According to the Bureau of Urban Utilities and Landscaping of Guangzhou, the Traffic Intelligence Monitoring & Controlling System (TIMCS), loaned by the World Bank, has been officially launched. Thirty-three video cameras and 99 E-police will be installed along the 26.7-kilometer Inner Ring Road to monitor the traffic and to take photos of the vehicles that are in violation of traffic rules. Thirty-nine information boards will be set up at the entrances and main roads to provide timely traffic information of the whole line.

Two other World Bank loaned projects: Road & Bridge Facilities Management System (RBFMS) and Traffic Automatic Monitoring & Dispatch System (TAMDS) have also been launched. These systems, organized by the Downtown Traffic Projects Office, will play an active role in the maintenance of roads and bridges, and the dispatch and management of the city buses.

The TIMCS is an important part of the Inner Ring Road project and will be under the management of the Traffic Intelligence Command System. Intelligence control will be realized through 6 systems: Traffic Flow Detection System, Entrance Flow Control System, Main Road Monitoring & Controlling System, Exits Traffic Information System, Photo Snapping System, and Closed-Circuit TV Monitoring & Controlling System.

The RBFMS belongs to the Road Maintenance Sub-project of Guangzhou Downtown Traffic Projects. Through the RBFMS, technologists can collect data of the present situation of roads and bridges, make an estimation of the life of roads by means of computer analysis, and put forward the Middle and Long Term Maintenance Plan and the Maintenance Budget Allocation Plan. This system can make 5-10 years prediction of roads and bridges, so that maintenance can be properly arranged. At present the system has entered the designing stage and is expected to be put into operation in the second half of 2007.

Equipped with GPS technology, the TAMDS will, through wire and wireless communication networks, exercise real time monitoring, controlling, tracing and dispatching over more than 1400 buses, and through more than 300 station e-boards, provide real time traffic information to citizens. This system will be put into use at the beginning of next year.

Editor: Yan