Traffic woes: City police looking to Singapore for answers

Traffic woes: City police looking to Singapore for answers
DH News Service, Bangalore:

Traffic woes in Bangalore will now get a remedy from Singapore.

For, the State government is planning to send a team of 37 police officers to the island country to study its traffic management model and apply the same in Bangalore City.

Home Minister V S Acharya told reporters here on Monday that the training programme will be held for one month. The dates of the training schedule are yet to be finalised, he said. Basically, Singapore was zeroed in for its size, population and traffic density are similar to Bangalore.

Acharya said, the team will study broadly the information system in place in Singapore wherein motorists are alerted about the traffic density on nearby-by roads through a public display system. This helps motorists avoid already jammed roads. The team will also study the toll system in place in central district of the city during peak hours. Singapore was the first city in the world to implement an electronic road toll collection system for purpose of ‘congestion pricing’.

Under this system users of a transport network have to pay a toll for using roads in periods of peak demand. This system was further enhanced to Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) in 1998. It is mandatory for all Singaporean vehicles to be fitted with a stored-value card - referred in the country as In-vehicle Unit (IU)- if they wish to use the toll roads. The same is affixed on the lower right corner of the front wind screen within sight of the driver. When a vehicle equipped with an IU passes under an ERP sensor - installed on all toll roads - a road usage charge is deducted from the card.

Video cameras are used to enforce the ERP programme. If drivers pass through toll road without an IU or sufficient funds to pay the toll, a photo of the licence plate is sent to a control center and the violator is billed an administrative penalty charge plus the cost of the toll.

The system not only brought an increase in commuters using public transport but also reduced traffic density, accidents and emission levels. Acharya, however, was non-committal whether the toll system would be introduced in Bangalore in the long run. Bangalore trying to emulate the Singapore model is not new. It was the dream project of the former chief minister S M Krishna (1999-2004) to develop Bangalore on the lines of Singapore. However, the same failed to take off.