City police to focus more on traffic regulation than enforcement

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: ‘Adaptive Traffic Controlling System’ and AI-based contactless interventions will be the future of traffic management in the city, enabling Bengaluru Traffic Police to focus more on regulation and traffic management, rather than enforcement.

This was announced at an interactive session on Road Safety in the city, held by Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) in association with Bidadi Industries Association (BIA) and Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru M N Anucheth.

Expert panellists opined that traffic decongestion, community-based programs to drive behavioural changes, and improved public transport. Scientific interventions and technology in traffic management and road design are the keys to reducing fatalities and injuries due to traffic in the city, they said.

Speaking on the occasion the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said, “We are in the process of setting up contactless interventions for traffic management, and the department has set up an intelligent traffic management system in Bengaluru with violation detection cameras and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Cameras. This will enable the traffic police to concentrate more on regulation and traffic management to ensure a smoother flow of traffic rather than enforcement."

"We also plan to increase the number of traffic signals in Bengaluru from 363 to 500 over the next 2 to 3 years and implement an ‘Adaptive Traffic Controlling System’ in three phases over the next three years, whereby traffic signal timings will adapt based on actual traffic demand. This will help manage the flow of traffic in a scientific manner. For instance, if there is an ambulance on the road, it will get an automatic green corridor. Going forward the focus of Bengaluru traffic policy will be evidence-based, contactless interventions based on AI,” M N Anucheth said.

The top city cop further said, “Road safety has 4 components- Engineering & Technological Interventions, Enforcement, Education and Awareness and Emergency response. Data suggest that road safety is a science, and technology interventions as opposed to increased enforcement and traffic fines are far more effective in managing traffic.

In Bengaluru, only 47 percent of the population uses public transport which is much lower than in other metros in the country. The city has 1.07 crores of vehicles on the road which is the second largest for any city in India and the current vehicle-topopulation ratio is 1:1.3. Ideally we need fewer vehicles with respect to people on the road, and this can only come about with increased use of public transport.”

“In order to reduce fatalities and deaths on our roads it is important to move towards collaborative research and increased safety standards along with awareness on the use of these safety standards. It’s important to have long-term community-based programs that lead to behavioural changes along with education of policymakers and professiona ls in terms of thinking of road safety as a public health issue, as road fatalities outnumber cancer or even covid deaths in the city. This will lead to a more broadbased approach to enhancing road safety.” he added.