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 The Bilkent News has recently been featuring articles on projects developed by the "companies" set up by students in the Innovative Product Design and Development course. Well, here's yet another creative idea: a way to improve traffic flow in İstanbul!
A group of students, who chose the name MSC (Mobile Solutions Company), decided they wanted to develop a product that would improve the daily lives of as many people as possible. So, they came up with a project to help ease the traffic problems in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. Over 8 million people battle with congested traffic there every day, and the bottlenecks that occur as vehicles line up at the toll gates on the bridges over the Bosphorus are a major part of the problem. MSC developed a mobile toll collection system that is a new and workable technological alternative to the toll collection systems previously designed for the Boğaziçi and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges.
MSC's product is called MGS, or Mobil Geçiş Sistemi, and is in fact an integration of several systems. It allows drivers to use their cell phones to pay their tolls by sending an SMS.
First, the client sends a text message which includes the license plate number of his/her car and the number of passes he\she wants to buy. This is done either before the car crosses the bridge, or within three days afterwards. The fee is added to the client's GSM bill. The plate number of the car is read by the system and matched with the messages received. If no SMS was sent, the system stores the plate number for three days. If an SMS is not received within that time, the system sends the plate number to the traffic department, which can then require the driver to pay a fine.
The system offers an easy way to collect the toll, and would allow drivers to make their payments automatically with a technological device that they already own. By making toll collection more efficient, it would improve traffic flow by reducing the long lines at the bridges. MSC members discussed their project with İstanbul Governor Muammer Güler and Sertab Kaplan, who is the individual at the Karayolları Genel Müdürlüğü responsible for the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge. Who knows--perhaps we'll see MSC`s project being used in İstanbul one of these days!
The students in the MSC group are: Chief Executive Officer - Kamil Berk Özgür Chief Financial Officer - Çağrı Pehlivanoğlu - Administrator - Evrim Kahramanoğlu - Production Manager - Hakan Aydoğan - Sales Manager - Kaan Aytekin - Quality Manager - Engin Alakoç -R & D - Bar Karahasan - R & D - Evrim Olçum.
Erkan Bayır (MBG/ II)
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