Most Indian cities are getting choked with rising traffic. With thousands of new cars getting added to public roads every day, the average speed of traffic is dropping. According to TomTom, which is a leading geolocation technology specialist, India’s Bengaluru is the world’s second slowest city when it comes to traffic. It is the slowest Indian city to drive and takes an average of almost half an hour to cover 10 km during the rush hour.
The survey compared over 416 cities around the world and found Bengaluru to be the slowest in India and second slowest in the world after London, UK. The report also reveals that Bengaluru lost an average of 129 hours to rush-hour traffic in 2022, which makes it fourth among the top five cities in the world.
Also, Bengaluru City has the fifth-highest carbon emissions in 2022. The vehicles emit about 974 kg of carbon in petrol cars but there is no data on the same in diesel cars.
TomTom gathered the data by analyzing over 600 million devices, including in-dash car navigation, smartphones, personal navigation devices and telematics systems. Each day, more than 61 billion anonymous GPS data points were analysed all over the world. It covered a distance of more than 3.5 million kilometres of the drive.
While the administration has not said anything about the report, the Bengaluru Traffic Police is already working to make things smoother on the roads. The police have introduced hefty fines for many different segments including parking on the road. That would attract a Rs 350 challan.
Using technology for traffic
The traffic police will also incorporate high-tech synchronisation of traffic signals to reduce the waiting time. About 10 junctions – Hebbal flyover, Gorguntepalya junction, KR Puram, Iblur junction, Kaadubeesinahalli junction, Marathahalli, Silk Board, Bannerghatta Road, Sarakki junction and Banashankari temple junction suffer from perennial traffic congestions. The traffic will not be diverted till the new metro project work starts.
There are about 353 traffic signals in the city. The traffic police will convert 165 of them into AI in the first phase. After the successful conversion and commencement of these signals, work will start on the rest of the signals.
To reduce the complaints of harassment from the police, Bengaluru Traffic has decided to implement a reduced contact policy between the police teams and motorists. Instead, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) will be installed alongside red light violation cameras and regular surveillance cameras to book the traffic rule violators. Police officers will still be present on the ground to book and issue challans to the violators.
