Managing traffic through information technology

BANGALORE:His sun-burnt face lit up at the sight of visitors. “Please have aseat,” he said before turning his attention to the array of computerscreens in front of him. Basanna Bajanthri, a Bangalore traffic cop for fouryears, has not had it so relaxed. Till the other day, he was guarding busytraffic intersections, changing signals manually and chasing drunkdrivers.

But things have changed for the better. Two months back, hewas deputed to the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) — the technology nervecentre of Bangalore traffic police — to join a small team of policemenremotely managing the city’s traffic.

“We remotelymonitor nearly 120 cameras put up at different junctions. When we see aviolation at a signal, we zoom into the vehicle, capture images of its numberplate and slap a fine on the registered owner of the vehicle,” explainsBasanna. The record of the offence is stored in a central database maintained bythe police and an owner who has been fined can check about his offence on thetraffic website and pay the fine at a citizen service centre, online or at oneof the designated police stations.

Vehicle owners can check pendingfines on their vehicle by messaging a given number besides getting trafficupdates on their mobile phones. Besides cameras at junctions, there areenforcement cameras at five locations across the city. If a vehicle is seenspeeding, its picture is taken and a fine is sent to the owners registeredaddress.

Technology support is not restricted to the managementcentre alone. Policemen on the ground are also equipped with BlackBerry phonesand bluetooth printers — which are also linked to a central base. When apoliceman observes a violation, he stops the vehicle, keys in the number andrecords the offence through the phone and checks for earlier violations.Violators can pay a fine on the spot or later while the policeman can print areceipt and hand it over immediately.

Besides making use oftechnology for better compliance, the police draw heavily on tech to managetraffic better.

Based on video analytics and tech-based surveys, thepolice has prepared a database which forms the basis of how long the green lightwill be switched on at each signal. Signals are connected to the TMC andmonitored using a software. If a policeman at TMC observes congestion at asignal, he can change the green timings accordingly and manage trafficbetter.

Nearly four years ago, when angalore traffic policeintroduced BlackBerry phones to improve enforcement, people had their share ofdoubts. Will they be able to handle technology? Is it another publicity stunt?Proving the critics wrong, the department has improved enforcement andmanagement of bustling Bangalore traffic by making technological interventions.

Despite growing number of vehicles, increasing construction work andaddition of new areas within its jurisdiction, technology has helped in bringingdown the number of accidents, improving compliance and managing traffic better. In 2007, before any of this technology was in place, the city’s police hadbooked nearly 1.4 million cases of traffic offence, which had risen to 3.3million in 2010.

Atthe same time, the number of fatal accidents have gone down from 957 in 2007 to816 in 2010. Number of non-fatal accidents have come down from 6,591 to 5,343.Sharp rise in the number of vehicles on Bangalore’s roads is a key reasonfor technology adoption, which is an enabler. There are nearly 40 lakh vehiclesand every year, the number of vehicles is growing by 7- 8 %. Experts say thenumber of two-wheelers and cars are growing at 8.25 % and 12.5 %, year-on-year.

Another factor to adopt technology is the manpower crunch faced bythe traffic police department — it has not added staff since 2007. Saystraffic expert and chairman of Traffic Engineers & Safety Trainers (TEST),Professor MN Sreehari: “People say that the intelligent transport system,as it is called elsewhere, is very expensive. That is not the case. The systemhas come to existence because of human resource shortage. In advanced countries,there are shortages and hence automation is required. This leaves no room forhuman error and is an unbiased system. We can also introduce artificialintelligence later on.”

This technology adoption programme,called B-TRAC, was kicked off in 2007 and is expected to cost Rs 350 crore.“We have set a target of reducing congestion by 30% in central areas,reducing accidents by 30% and improving parking management,” says PraveenSood, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, who has been spearheading theB-TRAC project. Sood is an IPS cadre officer and an alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIMBangalore.

The traffic management centres has different software andhardware components built by technology firms like MindTree, CMS Infosystems,Bharat Electronics, Robert Bosch, IBM and Cisco. Also, traffic density isupdated onto maps from Google Earth so that a commuter can identify congestedroads before hand.

“Traffic problem can’t be solved bytechnology alone. The infrastructure also has to be improved. However, we canuse technology to improve management and compliance,” Sood added. Thedepartment is gearing up to set up nearly 400 signals which will bevehicle-actuated, networked, adaptive, controlled and monitored by the TrafficManagement Centre.

Recently, the Union government has recognised theB-TRAC project as one where technology has been innovatively used ine-governance. The project, for which PriceWaterhouseCoopers was a consultant,has been catching the attention of police officials in other cities as well.

“Such models can be replicated in other cities as well. Somehave also shown interest in but we are not ready to talk about them yet.Compared to other cities like New York and London, this is a start. There isscope for much more. Closer integration of security and traffic is an area forimprovement. There can be location based services delivered over the phone tocommuters,” said Neel Ratan, executive director, e-Governance practice,PwC India.

TechAids Policing

Using simple IT solutions aid in reducingtraffic violations and decongesting arterial roads.

TECHNOLOGYUSED AT SIGNALS/TMCs

- Cameras placed at signals for trafficmanagement and rule enforcement. A policeman at the traffic management hubobserves these cameras placed at junctions

- If he sees a violationat a signal, he zooms into the vehicle's number plate, and the software recordsthe number. Then the software helps fixing the quanta of fine and the demand forfine goes to the owner’s registered address

- Record ofviolation stored in the traffic police database

- Fined vehicle ownercan pay fine at BangaloreOne centres, through the traffic police website or at atraffic police station

- The vehicle owner can also check pendingfine on his vehicle by messaging BTIS FINE to 52225

- Vehicle owners get traffic updates on their mobilephones

- The police personnel at the monitoring hub sees the level ofcongestion in a road, adjusts the timing on the software linked to the signalwhich increases/decreases the time span between red, yellow andgreen

- Signal timings are worked out using historical traffic dataand video analytics

TECHNOLOGY USED ON THE FIELD

-Police personnel on the ground equipped with BlackBerrys and Bluetooth printersobserve violation. Blackberrys are linked to a central database

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-Stops the vehicle, punches in the number and records the offence throughBlackberry

- Checks for previous records and imposes fine

- Violator pays fine on the spot or later through other channels

- The police personnel prints a receipt through Bluetooth printerand hands it over immediately

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FATAL CASES REPORTED FROM 2003 TILLDATE

There is a drop in cases since 2007 when the tech was firstused. 2010 bucks the trend since more areas added.