SINGAPORE (Mar 16): Asia is paving the way for smarter transportation systems as an increasing number of countries here urbanise and improve their infrastructure.
This is as Asian countries share a regional vision to create smart cities, smart transport and smart living, a recent report by computer servers and software provider Stratus Technologies reveals.
“You only need to look at renowned smart cities like Hong Kong and Singapore to see how Asia continues to lead change and is prepared both from an infrastructural and technological standpoint to support the region’s burgeoning population growth,” explains Edward Chow, Stratus’ vice president for Asia Pacific.
Specifically, with only 12% of the land in Singapore is set aside for roads and transport infrastructure, the city state is noted as a regional leader in smart transportation.
And, as part of its move to become a smart city, the city state is now looking to improve its back-end operations and maintenance processes. This includes the Land Transport Authority’s implementation of a Drone Task Force, which uses technology to inspect and monitor train tracks and tunnels to identify any issues in real time.
Further, there is an ongoing collaboration between the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit and the Nanyang Technological University to use technology to detect defects on trains. It will also look into the use of laser technology to repair defective rails.
These features look to provide a more efficient and reliable commute, especially during the daily rush hours, says Chow.
To operators, he says it provides a better way in which the sector operates, through a more efficient deployment of resources.
These eventually translate into lesser environmental emissions.
To this end, the International Energy Authority notes that automation, connectivity, electrification and sharing are critical elements of transportation networks today.
As such it is heartening that Asia’s transportation networks are headed in the right direction by using smart technologies to remain reliable.
After all, as Albert Tam, lead solutions architect at Stratus puts it: “Reliability stands for the technology that controls millions of people and reliability of their life: To get them from one point to another in a timely and safe manner”.
