KUALA LUMPUR: Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) has unveiled the results of "City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge” (CATCH) project which is focused on bringing innovative and data-driven mobility solutions to Kuala Lumpur.
CATCH is a three-year data-driven innovation challenge launched in February 2020, co-organized by Deloitte Future of Mobility Solution Centre (Deloitte), and delivered in partnership with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
Under the project, Numina and Kerb were declared winners.
The US-based Numina offers privacy-first sensor technology to analyse the movement of people and goods, utilising these insights to generate recommendations to improve city design and transportation infrastructure.
Kerb, from Australia, brings a solution that increases the efficiency of mobility by allowing users view and book available public and private parking spaces from its mobile application.
Through collaboration with traffic and data experts from Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), both winners successfully conducted a proof-of-concept trial in Kuala Lumpur.
Numina deployed sensors across a total of nine major locations in Kuala Lumpur, considering the possibilities of enhancing safety and traffic flow in the areas selected.
The company discovered conflict points between pedestrians, 2-wheel, and 4-wheel vehicles along Jalan Chow Kit, with individuals crossing despite the presence of a nearby pedestrian bridge.
It also discovered a potential opportunity to enhance traffic flow along Bukit Bintang Crossing, one of the busiest streets in Kuala Lumpur, by potentially optimising the timing of traffic light signals as well as revisiting schedules of public transportation to reduce pedestrian and passenger dwell time especially during peak hours.
Numina has begun discussions with DBKL on how the results from its trial implementation may potentially lead to additional concrete solutions for the city, as well as on how its technology solution may potentially be utilised in other areas.
Kerb, meanwhile, through its implementation across six car parks in Kuala Lumpur, succeeded at increasing total bookings of private car parks by 2,000 bookings, with the majority being users who take their vehicles from their homes and proceed to utilise public transportation after parking.
The company also managed to obtain repeat customer rates of 94% for private car parks and 79% for DBKL car parks as well as getting customer satisfaction rates of 96%, especially due to its ability to accept multiple payment methods as well as visualize parking availability.
Throughout the CATCH project, Kerb addressed customer concerns around parking supply by allowing users to view and book available spaces in key areas where DBKL and other public and private entities such as Prasarana operate.
At the announcement, Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah said improving the quality of life for Kuala Lumpur residents had been his main priority.
“We constantly strive to introduce solutions that meet changing needs, and the TMF CATCH Challenge sufficiently complements this objective.
“The winner implementations have proven the immense potential of technology to solve social issues, and we are looking forward to continuing what we have started with TMF by scaling similar solutions in the coming years,” he said.
MDEC CEO Mahadhir Aziz said the organisation's partnership with TMF for CATCH is a testament to its role as the lead digital agency in playing an active role of demonstrating data as the catalyst to resolve mobility issues in Kuala Lumpur.
“Through well-grounded public and private data sharing, we have successfully transformed data to life,” he said.
TMF Executive Programme Director Pras Ganesh said the foundation aspired to take the lead in creating the future of mobility through the ‘Mobility for All’ concept.
“We believe in synergistically using data and human insights in identifying and eliminating
barriers which prevent people and goods from moving freely.
“The CATCH programme was the first of its kind, bringing together a global cohort of innovators who were dedicated to improving the lives of the residents of Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
