“Our future hinges on our ability to nurture the ITS ecosystem”
According to Tan Sri Dr Ali B. Hamsa, chief secretary, Government of Malaysia, mobility is the heartbeat of cities and towns and a necessity for urban and rural life. However, the need for such mobility results in certain outcomes such as pollution, congestion, and social and health problems. Notwithstanding that, mobility is a focal point for economic growth in terms of delivering goods and services and improving the quality of life.
Excerpts from the speech of Dr Ali B. Hamsa, Chief Secretary, Government of Malaysia, at the ITS Seminar and Exhibition 2017, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 21-23, 2017…
Intelligent transport systems
According to the ITS Strategic Plan, “Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), is the application of modern computer electronics and communications technology to transport”. Emerging technologies fundamentally alter the manner in which road safety is viewed and maximise the capacities and performance in transport infrastructure.
The industry itself is growing rapidly with major players such as Google Maps, Uber, Tesla, Lyft and GRABS making significant investments into systems. The reason is that by the year 2030, 60 per cent of the population will be living in metropolitan areas, which is an increase of 10 per cent from the current level. Consequently, the middle-class segment of 2 billion is expected to be living in cities with the automobile industry expected to increase sales by 55 million to 125 million per year by the year 2025.
ITS captures the very essence of the challenges faced today. Over the last several years, from a technological perspective, there has been an exponential growth in the use of smartphones and smart devices with escalating processing powers and storage capacities at decreasing cost. It is said that we are now at the Fourth Industrial Revolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, connected and automated vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, material science, renewable energy, energy storage, and quantum computing. It is the age of all things connected in a digital world.
These developments call for us to seek out new ways to “normalise” our transport systems. We need to cater to increasingly sophisticated user demands, to drive greater cost efficiencies and to help establish sustainability in the way we plan, deploy, organise, operate and manage these increasingly complex systems.
Public transportation:
An economic enabler
Transportation is without doubt the life-line of our nation and our economy. To this end, the Government of Malaysia has invested significantly in public transport. Outcome-based and impact-driven projects have been initiated. Among these are the first line of the Klang Valley mass rapid transit (MRT) system, that is, the Sg-Buloh-Kajang (SBK) line, due to be fully operational this year, which costs RM 21 billion. The estimated construction cost for the second line, the Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP), due for completion by 2022, is estimated at RM 32 billion.
As the region’s latest MRT system to become operational, the MRT SBK Line, of which the first phase just opened on December 16, 2016, utilises some of the latest in ITS in its application to MRT systems. The planning for MRT Line 3, also known as the Circle Line, has also started.
The LRT Line Extension for the Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines was completed recently. Furthermore, construction of the 36 km long LRT Line 3, linking Bandar Utama to Klang and targeting 74,000 commuters, is expected to start later this year and is scheduled for completion in 2020.
The other infrastructure mega projects include the high speed rail connecting Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which is 350 km in length, while the ongoing Pan Borneo Highway, also known as the Trans Borneo Highway, will have a total length of 2,325 km.
The investment in such infrastructure by the government has allowed transportation to play the role of an enabler to economic growth, providing greater connectivity between urban and rural areas for the people.
Electronic toll
Toll collection at all 21 tolled highways in the Klang Valley is now fully electronic. By the end of this year, the Malaysian Highway Authority expects all 31 tolled highways (with 177 toll plazas) nationwide to adopt electronic toll collection (ETC). Once this is accomplished, the stage will be set for the start of the multi-lane free-flow system. The use of touch n go for cashless or ETC toll collection started in 2004 and henceforth, this journey to full ETC will have taken us 13 years.
In comparison, five years ago, we already had an over 120 per cent penetration rate in mobile cellular services. As of 2016, we already have 44.5 million mobile subscribers for a population of 31.5 million, in other words, the mobile penetration rate is a whopping 144.8 per cent.
Due to the rapidly evolving landscape of users and technologies, the Ministry of Transport, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, and associated industries under their ambit will be pivotal in shaping the future of ITS Malaysia.
ITS strategic plan
When we first started aggregating ITS stakeholders in 1999, we worked towards a defined set of “plans” to help chart the growth trajectory for ITS deployment in the country. The ITS Strategic Plan was released in 1999, followed by the ITS Master Plan in 2004 and subsequently, the ITS National System Architecture in 2007.
However, developments in ITS have since fallen short of moving the master plan and systems architecture into law or guided practices and have allowed “markets” to freely create opportunities and needs without much government interference.
In doing so, we have allowed a level of fragmentation in local industry which, if uncorrected, could ultimately become self-defeating.
We need not look too far to see how ITS has benefited Asia-Pacific and ASEAN member countries such as Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and Korea. Intelligent transport systems in these countries are undoubtedly world-class showcases.
At this juncture, the ITS Association of Malaysia and the Ministry of Works and other relevant agencies are looking at ways to reduce the “gap” between the private and public sectors. The public sector is looking at the private sector to innovate and to fund such initiatives. At the same time, the government will provide policy direction for our national ITS agenda.
Challenges
The key challenge in Malaysia is to break the information and system silos among the various ITS deployments in different agencies and jurisdictions. In doing so, we need to establish a “network effect” where the focus is to establish cooperative frameworks and data sharing among the many deployments with private and public agencies. Subsequently, in order to get the most from ITS, public and private agencies must cooperate collectively. This means greater collaboration and change in mindsets among institutions.
We need to recognise that ITS is about creating and managing a network. To do so, we need to put in robust technologies that allow us to see and sense the flows and disruptions in our transport networks in real time – to provide us with good, actionable information that can support prompt and sound decision making.
Our other challenge relates to management. Traditionally, our agencies have been tasked with building and maintaining infrastructure – building new roads, improving junctions, clearing blocked drains, fixing potholes, repairing or replacing aged infrastructure, and of course, the enforcement of rules. ITS requires a new set of interdisciplinary skills and understanding, particularly in the areas of supply and demand management, and investment in technology with longer-term visions and returns. We need new skill sets and competencies.
The way forward
Our future hinges on our ability to nurture the ITS ecosystem by bringing in wider participation from cellular service providers, broadband providers, vehicle manufacturers, logistics companies, academic/research and development institutions, and transport technology innovators and service providers.
