Workers were seen installing the camera at the Stephen Yong and Batu Kawah intersection yesterday. Photo by Abd Hakim Bujang
Sign to show the system installed. Photo from Dr Sim.
KUCHING: Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian revealed that his ministry is currently installing smart traffic system aimed to reduce traffic jams, but they are not speed traps as rumoured on social media.
Dr Sim said that 30 traffic lights equipped with smart cameras are expected to be installed by the end of this year.
“They are Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS), but it’s not a speed trap as some rumoured,” he said.
The camera installation work have drawn attention from the people, who thought it was Automatic Enforcement System (AES) cameras, widely used to penalise irresponsible drivers.
What made the public more curious was when Dr Sim, in his official Facebook account, posted an entry with three photographs with a caption: “A lot of observance drivers in Kuching has been viral and asking what are these cameras at a no of traffic light intersections. Any ideas?”
SCATS, as its name suggested, originated in Sydney, Australia. It is used in Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and some areas in the USA (Oakland County, Michigan).
SCATS gathers data on traffic flows in real-time at each intersection. The data is fed via the traffic controller to a central computer. The computer makes incremental adjustments to traffic signal timings based on minute by minute changes in traffic flow at each intersection.