B-TRAC to put traffic on track

B-TRAC to put traffic on track
The Times of India

Bangalore: Picture this.
March, 2006: You’re in a rush to get to an important meeting from High Grounds to MG Road. You take Infantry Road and there’s a traffic jam at Coffee Board Junction. You are stuck there for at least 15 minutes.

By 2007, with Variable Message System (VSM): At High Grounds, there is a huge display board indicating a traffic jam at Coffee Board Junction. You can take a detour towards Palace Road, Maharani College Junction, Cubbon Park and move onto MG Road.

The VSM is only a small component of the ambitious Bangalore Traffic Improvement Project — B-TRAC 2010 — which has been given the go ahead in the budget with an allocation of Rs 350 crore.

Says additional commissioner of traffic, M N Reddi: “VSM, along with other systems, will enable motorists to make smart choices, intelligently redistribute vehicular movement and have one-ways to allow better synchronisation.”

By 2007, the project envisages an intelligent transport system including area traffic control, VMS, traffic command centre among others for 125 signals and 50 VMS locations at a cost of Rs 30 crore. Traffic surveillance, monitoring and enforcement through cameras and upgradation of automated enforcement system too will be taken up. During the same period, there will be a provision for modern signages, gantry, road markings, minor junction improvement and traffic and road safety education and training activities.

With all this, Bangalore will have a full-fledged Intelligent Transportation System, widespread traffic signals, palmtops and PDAs to issue bills and fine receipts, top-notch enforcement of rules with little human intervention.

Institutional objectives: Coordinated traffic management like institutionalising traffic task force, road safety committee, traffic action committee, legal and institutional reforms, capacity building and strengthening of traffic police by augmenting personnel, construction of buildings and provision for modern communication and mobility.

Specific components in the BTRAC framework include central area-area traffic control system, one-way systems, dedicated bus lanes and signal priority for buses, creation of noauto zones, restricted entry of traffic to core areas and development of Core Ring Road.

OBJECTIVES
Reduction in traffic congestion by 30% in city central area, accident reduction by 30%, significant reduction in pollution and achieve compliance of traffic laws and rules.
Setting up of trauma care system, coordinated traffic management development mechanisms (traffic task force, road safety committee, etc), Robust revenue model (traffic funds to pay for traffic management, infrastructure and maintenance).

STRATEGY
Land use development controls, primacy to public transport, parking controls and management.
Entry restriction to central areas, road safety plan for accident reduction, dedicated bus lanes, creation of no-auto zones, corridor traffic control system, upgradation of intermediate and outer ring road.
Traffic police modernisation with improvement communication, mobility, computerisation, capacity building and automated enforcement systems.