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Suggestions to Mr. Sood - via BTP website
Written By dvsquare - 25 November, 2009
Traffic Bangalore Complaint Enforcement Praveen Sood Enforcement
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
COMMENTS
idontspam - 29 November, 2009 - 20:15
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?
silkboard - 29 November, 2009 - 03:18
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.
murali772 - 29 November, 2009 - 12:21
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
dvsquare - 29 November, 2009 - 18:20
@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.
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.
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