Resolving Traffic Woes! Here's How Bangalore Police Are Finding Solutions To The City's Biggest Challenge

Bangalore city is infamously known for its frustrating traffic congestions. Even on global indexes, Bangalore traffic marked the fifth position out of over 400 cities, with annual hours spent in Traffic-Congestion recorded to be about 50 per cent.

In an attempt to resolve these long-lying traffic woes, the Bangalore traffic police have started putting together initiatives in collaboration with citizens and modern technology. Through this, they have been able to address several infrastructure and management fallbacks within the past few weeks.

Working Closely With Citizens

M.A. Saleem, Special Commissioner for Traffic, has revived the Citizens' Traffic Forum meeting initiative, which had been irregular owing to the pandemic. The commissioner has now set forth the resolve to hold the forum meetings monthly on every second Saturday. Under this initiative, anyone can walk into their nearest traffic police stations between the timings 11:30 am to 1:20 pm On every second Saturday and convey their concerns and raise traffic management issues in their areas to the officials.

A report by The Hindu quoted the commissioner saying that while the traffic police are aware of many of the issues at major junctions in their jurisdictions, the residents are better equipped to tell them their traffic problems in residential bylanes, including parking woes. "They may also have valuable inputs for easing traffic congestion on the main roads," he added.

Welcoming Innovators

Even on the infrastructural front, the government made it a point to address the traffic woes with the help of people. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai recently invited over designers and innovators in the city to join hands with the government to resolve traffic and water management concerns. An article by The Hindu quoted him saying, "Why don't you people apply design thinking and make our places better?" The simple question would resonate with a larger group of the public who have wanted to see a change in the structure for a long time now.

The government has asked such designers and innovators to bring in ideas and designs to make the existing structures more friendly and safe for individuals. The plan is to make the prominent regions look better aesthetically as well as architecturally.

Contact-less Management; Challans Straight To Home

A common concern motorists in Bangalore have conveyed is the way officers often stop their vehicles in the middle of the road and hold them up until fines or dues are paid off. To make it easier for officers to do their duties and have motorists move past traffic uninterrupted, the Bengaluru Traffic police launched the Intelligence Traffic Management System (ITMS) and have so far installed them at 50 junctions across the city.

A report by Times Now News, quoted the chief minister saying that this would help "identify any traffic violations" with less manpower and will "put an end to the stopping of vehicle riders, harassment, corruption and other problems for the riding public."

The ITMS system enables synchronised traffic with the help of artificial intelligence. It provides a systematic solution with automatic numberplate recognition cameras, red-light violation detection cameras, and several such provisions. These detectors would automatically capture the violator's vehicle number and generate challans that can be sent to the responsible individual via SMS or post. This way, violations can also be brought under a check and regulated without letting anyone off the hook.

Also Read: Bengaluru Is 'Officially' Most Congested City In World: Report