Kaohsiung City’s transportation department is developing a technology-based system to curb traffic accidents caused by pedestrians and vehicles trespassing on the city’s light rail tracks, local officials said Friday.
Earlier in the day, a motorist was seriously injured after colliding with a train after making an illegal right turn near Ersheng Road and onto light rail tracks.
Kaohsiung city officials said it was the 13th accident this year involving the Kaohsiung light rail system, most of which were caused by drivers making illegal turns.
Image: Ke Yuhao, Taipei Times
Therefore, Kaohsiung has been working with the National Development Council and Chunghwa Telecom to introduce 5G and AI based on IoT technology to predict intrusions.
The Kaohsiung city government said the technology applies light detection and ranging to gather information on traffic patterns near the light rail system to trigger alerts in specific situations.
The light rail is put into trial operation at the intersections of major traffic arterial roads such as Banchao Road, Zhongshan Road, and Qianzhen Road.
As part of the project, electronic billboards have been installed in areas that predict drivers may divert onto light rail tracks and warn them not to, the city said.
It said the trains were already equipped with an on-board alarm system that could warn drivers of dangerous situations while the train was in motion.
The city said it also redesigned and reinstalled traffic lights on roads near the light rail network, making green lights with arrows indicating the directions in which vehicles are allowed to travel, hoping to steer them away from the light rail tracks.
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