Cutting down on needless trips in the city

Cutting down on needless trips in the city

The Hindu

A London experiment may be of help

# Drivers are charged a fee to enter central London
# Charges collected without slowing down traffic

BANGALORE: The loud thinking by senior traffic police officials has found an echo in this technology expert at an international information technology group. The London experiment of a "congestion charge'' on vehicles regularly using the central business district, was a project Mastek Ltd. in the U.K. was involved with, says Ravindra Kadam, head of Solutions and Strategy, Mastek Group, now based here.

"In London, drivers are charged a fee for entering the Central London Zone. The idea is to see that those using the road infrastructure financially contributed towards it and to discourage vehicle owners from making unnecessary trips and also to encourage the use of public transport systems,'' says Mr. Kadam. The results were impressive enough, and the traffic density in central London went down by 10 per cent to 15 per cent traffic speeds went up by a similar percentage.

Technology support

What made the London's congestion charge a success was technology, he says. Mastek was involved in supporting the development of tailor-made applications, integrating key business applications, including an e-commerce website, call centre software and the image management system, integrating key external service providers.

The aim was to reduce traffic during peak hours by charging the vehicle owners a fee to drive through the area at specified times. "What was unique about the project was that there were no tollgates or road barriers to collect charges from the vehicle owners. Instead, a network of cameras recorded number plates of vehicles entering the city centre, which were converted into data using an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system. These were then processed and used to charge the vehicle owners. Charges could be collected without slowing down traffic in any way,'' says Mr. Kadam.

Singapore example

He has seen the Singapore example too where an Electronic Road Pricing Scheme is used. There, gantries are located at all entrances to the central business district and on roads with heavy traffic. Cars are equipped with an in-vehicle unit that contains a pre-paid cash card. Every time a car passes under a gantry, a toll is automatically deducted from the cash card.

"Either example can be used here; the funds generated can go towards improving alternative systems of transport,'' he says.

Can such systems work in Bangalore? An efficient public transport system can effectively reduce traffic on road. "There is considerable evidence to suggest vehicle owners will use a mass transit system, if a good one is available. Because of traffic snarls and problems of finding parking space, many commuters in cities such as New York and London choose to travel by their metro rail systems,'' he says.