The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has announced that as part of an 18-month trial, mobile closed circuit television (CCTV) camera systems will be used to detect personal mobility device (PMD) riders who do not abide by the law set for them.
The CCTVs will be periodically positioned across different hotspot locations from July 31st, 2019. These places include Jurong West, Punggol, Sembawang, and Woodlands.
“The trial aims to determine the effectiveness of the video analytics software and radar technology in these CCTVs in detecting active mobility offences such as speeding,” said LTA.
It added that reckless riders captured by the CCTVs during the trial may face further investigation and prosecution.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Baey Yam Kheng, said that much-improved video analytics for tracking of speeds will be employed. These video analytics could potentially come with facial and number recognition capabilities. This would enable law enforcement to more accurately identify and target the culprits.
Mr Baey was speaking at a media preview for a new feature on the MyTransport.SG mobile app which allows members of the public to report on reckless PMD and power-assisted bicycle (PAB) riders. Under the “Report PMD/PAB Incident” feature on the app, members of the public can directly report these incidents to LTA from July 31st.
This new feature will allow LTA to be better able to follow-up on cases of reckless riders and it will also act as a deterrence for any negligence amongst them.
He said, “We have more than 700,000 people who have downloaded the MyTransport.SG app, so this means that there are potentially more than 700,000 cameras and eyes around to look out for these riders”.
LTA said that while the app cannot identify speeding drivers, the reports sent in by members of the public will allow LTA to analyse data and detect the hotspot locations for a high volume of accidents or incidents of reckless riding.
The app allows users to send in photos or videos to provide definitive evidence of the incidents which can be used for prosecuting the culprit.
The public can refer to LTA’s guidelines to correctly categorize and identify a reckless rider.
“We hope that the app will be positively welcomed and used by the public…of course, there could be people who abuse it, but we will improve and build up resources over time, using technology as much as we can so that we are able to make good sense of the data received,” said Mr Baey.
