Singapore Intelligent Transport Systems Centre (ITSC)

- The heart of traffic monitoring and control

William Chia
Executive Engineer, Intelligent Transport Systems Centre Division
Land Transport Authority, Singapore
Email: william_chia@lta.gov.sg
Musthafa Ibrahim
Engineer, Intelligent Transport Systems Development Division
Land Transport Authority, Singapore
Email: musthafa_ibrahim@lta.gov.sg
Leong Yin Fong
Manager, Management, Intelligent Transport Systems Centre Division
Land Transport Authority, Singapore
Email: yin_fong_leong@lta.gov.sg

Abstract
This paper focuses on the Singapore Intelligent Transport Systems Centre (ITS Centre), the
nerve centre to manage traffic management of major roads. The ITS Centre operates 24 hours
a day throughout the year, monitoring and managing traffic flows as well as maintaining our
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) infrastructure. It is the heart of all ITSs managed by the
Land Transport Authority of Singapore. This paper also gives an overview on the processes
taken and challenges faced over the years to integrate the various ITSs to effectively monitor
and control traffic with continuous improvements to meet the needs of the Singapore
motoring public.
Introduction
The ITS Centre was first formed in 1991 to monitor the traffic condition of Singapores first
underground road tunnel, Central Expressway (CTE) and to manage traffic lights along major
arterial roads using a computerized adaptive traffic signal system called locally as the Green
Link Determining System (GLIDE).
The vehicle population in Singapore has been increasing substantially from 559,304 in 1991
to almost a million (950,000) in year 2010 [1] as shown in Figure 1. However, only 12% [1]
of the Singapore land areas is taken up by roads and unlike many other countries, road
network expansion is restricted by the land constraint of our small country.

1000000
900000
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700000
600000

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98

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500000

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90

Number of Vehicles

Vehicle Population in Singapore

Year

Figure 1: Vehicle Population in Singapore

Given these challenges of growing vehicle number and limited room for road expansion, the
scope of ITS Centre operations has expanded from its humble beginning of just managing the
CTE tunnel and traffic light signals to the current operation of a wide range of ITS to better
monitor and control the traffic situations on the roads.
The Centre handles the day-to-day traffic management operations. The key functions include
real-time traffic monitoring and management of any incident along the roads. It monitors and
controls road works on the expressways and road tunnels. The Centre manages system and
equipment and ensures that the facilities are in good working conditions. Figure 2
summarizes the key operational functions of the ITS Centre.

Figure 2: ITS Operation Centre Key Operational Functions

The Early Days of Intelligent Transport Systems Centre

Beginning of ITSC
ITS operations started with the primary functions of traffic monitoring along major arterial
roads using the GLIDE system, which allows automated computerized control of the ~1,000
traffic light junctions. It monitors traffic light fault and repairs can be responded quickly.
Hence, the GLIDE system has improved the traffic flow along arterial roads.
The ITS Centre was subsequently built in 1991 as part of the Central Expressway (CTE)
tunnels1. The ITS Centre aims to monitor and ensure a smooth and safe ride through the
tunnels. The ITS Centre operated round the clock twenty-four hours daily with a team of one
supervisor and one technician in each shift.
The roles of operators for CTE Tunnel system include execution of traffic plan, system and
equipment faults monitoring, and crisis management in the tunnel. The traffic plan was
performed by displaying pre-defined messages on the Variable Message Signs (VMS) and
activating the Lane Usage Signs (LUS) with push buttons. The system that was used to
perform these functions was a manual system without computer aided assistive system as
shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: ITS Centre (in the 90s)

In 1998, the entire GLIDE system operation was relocated to ITS Centre. In the same year,
the Expressway Monitoring and Advisory System (EMAS) to monitor traffic condition on the
CTE open expressway were launched.
Although the various ITS were housed under the same roof, they were located and operated at
different levels of the building. Each system was operated individually as a separate entity.
This was very manpower-intensive as each system requires at least one operating staff to
monitor and control.

Singapores first road tunnel constructed below the Singapore River with 5 facility buildings.

Different sets of operators were specifically hired to perform the monitoring and control
functions. The operators for EMAS made use of the surveillance cameras, automatic incident
detection cameras and VMS to closely monitor the traffic conditions and displaying
appropriate messages to advise motorists of the prevailing traffic. Manual method was used
to manage the system and equipment, where the operator needed to page the contractor to
report any faulty equipment and the contractor would respond to the page and performed fault
rectification. The fault would be subsequently recorded in a fault log book.
Moreover, the operators also handled feedback from the public. In the case of arterial roads,
where there was no remote monitoring, operators had to physically go down to the location to
verify and assess the situation.
In 1999, the TrafficScan system was commissioned to monitor traffic condition and the
average speeds along arterial roads by using GPS units fitted on selected taxis. This speed
information was used to supplement the EMAS automatic incident detection system with the
real-time traffic speed of arterial roads. Subsequently, ITS Centre expanded its monitoring of
the traffic conditions from a single CTE tunnel to the rest of the expressways 2 with the
commissioning of EMAS phase 2 & 3 in year 2000 and 2001 respectively.
The Present Intelligent Transport Systems Centre
The commissioning of Junction-Eyes in 2002 with over 100 cameras saw ITS Centre took on
the increasing role of monitoring the major arterial roads. The coloured cameras are able to
pan, tilt and zoom to capture clear video images of the traffic situation at junctions. With
these remote eyes, the operators can monitor the traffic closely and implement appropriate
actions without leaving their seats.
Challenges to streamline ITS operation
With the various ITS in the Centre that were developed over the years, the staffing
requirement had become intensified and the processes of fault recording and data collection
were not productive as they were done manually. Hence, there was a need to streamline and
further automate the operation of the ITS for better staff deployment. Integrating the various
ITS together would be the way forward to allow seamless operations.
However, it was challenging on how to integrate the various ITS to streamline the operations
as we need to address the various considerations such as the proprietary of the various ITS,
the space constraint to house the additional equipment, whether to provide redundancy for the
integrated system and what is the suitable graphical user interface for the operators to work
on the various functionalities and operation of the systems.

Central Expressway , Pan Island Expressway, Ayer Rajah Expressway , East Coast Parkway, Tampines
Expressway, Seletar Expressway, Bukit Timah Expressway, Kranji Expressway

Effective Traffic Monitoring and Incident Management

With the need to integrate the various ITSs to enable a more effective traffic monitoring and
incident management, the i-transport system with a knowledge base was developed and
launched in 2004. The i-transport system allows the Operator to have a centralised traffic
control and incident management of arterial and expressway traffic. The i-transport system
integrates the various ITS (EMAS, J-Eyes, GLIDE, etc) into a common operation platform
and standardises the control and data exchanges among the various ITSs.
The highly intelligent and autonomous system enables EMAS, J-Eyes and GLIDE to operate
collectively and seamlessly to manage major traffic incidents that have wider impact on the
road network. Whenever an incident occurred on the expressway, i-transport would propose
the required messages to be displayed and would also determine which VMS to be displayed
with the messages. The time for Operator to display the messages on the VMSs upon
detection of an incident is reduced drastically from 10mins to less than a minute.
Effective System & Equipment Management
In order to enable operator to effectively perform the System and Monitoring function for the
various ITSs, the Unified Maintenance Hub (UMH) was implemented at ITS Centre in year
2006. The UMH is a Maintenance Management System (MMS). It stores and maintains data
about ITS locations, equipment, failure classes, maintenance personnel and maintenance
contract information. The system uses this information and data to help users facilitating their
preventive and corrective maintenance with standardized workflows, monitoring maintenance
contractor's maintenance activities and performance. The system improves the maintenance
of ITS service by providing better overall visibility and control over the maintenance
activities.
With the integrated i-transport system, the staffing for the operation was very much
streamlined. The ITS Operation Centre was revamped in year 2007 as shown in Figure 4 to
meet the increase in the scope for Traffic Monitoring and System Monitoring function. The
ITS Centre was restructured and the traffic monitoring scope is divided into zones where each
zone is handled by one Operation Executive (OE) for a more coherent way to manage the
traffic and at any one time, there is a Senior Operation Executive taking charge of the entire
operations. This structure enables a more comprehensive traffic monitoring of the island-wide
traffic conditions using the various ITS.

Figure 4: ITS Operation Centre (present)

In addition, the ITS Centre interfaces with other operation centres from Traffic Police,
Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and other LTA operation centres for better
integration and effective management of incident. The ability of ITS Centre to fully interface
with other operation centre is the main reason that makes the ITS Centre a hub for traffic
operation.
Expanding the scope of ITS Operation Centre
Now the ITS Centre manages 8 expressways, 2 road tunnels and more than 2000 signalized
traffic junctions in order to maintain smooth congestion free traffic flow. The ITS developed
over the years include the GLIDE, Expressway Monitoring and Advisory Systems (EMAS),
Junction-Eyes (J-Eyes), Integrated Traffic and Plant Monitoring and Control Systems
(ITPMS) for CTE and short road tunnels and Parking Guidance System (PGS). In addition,
the ITS Centre has a sophisticated intelligent transport system platform (i-transport) that
integrates the various ITSs to effectively manage the operations and enhance the motoring
experience.
The operator can disseminate information to motorists through a wide range of mediums such
as the VMS, the web portal One-Motoring website3, Web Cameras4 and LTA Traffic Watch5
broadcasting traffic information through different radio channels in different languages.
3

Launched in 2000, One-motoring is a web portal serving motorists and vehicle owners to provide traffic &
roads related information.
4

Traffic Cameras implemented along expressways providing images of real-time traffic condition for motorist
to view on one-motoring web portal.
5

Real-time traffic information is broadcasted periodically over the FM radio channels for motorists to get
updated on the latest traffic conditions.

In order to enable ITS Operation Centre to better manage the heavy traffic in the city area
which can partly caused by motorists circulating in search for parking spaces, the Parking
Guidance System (PGS) [3] was commissioned in 2008 in the Marina Centre to reduce the
circulating traffic. The PGS has since been extended to the more popular shopping belts in
Orchard and HarbourFront areas with a total of 25 electronic signs island wide.
Future
As more systems are added and integrated into ITS Operation Centre, its capability is greatly
enhanced with the addition of these systems. It enables ITS Operation Centre to response
efficiently to incidents island-wide and one such example is the EMAS Arterial System. It is
basically the EMAS being extended to major arterial road corridors to expand the monitoring
& control capabilities to major arterial roads. ITS Operation Centre will be able to respond to
traffic conditions on both the expressway and arterial road network in a timely fashion with
the implementation of EMAS Arterial system.

Conclusion
The ITS Operation Centre is the heartbeat of Singapores traffic monitoring and control. It
ensures smooth flowing traffic and enhances motorists traveling experiences. ITS Operation
Centre has evolved with new and integrated ITS and more sophisticated monitoring
capabilities implemented over the past 20 years. With increasing vehicle population and
limited road capacity, effective traffic management is becoming more challenging. There is a
continual need to leverage on new technologies and innovations to enhance the effectiveness
of traffic management.

References
[1]

Land Transport Authority Monthly Vehicle Statistics

[2]

Seah Haw Kuan, LTA, 2008, Implementing A Parking Guidance System In

Singapore, Singapore Land Transport Authority.