Installation of Recording Cameras for PMDs

 8 March 2019

There has been a spate of accidents happening recently in Singapore involving Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs)  and the pedestrians.  The accident rate has been reported to have increased two folds,  from 132 in 2017 to 250 in 2018.  There were also  a few reports about the seriousness of these accidents involving the lost of innocent life.

In an effort to carry out better enforcement,  the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore is trying out using Close Circuit Television (CCTV) at various hotspots to monitor  errant cyclists and PMD users in Singapore.    

 

The Goods and the Bads of CCTVs

As usual,  the installation of the CCTVs received many  supportive as well as adverse remarks from many people.

The Goods

1.  The camera will be  a deterrent.   It will force the PMD users to behave and not the speed along walk paths and pedestrian crossing;  

2.  When there is a working camera,   the pedestrians will have the safe feelings and walk at ease without having to look right and left and every where for the present of the speedy PMDs;

3.  The cameras can also doubled up to fight crimes.  Very often,  PMD users will speed in seclusive areas where there is no other surveillance camera around;  the  CCTVs will be installed in these hot spot.

4.  The camera recordings can be used for further research and also as evidence and proofs in the courts to prove for the innocence.

The Bads

1.   Lots of CCTV cameras will be required.    They will have to have very high resolutions so that it can record far away images clearly without losing the picture quality at all material times.  These cameras will be expensive and the installation will involve large sum of money;

2.  These cameras will need to be maintained regularly involving a very large team, incurring high  maintenance cost which is recurrent;

3.  Most cameras will be fixed in position and there will always be some “blind” angle that the cameras cannot record properly when accidents happened at these “blind” spot;

What’re the Other Alternative?

1.  PMDs With Built-in Recording Cameras

Nowadays,  recording cameras are inexpensive; many of these are very small and handy.  They  can be fitted easily to PMDS without much problem.

These cameras can be front mounted to record what is happening in the front of PMD when it is moving.   Many of these cameras have time signatures that some could also record the speed of the PMDs.   They use very little electricity and the recordings are in loops,  capturing the pictures non-stop.   The  recordings can be kept for many hours depending on the capacity of the memory card.  A 16 GB memory card can keep up of 80 minutes of recording at 720p resolution,  good enough for HD play backs.   At lower resolutions,  it can record up to 5 hours or around 320 minutes.   The cameras usually will have a viewing angle of 160 to 180 degrees,  good enough for most applications. 

The Goods and the Bads

The Goods

1.  The cameras can be used as a deterrent to prevent PMD riders from  speeding as the cameras would have speed recording.   In case of accident,  it can be used as evidence to determine which party was at fault; 
2.  The Government and taxpayers can save lots of money.  The camera would be cheaper to install as the picture resolution will not be as stringent as the CCTV cameras;
3.  The owners of the PMDs will provide the maintenance and save the Police and taxpayers large sum of money;  if necessary,  made it mandatory for the PMD riders to use the camera recordings to prove that they are not responsible for any accident;
4.  The cameras will record what is happening at the front of the PMDs;  this is usually where the actions will be;

The Bads

1.  No so reliable;  there are so many brands of cameras in the market;  which brand to choose?;
2.  The cameras can be easily tampered with and may not always be admitted as a good evidence;
3.  Additional cost to the PMD owners;  it may not go down well with the  PMD owners;
4.  Able to capture only the front view and not the side and the back views;

To overcome some of the problems,  the Government can help.  For example,  for the selection of the cameras,  the Government can get Spring Singapore or  other approved testing body  to test some of the cameras in the market and prescribe the approved cameras for use in the PMDs. 

As for the tampering of the cameras or memory cards,  rules and laws should be in place to make it always the PMD riders to be  responsible for any accident unless they can show camera footage to prove their innocent, it will then force the riders to always maintained the cameras in good and working condition.

As for the poor capturing angles,  it should not be too much of a problem as most actions in an accident would have been captured by the front cameras before any accident could happen.

Conclusion

1.  The Government should explore the use of built-in cameras for use in PMDs and if necessary,  make study for a trial to be conducted to check its effectiveness;

2.  For those PMDs on rental schemes,  the Government should encourage or make it mandatory for the operators to use the built-in camera as such measure will benefit both the operators and the pedestrians.