MMDA wants to turn Metro into wireless community
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MMDA wants to turn Metro into wireless community
By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 04:56am (Mla time) 07/03/2006
Published on page A25 of the July 3, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IMAGINE THESE: wireless cameras and sensors installed in key streets in the metropolis to monitor and report traffic jams and flooded areas -- all in real time.
Microchips installed in buses and jeeps to easily monitor the number of public vehicles in particular routes compared to the volume of passengers.
Should plans push through -- depending on the budget of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority -- then these sophisticated technologies would soon find their way to streets in Metro Manila.
“We need technology to improve our services,” MMDA chair Bayani Fernando said yesterday in his weekly radio program over dzBB.
Digital city
Bayani said he got the idea from Taipei in Taiwan, where he had just attended a three-day conference with officials from other countries about creating “digital cities.” Taipei is considered one of the biggest Wi-Fi (Wireless fidelity) communities in the world.
The conference encouraged community leaders to take advantage of broadband-wireless technologies, like Wi-Fi, to enhance emergency responses, improve government service and lower telecommunication costs.
“I want to start the project in three to four months. I hope we can fully implement this before Christmas,” Fernando said in his program.
He told the Inquirer they would soon start talking with companies for the installation of Wi-Fi Networks in key streets in Metro Manila.
He said wireless connection would enable MMDA head offices and response units to quickly monitor -- using wireless cameras which will be installed in key areas -- traffic congestion and even flooding in key areas in the metropolis.
“We can even put sensors to monitor if our flood control pumping stations are functioning or not,” Fernando added.
Taking his vision further, Fernando said they could even put chips on public utility vehicles to boost the still shaky implementation of the Organized Bus Route System.
He said with the chips, the MMDA could monitor how many buses were passing through a certain access point, giving the agency the accurate volume of traffic in a given area.
“Using wireless cameras, we can see the volume of passengers, say in Cubao. Then, we can deploy more buses there,” the MMDA chair added.
More efficient setup
He said this communication setup would be “more efficient” for the agency, which is still troubled by huge phone bills.
Fernando admits the new project is starkly different from previous MMDA ideas, which had been frowned upon by many as backward, if not primitive, like the erection of concrete barriers and pink railings and even the use of pink cloth in controlling overstaying buses.
The MMDA official, however, could not yet say just how much funding his new idea would require. “We will have to check first how much these technologies cost,” he said in an interview after his radio show.
Source
*Computer end log*
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THERE ARE 2 COMMENT(S) ON THIS POST:
Sure there may not be a budget, but the Philippines has Wrencelot!
According to Wrencelot's plan of digitizing the entire city:
1. All public utility vehicles will have chips installed. As in chippy or kornets, barbecue or chicken flavor would do. This would prevent hunger if the driver hasn't eaten their meals yet.
2. With a full belly (after eating chips), the drivers can give a holler to the police guy on the bridge with an estimate of how many passengers he has, and how many more are waiting at the stops.
3. The police guy would then phone in to headquarters and relay the information according to the hollering driver. More vehicles would be sent if needed.
4. When it rains hard and it starts to flood, instead of risking electronic measuring equipment from breaking or short circuiting in the water, they would instead just use simple measuring sticks from discarded carpentry garbage. Actually, they could just ask "Sisid Boys" to dive deep and see if they'd drown or not to estimate the flood's extremity.
5. Each driver who does well in his job of hollering will receive a mobile phone with digital picture taking capability. This would help them work better by taking snapshots of hold-uppers, freaks, and big breasted women, which they can share with co-drivers after their shift.
So you see, budget isn't really a problem when Wrencelot's around! Digital City 2.0 Here We Go!!!
akala ko pa naman that wireless thing means wala nang mga poste ng meralco na nakatayo at nakatago na ang mga alambre sa ilalim ng lupa. (just like Ayala Avenue). -_-; pero in fairness maganda rin ang project na yan. sana nga ma-push through. :P
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