The 3-year data-driven innovation challenge was launched in February 2020

The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), a non-profit organization, announced the results of CATCH – The City Architecture for Tomorrow Challenge – a 3-year data-driven innovation challenge launched in February 2020, co-organized by Deloitte Future of Mobility Solution Centre (Deloitte), and delivered in partnership with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Following an initial roadshow and call for applications, the CATCH organizing committee received over 97 applications from 20 countries globally. These applications underwent a rigorous selection process including Proof of Concept (POC) and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development, which took into account criteria such as creativity, feasibility, and sustainability.

Considering these, along with the overall objective of enhancing the lives of Kuala Lumpur residents and forwarding TMF’s vision of providing Freedom of Mobility for All, two winners were selected – Numina from the United States and Kerb from Australia.

Numina offers privacy-first sensor technology to analyze the movement of people and goods, utilizing these insights to generate recommendations to improve city design and transportation infrastructure.

Kerb brings a solution that increases efficiency of mobility by allowing users view and book available public and private parking spaces from its mobile application.

Through collaboration with traffic and data experts from DBKL, both winners successfully conducted a proof-of-concept trial in Kuala Lumpur. 

Main Activities and Results

Numina deployed sensors across a total of nine major locations in Kuala Lumpur, considering the possibilities of enhancing safety and traffic flow in the areas selected. Its implementation generated the following findings:

• Potential conflict points between pedestrians, 2-wheel, and 4-wheel vehicles along Jalan Chow Kit, with individuals crossing despite the presence of a nearby pedestrian bridge.

• Potential opportunity to enhance traffic flow along Bukit Bintang Crossing, one of the busiest streets in Kuala Lumpur, by potentially optimizing timing of traffic light signals as well as revisiting schedules of public transportation to reduce pedestrian and passenger dwell time especially during peak hours.

• Potential opportunity to increase safety of 3,000 daily pedestrians and drivers utilizing Lorong Gombak and Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman through the installation of a cross walk or designated U-Turn lane to reduce conflict points.

Overall, through the CATCH project, Numina could enhance its ability to detect motorcycles, a key mode of transportation in Southeast Asia, and one with the highest usage and accident rates in the region.

As a next step, Numina has begun discussions with DBKL on how the results from its trial implementation may potentially lead to additional concrete solutions for the city, as well as on how its technology solution may potentially be utilized in other areas.

Kerb on the other hand, through its implementation across six car parks in Kuala Lumpur, succeeded at:

• Increasing total bookings of private car parks by 2,000 bookings, with majority being users who take their vehicles from their homes and proceed to utilize public transportation after parking.

• Achieving repeat customer rates of 94% for private car parks and 79% for DBKL car parks.

• Achieving customer satisfaction rates of 96%, especially due to its ability to accept multiple payment methods as well as visualize parking availability.

Throughout the CATCH project, Kerb addressed customer concerns around parking supply by allowing users to view and book available spaces in key areas where DBKL and other public and private entities such as Prasarana operate.

Following this project, Kerb intends to further expand its service to other key cities in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia.