Technical report Draft 1

Proposed solution

From survey results gathered, we found out that commuters have trouble boarding and alighting public transport. We also found out that majority of the commuters spent most of their time on their phones , so our team came out with an idea of having a holographic display alongside with a mobile application that complements it to tackle this problem.

The holographic projector will display a hologram layout of the interior in respect to the  public transport. The holographic projector will have features such as displaying the next station, facilities and amenities of the location, the exact spot of the commuters who are alighting and also displaying advertisements. The projection of the hologram will be on the ceiling of the public transport.

Free Wi-Fi system will be available for public usage in trains and buses, but the trade-off of this solution is that users will have to download the application in order to use the Wi-Fi. The application works in conjunction with the train’s Wi-Fi system and it serves as a notice to prompt the users with important messages/warning to look at the hologram whenever there is a need.

When commuters enters a MRT or bus, they can connect to the free Wi-Fi available inside the cabin through an application. The application will then prompt the commuters for their alighting stop. During the journey, the user will be notified by the application through a pop up message whenever someone is alighting or when the next station/stop is busy. For busy station/stops, the app will notify the user with a warning message that there will be huge volume of people alighting/boarding the station. When there is someone alighting, the commuter will be notified by the pop up to take a look at the holographic display. The holographic display gives them a visual representation of the people alighting so that the commuter can better facilitate a way for them to alight. The application will also notify the commuter when the commuter’s alighting stop is approaching.

Reader's Response

According to “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road”, (Tan, 2017), new LED strips that mimics the flow of the traffic lights are installed at 2 pedestrian crossings on a half-year trial by the Land Transport Authority to raise awareness of road safety.

Tan mentioned about the figures, which was released by Traffic Police, that the accident rates were at a four year high, with pedestrian accidents making one-third of all fatal road accidents and the elderly making up substantial part of the figures. Tan then remarked that the new feature will make crossing safer with the assistance of the LED strips.

While the new safety system implemented would aid pedestrian to cross the road safer and reduce road accidents, I feel that LTA should work together with the Traffic Police to focus the ongoing problem regarding road safety among the elderly.

Statistics have shown that accidents involving the elderly are increasing over the past few years. According to the figures provided by the Singapore Police Force (2017), both the number of accidents and fatalities involving the elderly have increased by 19.6% and 21.7% respectively. In this case, LED lights would only benefit the elderly in traffic junction due to visual hindrance which prevents some of them from seeing the traffic signal from far. However, as mentioned by the report released by SPF, “Elderly pedestrian fatalities are also commonly caused by motorists not keeping a lookout for and not giving way to these pedestrians.”, the LED floor lights would only aid the elderly pedestrian to cross road safer but they are still vulnerable to careless motorists. With that being said, LTA and TP should impose heavier punishment on careless motorists.

Another key issue the LTA and TP should focus on is the problem with jaywalking among the elderly.

SPF indicated that the number of accidents involving elderly who jaywalked increased by 42.1% in recent years. In the article “Convenience over safety for senior jaywalkers” (2016), a senior citizen in his 70s, said that it is exhausting to climb the overhead bridges due to the sweltering weather and ‘it is more convenient just to jaywalk’. Despite having overhead bridges and safety measurement introduced by LTA such as Green Man Plus Scheme, which provides elderly pedestrians additional time to cross the road, the elderly pedestrians still chose jaywalking in favour of walking to the nearest traffic light or making extra effort to climb overhead bridges. In this instance, LED lights would not be useful at all as it is only available in traffic junctions. LTA and TP would have to educate the elderly to further stress the importance of safety to convenience sake and step up effort to nab jaywalkers.

In conclusion, although LTA implemented LED floor lights to ensure road safety of the people, it is evident that accidents involving the elderly are not showing signs of improvements. Therefore, LTA, with the aid of TP could work together and tackle the issue regarding road safety among the elderly by improving current safety measures.

Reference:

Tan, Christopher. “Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road.” The Straits Times, 9 May 2017, www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/floor-lights-help-smartphone-zombies-keep-eye-on-the-road.

Accessed 15 Sept. 2017.

''Annual Road Traffic Situation 2016" Singapore Police Force, 15 February 2017, https://www.police.gov.sg/~/media/spf/files/statistics/20170215_stats_road_traffic_situation_2016.pdf

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Land Transport Authority, n.d,

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/roads-and-motoring/projects/road-and-commuter-facilities/silver-zones.html

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Soh, Zachary. “Convenience over safety for senior jaywalkers” The New Paper, 17 April 2017,

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/convenience-over-safety-senior-jaywalkers

Accessed 13 October 2017.