SIBU, March 11: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) has been told to change its traffic light system to Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (Scats) type “as soon as possible” to ease traffic flow.
Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin said today that he had met chairman of the council, Councillor Clarence Ting on the need to change the system as all of them were the traditional traffic lights.
He said there are 24 traffic light systems under the council and another 16 under the Public Works Department (PWD).
“The traffic light system under SMC are not the smart type yet. In Kuching we have 42 of the Scats system being installed and will be ready by this October, while in Miri we have started a pilot study (for its implementation),” he said.
Lee revealed that the problem with the traffic light system here is that they were of five different systems. Of the 24 under SMC, only nine of them could be upgraded to be compatible with the Scats type while the rest needed a complete change.
These nine are located in Jalan Masjid, Jalan Lada, Jalan Delta, Jalan Ding Lik Kwong, Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, Jalan Bengkel, Jalan Pahlawan, Jalan Salim Bypass and Jalan Mission.
“This morning we had a discussion with the chairman and engineers of the council. Only nine of them could be upgraded to be compatible with the Scats system so that the whole state would be using the same system,” he added.
He wanted Sibu to follow Kuching whereby all the Scats traffic light systems could be integrated and controlled by the central control system.
“The Scats management system helps to ease traffic flow in cutting waiting time as it uses artificial intelligence (AI). If there are more cars on one side, it will give longer time for the cars to get through” he said.
In Miri, he said a study conducted showed that Scats traffic light could cut down motorists’ waiting time by 50 per cent. —DayakDaily
