The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is calling a tender to collect data on the travel and parking patterns of heavy vehicles with valid URA season parking tickets. This is part of a research study with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART).
The data collection exercise will involve installing GPS devices in heavy vehicles to collect travel and parking data for one month. Understanding these parking patterns will help URA to identify locations that are suitable for the parking of heavy vehicles and better allocate the heavy vehicle parking spaces.
Currently, there are over 44,000 heavy vehicle parking spaces for the existing 34,400 registered heavy vehicles in Singapore. Less than 25 per cent of these parking spaces are managed by government agencies, which are typically located near housing estates on temporary sites. Understandably, there is heavy demand for these particular parking spaces given their proximity to housing estates even though there are more parking spaces than heavy vehicles islandwide.
However, it is increasingly challenging to continue providing heavy vehicle parking spaces in close proximity to housing estates as many of the existing heavy vehicle parks will need to be redeveloped for new homes and community facilities. At the same time, URA has received feedback from many residents to relocate heavy vehicle parks away from housing estates because of noise, fumes and safety concerns.
URA is calling for this tender as there is currently little data on the travel and parking patterns of heavy vehicles in Singapore. The collected data will help URA plan for a better distribution of parking spaces for heavy vehicles to address both the needs of the heavy vehicle drivers as well as the concerns of residents. It will also help URA to better allocate its heavy vehicle parking spaces.
All data collected will be used for research and planning purposes only and will be studied on a group basis. There will be no infringement on the privacy of drivers. To safeguard the privacy of drivers, the data collection process is designed such that URA will not receive information that identifies individual vehicle owners or drivers. The researchers involved in this study, and the appointed GPS transponder supplier, will be required to sign legal agreements to keep all collected data confidential. They are also required to destroy the data after the completion of the study.
The terms and conditions of season parking tickets of URA heavy vehicle parks will be amended to require season parking ticket holders to participate in this exercise. The new terms and conditions will take effect on 1 August 2016 for new and renewed season parking tickets, and will not be applied retrospectively.
URA will work with its appointed GPS device supplier to ensure minimal inconvenience for all season parking ticket holders during the exercise. The supplier will install the GPS device for each season parking ticket holder at their usual URA heavy vehicle park. The cost of the GPS device, including installation and removal, will be fully borne by URA.
Separately, URA will also work with SUTD and SMART to invite heavy vehicle drivers to volunteer in a survey to understand issues such as the purpose of heavy vehicle trips and the time taken to pick-up and deliver different goods. Together with the collected GPS data, this information will be used in the research study to develop and test potential solutions that can help the logistics industry. Participation in the driver survey is on a voluntary basis.
This is a broad announcement of URA’s intention to conduct this exercise. The current holders of URA’s heavy vehicle season parking tickets will be receiving a letter from URA with more details and a helpline to call if they have queries, or wish to make an appointment to meet a URA staff to discuss the matter.