Electronic Monitoring and Advisory System
Encyclopedia
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
ised system that is used to monitor traffic on Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
's expressways
Expressways of Singapore
The expressways of Singapore are special roads that allow motorists to travel quickly from one urban area to another. All of them are dual carriageways with grade-separated access. They usually have three to four lanes in each direction, although there are two-lane or five-lane carriageways in some...
. EMAS enables Land Transport Authority
Land Transport Authority
The Land Transport Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Singapore Government.-History:...
(LTA) personnel to detect accidents and respond to them more quickly. In addition, it notifies motorists of adverse traffic conditions.
History
The contract for the construction of EMAS was awarded by the LTA to Singapore Technologies Electronics in December 1996. The first phase, implemented only on the Central ExpresswayCentral Expressway
The following roads are named Central Expressway:*Central Expressway, Singapore*Central Expressway , part of County Route G6 in Santa Clara County, California*Central Expressway , part of U.S. Highway 75 in Dallas, Texas...
, was launched officially on 21 March 1998 by then Minister of State for Communications, John Chen.
The system was further expanded in its second phase to monitor tunnels of the CTE, as well as Ayer Rajah Expressway
Ayer Rajah Expressway
The Ayer Rajah Expressway extends from the western end of the East Coast Parkway in the south of Singapore to Tuas in the west near the Tuas Second Link to Malaysia...
, East Coast Parkway
East Coast Parkway
The East Coast Parkway is an expressway that runs along the southeastern coast of Singapore. The expressway is approximately in length, and connects Singapore Changi Airport in the east to the Benjamin Sheares Bridge in the south of the main island before it links with the Ayer Rajah Expressway...
and Pan Island Expressway
Pan Island Expressway
The Pan Island Expressway is the oldest and longest of Singapore's expressways. Currently, it is also Singapore's longest road. It extends along the length of the island, connecting Tuas in the west to Singapore Changi Airport in the east. Its length is .-Construction:Construction of the PIE...
. This was implemented by April 2000.
Mechanism
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s and LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
signboards located at strategic points along the expressways. The cameras transmit data to the ITS Centre, located at Clemenceau Avenue. In the Centre, staff monitor the data 24 hours a day, looking out for signs of accidents. When an accident occurs, the appropriate agencies, such as the Traffic Police and SCDF
Singapore Civil Defence Force
The Singapore Civil Defence Force is the main agency in charge of the provision of emergency services in Singapore during peacetime and emergency.A uniformed organisation under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the main role of SCDF is to provide...
, are notified. Warning messages are then displayed on the signboards to inform motorists of the accident and allow them to make alternative travel plans. When the expressways are free of accidents, the signboards are used to display other informational messages, such as road safety reminders, planned road closures, or road works.
As part of EMAS phase 2, smaller signboards were installed on the expressways as well as arterial road
Arterial road
An arterial road, or arterial thoroughfare, is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature...
s that connect to them. These smaller signboards were intended to display the estimated travel time to various destinations, in addition to information messages. The estimated travel time display was removed in April 2003 due to public protests that it was a frivolous feature, but the feature since has been recently restored.
Effectiveness and criticism
EMAS has helped LTA to detect road traffic accidents, vehicle breakdowns, and other incidents. By June 2004, LTA had removed conventional SOSSOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
s from all Singapore expressways (except the CTE tunnels), citing the effectiveness of EMAS and the widespread use of mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s as reasons. LTA reassured motorists without mobile phones that they would not be stranded without help in case of a breakdown, as the expressways are patrolled by EMAS recovery teams in two trucks every two hours.
However, the system has been panned by its critics who denounce it as a waste of money, with messages being couched in "unintelligible" abbreviation
Abbreviation
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
s. For example, "Please" is shortened to "PLS" in the first picture of this article.
See also
- Variable message signVariable message signA variable- message sign, often abbreviated VMS, CMS, or DMS, and in the UK known as a matrix sign,...
- Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic SignallingMotorway Incident Detection and Automatic SignallingMotorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling, usually abbreviated to MIDAS, is a distributed network of traffic sensors, mainly inductive loops, which are designed to set variable message signs and advisory speed limits with little human intervention...
- a slightly different system in the UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...