Can location-based automatic speed-limiters prevent road accidents in Bangladesh?
The early 90s, Japan.
While the Land of the Rising Sun was going through an economic boom, the likes of which this world had never seen before, it was also having to struggle with an unprecedented increase in the number of road accidents.
Reckless driving, illegal street racing, and the Japanese population’s overall attitude towards the country’s traffic rules were identified as some of the major reasons behind this increasing rate. Of course, Japan was not new to this issue. In fact, road accidents started to become a common occurrence in the country from the early 80s, and as time went by, the situation had only gotten worse.
While multiple factors were responsible for the increasing number of road accidents, the concerned authorities in Japan turned their focus towards the over speeding of vehicles and were determined to curb the situation at hand by ensuring that vehicles were not exceeding the designated speed limits.
Engineers and researchers across the country then began to work out ways as to how they could restrict a vehicle’s speed based on its geographical location, and soon, the idea of MASCOS was born.
- What is MASCOS: Originally proposed by Taniguchi in 1993 [2], the Maximum Speed Control System — or MASCOS, in short — was one of the first ever automatic location based speed limiters. The idea behind this system was as simple as its name. MASCOS was able to control a vehicle’s speed performance whenever it was entering, or exiting an expressway. For instance, the system is designed to restrict a vehicle to only 60 KM/H in a normal road, and 100 KM/H on an expressway. While going through the normal road, MASCOS will not allow the car to go past 60. But the moment the car enters the expressway, the system will disable the restrictor, and allow the car to go up to a 100.
- How does MASCOS work: The entry and exit point of an expressway is labeled as gates. Each gate is equipped with a signal transmitter, and the vehicles are equipped with a signal receiver and speed limiter. The transmitters at the gates send signals to the vehicle, notifying it as to whether it is entering a gate, or exiting one. That way, the car is able to adjust its speed through the speed limiter without any assistance from the driver.
- Was MASCOS an effective solution: Simulation data suggested that MASCOS would have been able to save around 3000 lives per year in Japan if the speed limits were maintained to a certain level. This system, however, was never actually deployed in the streets of Japan, not because it was faulty or anything, but simply because Japan had found better, and less expensive solutions to their problem. MASCOS was originally theorized because it was thought that people were incapable of abiding by the traffic rules, and the speed limits. However, the Japanese authorities managed to educate their drivers and saw a decline in the road accident rates. They did not need to rely on an automated system to do the work for humans.
The question we face now, is can the same be said for Bangladesh? Will education prove to be enough to reduce the growing number of road accidents, or do we need to turn our attention towards an automated system like MASCOS to do the job instead?
- The scenario in Bangladesh: Over the years, Bangladesh has made a reputation for itself as a country with regular cases of road accidents. Although the country has shown signs of improvement in recent times, it still needs to do a lot more before this problem can be completely eradicated. Moreover, Bangladesh needs to reform its road and transportation system and bring in more modernized methods to bring down the current rate of road accidents. So far, Bangladesh’s approach to preventing road accidents has mostly included mass awareness and stricter punishments for those at fault. However, unlike Japan, it seems that these efforts always end in vain. They are usually not implemented with a long term goal in mind, and often ignored by the masses. Hence, these efforts are not enough.
- Shifting our focus towards a more technologically advanced approach: According to a 2018 report by The Daily Prothom-Alo, between January 2015, and June 2018, heavy vehicles (buses, covered-vans, trucks) are involved in over 50% of road accidents [1]. The report also suggests that 90% of the total number of accidents took place due to reckless driving, and excessive speeding of the vehicles. While heavy vehicles are more restrained on normal roads, they are notoriously fast once they enter the highways. It should also be noted that a lot of the accidents that are accounted for every year happen on these very highways.
- A Highway Specific System: Once you start putting the pieces together, you will realize that if you can prevent excessive speeding on highways, the number of road accident cases can be reduced by a good amount. This is where we can start thinking about implementing a location-based speed-limiter. The approach will be similar to Taniguchi’s MASCOS. Every entry-exit point between a regular road and the highway will be referred to as a corridor. Heavy vehicles, upon entering the highway through the corridor, will have their speed limiters restrict their speeds to the designated level. Once the vehicles reach the end of the highway, and exit the corridor, the limiters will withdraw the restriction, and vehicles can proceed with their regular speeds.
Of course, this does not have to be followed only on highways. Such a system of automated speed restriction can be implemented in other accident-prone roads as well.
- Should we use MASCOS: For a piece of technology that was theorized in the 90s, MASCOS seems like it can work out quite well in Bangladesh. However, technological advancement has made it possible for us to look towards other methods of preventing vehicles from excessive speeding. Some vehicles, manufactured by renowned brands like Mercedes, and BMW, have built-in systems where the driver can set a designated speed limit for their car, and the vehicle itself will maintain a speed equal to, or lower than the set limit. Such built-in speed control systems are also available on different trucks and buses. However, we are not eager to rely on human effort to prevent excessive speeding. Hence, an automated system is more preferred.
- GPS Based Speed Limiting: The best option we can avail of at the moment is a GPS based speed limiting, and controlling system, where the vehicle’s geographical location will set the maximum speed it can reach. Its working mechanism is somewhat similar to that of MASCOS. Suppose a car is entering a corridor with a strict speed limit. The car’s GPS is constantly feeding data to the speed limiter. Once the limiter recognizes the coordinates and sees that the car is entering an area with a designated and strict speed limit, it will automatically restrict the car to the maximum speed for that area. GPS based speed limiters have now become quite common. In foreign countries, they are often used by different transportation, and fleet management companies to make sure that their cars are not speeding excessively. By doing so, these companies are able to ensure the safety of their vehicles, as well as cut costs on unnecessary fuel consumption.
- Can we afford the use of such a system: The development or purchase of such systems and their integration into our vehicles can cost us millions. It will also be a very lengthy process, given the scale of the operation. If we want to reduce the cost, as well as the time required to finish this project, we need to prioritize the types of vehicles that are in dire need of this system, and then move to the ones who can afford to wait a bit longer. In this case, it can be easily assumed that heavy vehicles, like buses, trucks, and covered vans, need to be brought under the umbrella of this system first. By doing so, we can reduce the risk of excessive speeding, and accidents to a great extent. Once the majority of these vehicles have been dealt with, we can then look towards other modes of transportation that might require such a location-based speed limiting system.
While deploying such a system across an entire country’s fleet of heavy vehicles is a daunting task, it is perhaps the only way to deal with excessive speeding and to prevent the loss of lives due to road accidents. It will cost us a lot, but it is a small price to pay in contrast to the thousands of lives that we want to save every year.
References:
1. Rahman, S. (2018, August 4). Over 25,000 killed on roads in 3 years. Daily Prothom Alo. Retrieved December 7, 2020, from https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/25-120-killed-on-roads-in-3-years
2. Taniguchi, S. (n.d.). International Co-operation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic Safety. Retrieved December 7, 2020, from https://www.ictct.net/wp-content/uploads/12-Kaiserslautern-1999/ictct_document_nr_297_Taniguchi.pdf
