Want to know why Bengaluru gets choked up with traffic all the time? While funny memes about the city’s traffic woes may make you smile, the real reason may make you scowl. The answer is simple but the solution is complex.
Traffic snarls are a problem in every city across the world, the basic problem for the endless traffic gridlocks is the ratio of the number of vehicles on the road to the vehicle carrying capacity of the road is greater than 1 on most roads.
With IT companies slowly asking employees to return to offices by lifting their work-from-home policy, it has added to the traffic on the roads. If you go by statistics, there are close to 68,000 companies in Bengaluru and one of the high-traffic density stretches is the one that extends from Silk Board to Marathahalli to KR Puram. This nearly 60-km ring road has, in the last few weeks, witnessed an increase of close to 50 percent in vehicular movement as people return to offices for work.
News18 has learnt of approximately 65,000 employees travelling to work in companies located on the ORR, and there are at least 6.5 lakh vehicles on the roads each day. This is nearly half the number of employees who take their vehicle to work, apart from vehicles ferrying schoolchildren, college students and vehicles for other businesses.
This is expected to increase by another 75,000 by August, said traffic department officials as companies prepare to open their offices full time. News18 joined Bengaluru’s joint commissioner, traffic, MN Anucheth on a drive through the city to understand how these gridlocked roads can be managed and the solutions being found, especially with the use of artificial intelligence, drive cameras and software.
Why such gridlocks, what measures have been taken?
Anucheth said Bengaluru was a cosmopolitan city and, so, the number of vehicles being added every day is 1,000 to 2,000 each day. “We have a vehicle population of about 1.1 crore as of today and the population of Bengaluru is estimated to be approximately 1.6 crore, so the vehicle-to-driver ratio is 1:1.5, which is quite high. We are ideally aiming to see fewer vehicles on the roads, which would mean increased use of public transport. There are short-term, medium, and long-term solutions. The long-term ones being the use of Metro, suburban trains, K-ride and buses,” he said.
Various stakeholder departments are working together to achieve this goal and enhance mobility. Despite these efforts, Bengaluru has witnessed gridlocks in several areas prompting authorities to take decisive action.
One such measure involves restricting heavy vehicles from entering the city during morning rush hours. Additionally, areas affected by Metro construction are cordoned off or barricaded to minimise disruptions to traffic flow.
Notably, the ORR, housing numerous IT parks, experiences severe congestion, especially on days when employees commute to work. The return of IT employees to physical workplaces has also contributed to increased gridlocks in certain areas, particularly in IT company clusters. The stretch between Marathahalli and Silk Board has witnessed a significant rise in vehicular traffic as a result.
“We have seen a considerable increase in vehicular traffic between Marathahalli and Silk Board, both ways. We have also been told that WFH rules have been relaxed, so the roads are congested now as 60 to 70% of the employees are going to office. We have taken up some measures as well. We are tying with the Outer Ring Road Companies Association to monitor and engage volunteers to help us manage traffic better. I would say that the traffic on the roads has increased by 70% and the travel times are more,” Anucheth said.
The progress of Namma Metro routes has been hindered by the shortage of migrant workers. The newly formed Congress government has also come up with a proposal to address the pressing traffic issue in the city by proposing the construction of underground tunnels.
Traffic department collects Rs 123 crore in fines
Did you know that the Bengaluru traffic department collected Rs 123 crore in fines earlier this year? In a bid to enforce traffic rules and reduce violations, authorities conducted three drives to prompt people to pay their fines by offering a 50 percent discount. After the success of the first drive, a second was conducted where another Rs 13.27 crore was collected. The third and latest drive is active till September 9. In a matter of one week, the department has filed 48,259 cases and collected a penalty amount of Rs 1.53 crore.
The maximum traffic violations pertain to riders not wearing helmets and triple riding on two-wheelers. Officials said most of the traffic jams are also caused due to traffic violations. The state government’s initiative to implement a contactless ITMS (intelligent traffic management system) for enforcement of traffic rules has further facilitated the process.
Traffic personnel have been deployed on the ground wherever contactless enforcement is not feasible. “We are seeing fines up to Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each day. In our attempt to go contactless, our ITMS can effectively book violators. Wherever we are unable to implement contactless enforcement, we have our personnel on the ground,” the traffic joint commissioner said.
How AI is being used to manage traffic jams, keep tab on violations
Bengaluru is the only city that has successfully used AI to manage traffic in the country, where a central point called the traffic management centre (TMC) uses the ITMS to identify traffic movement and effectively coordinate traffic across the city.
With the help of specialised ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras, not only is the city monitored with an eagle eye but every traffic violation is captured with the help of special intelligence-enabled red light violation detection (RLVD) cameras.
So, the next time a person driving is trying to jump a red light, they may have to think twice. According to Dr Anil Purohit, inspector, TMC, not only will the violation be captured by the camera, but it is also equipped to detect eight violations – seatbelt, speeding, triple riding, one-way riding, using mobile, signal jumping, stopping on or crossing stop lines and not wearing helmet. If you have violated more than one rule, be sure to be penalised for them separately and the challan will be at your doorstep.
“There has been an infusion of technology in traffic management, but enforcement has been one of the biggest challenges that the traffic police face today. If we concentrate on regulating traffic, then enforcement takes a hit and vice versa. So with the help of technology, like ANPR and RLVD cameras, it has helped us monitor better,” Purohit said.
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