ITHB Offers Intelligent Transportation System Solution for Bandung

Untangling traffic congestions in Bandung poses a particular problem for the Bandung City government. Constructing new roads, bridges, and flyovers may be a solution to the increasing number of motor vehicle users. However, not only will these short term solutions cost a huge amount of investment, but they may not also be effective.

Herman Sutarto, ITHB lecturer and researcher at Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium, recently presented his latest research on an Intelligent Transportation Control System for Bandung in a Public Discussion Forum held in the Pikiran Rakyat Auditorium. The discussion was attended by students from ITHB, ITB, Telkom University, Itenas, and Unisba.

According to Sutarto, the Active Traffic Management (ATM) and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) can be solutions to traffic problems in large cities. Jakarta and Surabaya, two of the largest cities in Indonesia, have adopted a smart transportation system called SCAT and SITS respectively.

ATM-ITS is an intelligent algorithm-based system that works with data and sensor models. In this kind of solution, sensors are installed along roadsides or on GPS devices to read navigation data as congestion level, temporal vehicle queue, and topology. Then the accumulated data are subsequently evaluated in order to generate various route plans. In a number of European metropolitans, the system is combined with water management system.

ATM-ITS can be accessed through a Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD), which presents the correlation between the number of vehicles and their speed. A notable advantage of the MFD system is that it, like human, always offers various route options that enable users to choose ones that suit their traveling and driving preferences.

Bandung actually has a number of SCAT (Sidney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic) installed at certain intersections. A grant from the Australian government, the system is now unfortunately no longer functioning.

MFD is to be adopted with an assumption that road users have a high level of discipline. Therefore, the application of MFD sensors in Bandung may come with special challenges, because in the city angkots (public minivans) often stop to wait for passengers and a large number of lane-splitting motorcycles form long queues on the roads. “This is about time for Bandung, a city renown for smart communities, to adopt a more humane transportation system,” commented Sutarto.