Two government agencies win award for using geographical data to improve efficiency

The LTA won an award for for its programme which helps planners understand commuter patterns and hence fine-tune transport policy. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Municipal Services Office (MSO) have received an international award for their use of geographical data to improve the efficiency of public services.

They were presented the Special Achievement in Geographic Information System (GIS) award on Wednesday at the annual global Esri User Conference in San Diego, California, held by global mapping software firm Esri.

The two government agencies were selected from a pool of more than more than 400,000 organisations worldwide.

The LTA won for its data analytics programme Planning for Land Transport Network (Planet), which uses GIS technology to help planners understand commuter patterns and hence fine-tune transport policy.

For instance, the Planet system allowed planners to map and analyse hotspots of passenger-crowding on public buses during peak hours. This helped them reduce persistently-crowded bus services by 60 per cent.

It also helped them to reduce waiting time by three to seven minutes, despite an annual 100,000 rise in average daily bus ridership.

Receiving the award on behalf of LTA, group director for innovation and infocomm technology Rosina Howe said: "GIS tools have revolutionised our capabilities to plan transport routes more efficiently, identify gaps quickly and allow us to work with our bus operators to deploy our resources in a much more efficient manner. These improvements ultimately translate into a better public transport journey experience for our commuters."

The MSO won for its integrated municipal feedback management system, OneService @SG, developed in partnership with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. By using GIS technology, the system allows seamless case referral between agencies based on geographical parameters such as land ownership.

The system also links MSO and its partner agencies, giving MSO oversight of all municipal feedback cases handled by the other agencies and allowing more holistic data analysis by consolidating all the feedback received.

Esri Singapore chief executive officer Thomas Pramotedham said the award is a global recognition of LTA and the MSO's commitment to deliver efficient and effective services to the public by using GIS technology.

"Their work exemplifies how government agencies around the world are using GIS to extend the impact of their work in their respective departments, organisations, and citizens at large," he said.

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