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Exclusive: UK and Singapore – Transforming Transportation Collaboratively Part 1

London

This is the first part of a two-part article that covers the growing relationship between the UK and Singapore in the transportation sector.

Part 1 of the article looks at the various ways in which the UK and Singapore have collaborated for improving their transportation sectors and of the UK’s innovation efforts for autonomous vehicles.

Where man once baffled at the mere possibility of flying, we have now reached a point where self-manoeuvering vehicles are increasingly commonplace.

Transportation has vastly changed over the years and game-changing developments in autonomous vehicles and future mobility have put the UK at the forefront of many of these transformations.

This is not surprising considering its reputation as a global hub for future-focused creativity and opportunity. The KPMG 2019 report ranks the UK as third globally for innovation, disruption, and technology. Intelligent transport is one of the spaces where their strength is evident.

Professor Phil Blythe
Professor Phil Blythe, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Transport and Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems, Newcastle University

OpenGov had the opportunity to speak with Professor Phil Blythe, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department of Transport (DfT) and Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) at Newcastle University, UK.

He was recently appointed Vice President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK.

Professor Blythe was in Singapore last week as he led a delegation of UK transport experts at the ITS World Congress.

Blythe has built his expertise in ITS since the late 1980s and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the fields of road pricing and electronic tolling technology.

As the CSA to the DfT, he helps bring the science and engineering evidence that underpins UK transport policies and the delivery of transport initiatives across the country.

Much of this relies on significant cross-government cooperation in science, engineering, technology and policy issues in strategic areas such as intelligent transport, connected and autonomous vehicles, electro-mobility and smart cities/big data/IoT agendas.

Strength of Singapore-UK Transport Collaborations

Singapore and the UK have had collaborated to address shared challenges in transport.

Blythe himself was involved in the original ERP scheme in Singapore, at a time when he was leading Europe’s efforts in developing similar projects. These included the demonstration of free-flow tolling in 1992 in Sweden and Greece, and a congestion charging project in Cambridge, UK in 1993.

Blythe shared that both Singapore and the UK have similar approaches to addressing current and future transport challenges. The two countries are collaborating on several fronts – from expertise and experience sharing to the joint development and testing of innovative solutions.

Opportunities to exploit big data from city transport and smart city systems are an ongoing priority for both Singapore and the UK and initiatives, from university research collaborations to industry-led innovation deployment, are already in progress.

In addition, several of Singapore’s senior Land Transport Authority engineers have trained in the UK. British consultants and academics are also routinely involved in partnership projects with Singapore.

Future transport is an important part of the UK government’s digitalisation efforts. Blythe drew reference to the UK’s Minister of State for Future of Transport as a role that illustrates the emphasis on future technology and the ambition to leverage opportunities arising from these.

This aligns with the UK’s forward-leaning Industrial Strategy of what it calls “Grand Challenges”. These take a whole-of-society approach to challenges and opportunities in:

  • AI and data
  • Clean growth
  • Ageing society
  • Future of mobility

There is a clear ambition to make the UK a flexible testing and demonstration ground for automated vehicle technology, electrical mobility and decarbonisation.

It aims to provide an exciting ecosystem where SMEs can create new business models for transport connectivity, based on reliable digital systems and data generated.

In support of this, a strategy for making data available from all transport stakeholders is being led by the DfT. Supporting this are clear pathways to source expertise, locally and from a global talent pool, a fact that Blythe pointed out is of a similar case in Singapore.

“There is a lot of synergy between what we do in the UK and Singapore,” he said. “Singapore is a real leader in thinking about transportation,” he added.

Singapore’s traffic and congestion-management solutions included the requirement of a permit to purchase a car and the Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) of the 70s and 80s where drivers needed a daily paper licence to enter the central business district by car. This eventually became the Electronic-Road-Pricing (ERP) scheme, which was introduced in 1998.

Other solutions include the deployment of an advanced traffic management system that monitored the journey times of government vehicles to estimate congestion along selected routes.

These solutions are still cited as one of the best practices in the field and have been adopted/implemented in similar fashions around the world.

In acknowledgement of these many shared ambitions, but not restricted to only transport solutions, the two countries launched the SG-UK Partnership for the Future earlier this year. This symbolises the Bicentennial of the founding of modern Singapore and the beginning of a new era for the UK where there is an even greater appetite to collaborate with international and like-minded partners such as Singapore.

The partnership focuses on the areas of:

  • Digital economy
  • Sustainable business and innovation
  • Security and defence
  • Education, culture and youth

Blythe reiterated that collaborations in areas such as digital economy and cybersecurity lie at the heart of a wider mobility ecosystem capable of delivering future transport solutions in a safe, secure and encompassing way.

The UK as a Testbed for Autonomous Vehicles and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles

Besides offering a high-end transport solution, automated and connected vehicles also represent the advancement in technology and how we think about travel. Blythe drew reference to the many research projects and trails being conducted to understand the safety elements of autonomous vehicles when operating in highly urbanised cities such as London and Singapore.

Towards this, the UK has funded several large trials, not just in testing and proving the technology but also looking at the needs of the insurance industry and end-user safety protocols.

Trials are ongoing with cars, urban pods, taxis, buses and next year’s platooning of HGVs which is funded by the Centre of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and Innovate UK, with matched funding by industry.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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