Mr. Sood on the Mobilicity event day, had talked a lot about bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in, where you can suggest or complain about the traffic and they get back to on the same.
I thought, let me try my luck through this way and submitted the following. Sharing with Praja folks, and in case Traffic Police admistration looks over this post and can do something relavant.
Basic question - If you already have the fine collection automation, why do you need traffic cops hiding somewhere near the signal and catching people? What happens in that case is mostly the fast moving violators escapes anyways and innocent slow moving may get caught for no reason. Instead if cops regulate the vechicles at the junction in following ways-
(1) Not to allow any vehicle to cross the zebra crossing so that pedestrian way can be kept clear. This will definitely help in pedestrians safety.
(2) If 2 or more lanes are there, cops should make sure that vehicles standing on the leftmost lane should take LEFT and vehicles standing in the rightmost lane should take RIGHT with no exceptions. (This will definitely help keeping junctions clear of JAM).
(3) Cops should make sure that as soon as the lights turn YELLOW (to move to RED), vehicle should start stopping there instead of trying to cross still.
(4) Any vehicle standing at signal making unnecessary noise should be warned strictly not to repeat again. This will really help cutting down noise pollution.
I know, you can face challenges here to implement these enforcements with the limited staff etc, but I can give a few suggestions there too-
(a) Divide signals in varios tiers like tier 1-4 according to average passing vehicle volumes.
(b Choose a few huge-capacity signals (tier-1) (lets say 15 or some implementable possible number signals in bangalore), there enforcement has to be made all the time.
(c) For the next level tier, lets say this is to be enforced at peak hours.
(d) For next level tier, this enforcement can be done at random times and random signals so as to make sure that at any point of time, a constant number of signals are being enforced for the same.
This way we would be able to bring this kind of traffic enforcement into vehicle drivers's daily habbits as well as fear in their mind about violating signals.
I want to make one more point for pedestrians is that, they should also be warned if caught crossing any road while talking on mobile, or crossing when pedestrian signal is still RED interrupting normal traffic flow.
If you think, further discussion/clarification on the suggestions needed, I am all available for it to help you make bangalore a next-generation developed city with its citizens having a good traffic and road sense.
Hope to hear soon from you.
Thanks
Regards
Deepak
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Comments
RTO First
I think you should take these suggestions to the RTO first and ask whether they are checking for all 4 points during behind the wheel test. Ask for proof of how many people have been failed in the past 1 year for failure to follow the above 4 suggestions.
To be fair to Mr Sood
dvsquare - I can safely bet that the point #s 1 to 4 are things that Mr Sood would know. Suggestions at that level are good but are best avoided, but unfortunately, that is the level at which most suggestions come to him (my guess).
But, your suggestions on how to go about implementing the 1-4 (and few more things on similar lines) is very good. Dividing the signals into multiple tiers and then allocating enforcement resources and priorities is an excellent thought.
Perhaps, further, if within this set of tier 1 signals (say 40 of them) , if there were to be a sliding window of priority locations (say 10 out of 40) for every month where some 4-5 enforcement messages can be pushed, that could make things a little practical for Mr Sood's team.
One other thought I had dvsquare was that just like picking priority locations for super high levels of enforcement, there could be campaign focused on enforcing select bad behavior. Say stopping at lights behind the zebra line - think a 1 month campaign to enforce just this point on priority, coupled with media and paper ads. Then, pick something else next, 1 month of campaign.
I think traffic police does some campaigns, but they may be doing general high drive weeks with raised ticket targets for all traffic policement on the street. Just my guess.
Would be good to hear from Mr Sood on his operational strategies to get more out of his 1800 strong force. We have heard a lot about automation (sure, that is way to get more from 1800 people), but not much beyond that.
On 'Traffic marshalls', again
I would like to believe that community participation on the lines of what I had detailed here (and made a prsentation on at MOBILICITY) would provide a far more effectve solution.
Following my posting the suggestion on PRAJA earlier, many people had responded most positively, a typical comment being "Murali's idea of traffic Marshals is a wonderful one, and count me in as one of the first volunteers in case this idea is implemented/taken forward".
I don't know what Mr Sood's reservations can be.
True, that's suggestion to any govt body to act in step-by-step
@Silkboard
Very well understood my point, that's the way I want Traffic-police to go ahead with. Step by step act, awareness and policies will really make a lot of difference in a course of time. I just hope, Mr. Sood will understand the same and can act this way instead of giving reasons about nullyfied citizen's demands, limited staff, or not-possible etc etc.
@Murli sir
That's really a nice idea sir ji, and count me in too for the same.
@Mr. Sood
Mr. Sood, You can take your own sweet time to implement everything, but what we as responsible citizens want is atleast an initiative towards that direction and a piece of an act that shows something is happening, and we can make it happen. And adding the Traffic Marshall's idea, Murali Sir and we volunteers can provide a great support in this activity.
Just curious
How does the role of a traffic marshal/warden differ from that of a constable? What powers does a constable wield that a marshal/warden will not? What is the training that a marshall/warden recieves on traffic rules etc that a constable does not? If the marshals/wardens can do as effective a job as a constable does this mean hiring and training a constable is redundant? Is it possible that the qualifications and worldly experience of these part time marshals/wardens from a different socio economic strata may put the constabulary at unease?
valid questions, and my responses
@ids
As envisaged by me,
1) A 'marshall' is a select volunteer from the community; whereas a Constable is a paid government employee.
2) Marshall does not wield any power - he can only counsel, and if it's not heeded to, report the matter to the police authorities.
3) Marshalls will only supplement the job done by the constables; will not substitute them.
4) Marshalls essentially being respected members of the community, the chances of their counsel being accepted by the lay public should be fairly high. Also, they will only make such sections of the constabulary are as corrupt, uneasy.
You may be true but that's what we need to change
Yes, the constable gets the same training etc, but do you see any constable on the roads using his rights, performing upto his duty? This is one side of it, other side also suggests that who listens to the poor constable, either people just ignore them or bribe them or most usually frighten them using high-end contacts. Higher-level traffic cops if they are present, they just keep standing on the side of the road preferably to challan a few and take chai-paani from few more, or many times, I have seen them just sitting on their motorcycles just doing nothing.
What I described above are not rare scenarios, they are nust normal scenarios widely seen. If government and govt officials really start understanding their responsiblities then there won't be any need of Traffic marshall/Warden or even our community PRAJA.
T.W.O & TMC
Here is a job description for Traffic Wardens. Does it need updating?
I like the concept of TMC. Anybody have any luck with starting one in their area?
Tragedy of commons
No one denies the inadequacy of infrastructure or even traffic management but our road-user behaviour, instead of facilitating a solution, aggravates the problem.
Above point I agree with completely with from this writeup
...Even the best of psychiatrists haven’t been able to explain the genesis of indiscipline on Indian roads. Could it be prolonged subjugation by foreigners leading to abuse of the freedom we gained 62 years ago? Or the fact that we are still struggling with basic needs of life and, therefore, road sense is too minor an issue; or it is the habitual competitiveness which is also seen on our roads where motorists try to occupy every inch available at the cost of road safety and discipline; or inadequate enforcement?
I may not be a psychiatrist but I am sure it is a combination of all of the above. The selfishness of our people on the roads and in public is markedly visible when you see less selfish communities in other countries. We put personal motives ahead of general good even if it costs us very little to give it up.
But by following a few steps we can try to put things right.
Start should be made by making military service compulsory after 10th for all citizens otherwise no college admission will be allowed. 2 years of PU can be completed while serving. 55% of Indias population is below 22 years. Catch them young and in schools.
RTO driving inspectors & Traffic police should be trained in a country where traffic engineering is a mature subject. They need to be certified before they can take up jobs.
Then engineering & enforcement.. which we talk about a lot here.
TMC's drawbacks
@ids
The TMC scheme started off quite satisfactorily in Koramangala in 06-07, under the earlier ACP, even though I don't recall the then Corporator attending even one meeting. But, after a few meetings, it was tending to become more of ritual than a platform for fruitful interactions. And, after the ACP's transfer, there's not been much happening on the front. And, of course, there's been no Corporator either for well over two years.
I would like to believe that the 'traffic marshalls' scores far better on many of these aspects, and therefore definitely worth a try.
I haven't been contacted by Mr. Sood yet
I have left my mail-id and phone number on the feedback page, but still haven't been contacted, I meant an acknoledgement.
Suggestions how to take this forward?
FATAL accident due to traffic signal violation by BMTC driver
Tuesday's TOI contained a news -
Impatient bus driver mows down motorist
1 Killed, 3 Injured When BMTC Bus Hit Their Vehicles While Trying To Jump Red Signal
- http://epaper.timesofindi...
What Mr. Sood has to say about it?
Its just a one incident, but the thing is that it happens on a very frequent basis, its just the FATALity is not that frequent.
Mr. Sood, what was the fault of that person who got killed and other 3 injured?
Why are you not penalizing errant drivers so that they dare not to do the same violations again in lifetime?
Why drivers (BMTC or cab or auto or any private vehicle) think that violating signals is not a big deal?
Why your police cops are just hiding somewhere near the signal to catch hold of a few slow moving vehicles, what about those who are jumping signals at faster speeds whom you dare not to catch, because try catching them might pull you under the wheels?
We as Bangalore citizens need ANSWERS to these questions, its a high time, how many more innocents are going to die because of a few errants?
Mr. Sood, still keeping hope that you will do something.