Was checking if there were any fines against my car's number at www.btis.in. None. Then I decided to do a random sampling of cars on unpaid fines.
Did a random sample of 100 cars across the 5 RTOs for unpaid violations and fine amounts. This would be fairly representative as the number is quite large for a sample.
There were 54 unpaid violations amounting to Rs.5900 for 33 cars in this sample. (67 cars had no pending fines against them). So about 1/3 of all cars have at least 1 fine pending against them.
20% of cars had 1 fine and 13% had more than 1 fine with 4 being the maximum I found. The highest amount was Rs.700 pending.
Extrapolate this to Bangalore's car population (~500,000) and we have a pending amount of Rs.3 crores. This is a snapshot and we cannot infer total collections in a year, etc. unless we know how old these fines are.
If they are not very old (say most < 1 mth) we have a serious problem in following rules (54 violations/100 cars in a month). If they are very old and spread over 6 months, it means we have a collection proble,
To get an idea of trends we will have to do this periodically.
Srivathsa
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Comments
Collection does not exist.
As far as I am aware they never collect any fines. I recall getting a parking ticket once and simply ignored it - the signs were unclear so I didn't think it was justified. Nothing happened. And its not on BTIS either. By the way, I am a little bothered by the lack of privacy on the BTIS website - anyone can check out who owns which car. I've been thinking of using it to shock the sons of bachelors who park in front of my gate - a personalized note addressed to them would really scare and surprise them !
Ramesh
No consequences for non-payment
Their system for fines is pretty slow. Got a notice recently for an offence I had committed in April.
Tried paying the fine online via traffic police website. It doesn't work but they pop up a phone number which does work. Called them, they directed me to Bangalore One site, where I could pay.
If a person just ignores the notice, what stops them from sending another notice threatening cancellation of license or some such dire consequence if the person doesn't pay or contest the fine.
IMHO, Bangaloreans violate traffic rules because there is no fear of any consequences.
Also wondering whether they have mobile numbers associated with each vehicle at the btis site? They could have got this from the dealer who registered the vehicle. If traffic offence notices start coming via SMS, people might be more responsive than a snail mail letter (with no record of delivery) that can be thrown in the trash.
If there is fear of enforcement, adherence to rules would improve.
Vijay
Yeah, the problem is nobody
Yeah, the problem is nobody cares. I can park my car in the middle of any road and leave it there with impunity - people will adjust and go around it - perhaps honking a few times as they go around. Cops are completely impotent - if someone breaks a law all they can do is sort of shoult at him as he drives off.
It seems so stupid to me. Collecton of fines is a huge gold mine waiting to be tapped. I suppose the problem is that its hard for the guy who collects the fine to actually benefit directly by way of bribes though, perhaps that is the reason why they dont bother enforcing it. The argument that there arent enough cops to collect the fines is not valid as they can pay the cops with the fine money.
If Bangalore has any ambitions of becoming a `world class city' as they like to talk about its essential that these kind of systems are implemented. This small town mentality of allowing people to drive in any direction, stop anywhere, park anywhere with impunity - while at some level convenient, is at the end of the day detrimental to the city at large.
Ramesh
Catching sitting ducks
With duly respecting the hard work most police put to keep the traffic flowing, I would hate to see some them catching innocents. We all have seen catching two wheelers/trucks just after a signal for silly documents. They intentionally put no free left, one way board so small or hide it and wait at the turn to prey on. They never catch reckless drivers but mostly prey on innocents, is it not demoralizing the law abiding the citizens?