Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

image
Grab, World Bank Sign MOU for Open Traffic Platform At Big Data Week
image
September 22, 2016 News

The World Bank and Grab have signed an MOU to collaborate on an Open Traffic Platform for government agencies in Malaysia. It will be only the second country in the world to have such a platform after the Phillipines.

The training was held in conjunction with Big Data Week Asia 2016. BDWA 2016 is a week-long congregation kicking off at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre initiated by MDEC which hosted 3,500 participants from across Asean, 84 world-class speakers, 38 leading exhibitors, 41 sponsors and 17 satellite events focused on building a data-driven Asean.

Open traffic is a graphical user interface to easily query and visualize stored traffic statistics for both travel time and speed, in a map using anonymised GPS data from Grab. It will enable traffic management officials access to relevant data that will enable them to monitor real and historic traffic data, thus allowing them to make decisions based on the evidence provided through the analysis, to alter or intervene at traffic light timings, public transit, infrastructure, emergency traffic routes and other traffic management demands.

Grab currently has 400 thousand drivers and will be able to use the data from their drivers to alert and give feedback on road conditions, traffic, weather and emergencies such as flooding or accidents. With the GPS trackers, they are also able to quantify travel times and hot spots for recurring congestions and find ways to overcome them.

At the recently held training for government agencies held in Cyberjaya on the uses and advantages of this platform, Tan Kim Bock, Deputy Director for the Urban Transport Division, Civil Engineering And Urban Transport Department of City Hall Kuala Lumpur, said he was happy to see the collaboration between MDEC, Grab and World Bank to address this issue and come to a solution.

“We currently have 600 cameras throughout KL city to monitor traffic. We can’t always pick up on every vehicle breakdown. There are many times when we act on the call, the vehicle has already moved away once we arrive. This is due to the breakdown not being of a serious nature”, he said.

He added that if this platform is able to alert them in real time of the actual conditions on ground, it will be very beneficial to all agencies.

Grab and World Bank informed the attendees that they will be launching the platform in a few month’s time once they have received feedback from the agencies and adjusted the platform accordingly.

The launch will be commemorated by a hackathon prize giving ceremony conducted by World Bank and Grab in partnership with MDEC. The data source will be supplied by World Bank and Grab.

 

(0)(0)

Archive