and observation skills (of the elderly) are different from those who are more able bodied. We also urge road users to pay more attention to them,” he said.

    There were fewer persons arrested for drink-driving last year following a step up in enforcement operations — from 3,019 in 2013 to 2,954 last year — but the number of injury accidents rose 2.5 per cent, from 7,598 cases in 2013 to 7,791 cases last year. The number of fatal accidents due to drink-driving dipped from 14 to 10 cases last year.

    The number of motorcyclists and pillion riders injured in accidents rose 5.7 per cent to 4,631 last year.

    AC Tee said motorists must realise that every traffic rule violation poses a danger to themselves and to other road users.

     

    Here’s where the digital speed cameras will be:

    AYE towards City

    AYE towards Jurong

    Boon Lay Way towards Commonwealth Avenue West

    Boon Lay Way towards Jalan Boon Way

    Bukit Batok Road towards Chua Chu Kang Road

    Bukit Batok Road towards Jurong Town Hall Road

    BKE towards PIE

    BKE towards Woodlands

    Holland Road towards Farrer Road

    Holland Road towards Grange Road

    Loyang Avenue towards Tampines Avenue 7

    PIE towards ECP

    PIE towards Tuas

    SLE towards BKE

    SLE towards CTE

    Upper Thomson Road towards Lornie Road

    Upper Thomson Road towards Sembawang Road

    Yishun Avenue 1 towards Lentor Avenue

    Yishun Avenue 2 towards Lentor Avenue

    Yishun Avenue 2 towards Sembawang Road

     

    Source:www.todayonline.com

  • Elderly Man Dead After Accident Involving SMRT Bus

    Elderly Man Dead After Accident Involving SMRT Bus

    An accident involving an SMRT bus and a pedestrian left one elderly man dead on Monday (Nov 17).

    The Singapore Civil Defence Force said they were alerted to the incident along Jurong East Street 32 at 11.57am. They sent one ambulance to the scene, but the man in his 70s – later identified by SMRT as Mr Tan – was pronounced dead at the scene.

    Channel 8 News quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the lower half of the elderly man’s body was mangled, while a walking stick was seen on the road. It also said the bus windscreen was shattered in the accident.

    The driver was reportedly a 34-year-old female, according to Channel 8 News. Her relatives told Channel 8 News that she had only joined SMRT eight months ago, but had 13 years’ experience driving buses in Malaysia.

    An SMRT spokesperson said: “We would like to express our deepest condolences to Mr Tan’s family. We are currently cooperating with the traffic police on the investigations. We have contacted Mr Tan’s family and will render assistance as best as we can during this very difficult time.”

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com