Sign boards route wrong signals

Sign boards route wrong signals

Messages often remain the same as the cops forget to update them

MK Madhusoodan. Bangalore



The ambitious plans of city traffic police of informing public regarding traffic and road status, through installing Variable Message Signboards (VMS) have come across some glitches.
The manually uploaded messages are often unchanged and updates are at times forgotten to be fed into the device.
"This is only for time being, and will be rectified soon after the city gets some more signboards. These are the first set of VMS which is under pilot study. In fact the messages are manually uploaded from the traffic management centre (TMC) where some of the police personnel upload it. There are times when, those on duty forget to update or switch off the old messages," Pravin Sood, additional commissioner of police (traffic) said.
According to the plan, Sood said, 10 VMS were scheduled to be put up by July end. "We found that wrong messages were being flashed on the VMS screens. This will be corrected soon, once the staff are properly trained," he said.
As part of the project under the B-Trac programme, aimed at improving the traffic flow and management in the city, the traffic police are also planning to flash messages on delays in departure and arrival of flights at Bangalore International Airport (BIA). The pilot project launched in the city will also focus on traffic situation in the city.
The trial run of the VMS was launched at Rajaram Mohan Roy Road at the entry of the Kanteerava stadium. VMS will not only alert motorists on traffic jams but also help them by giving alerts on accidents, pot holes on the roads, about leaking pipes, repair works, rallies taken out on the road or a film shooting on the road that may lead to traffic congestion.
As part of the first installment, the city had four VMS and the number is going to increase to 20 within the next few weeks. In the next ten days, there will be 10 more VMS installed at various vantage points in the city, Sood said.
VMS are being placed at the city entrances. These will be located at such junctions where commuters have choices of routes for the same destination,he said. Six more VMS will come up on BIA road and on Tumkur road, besides Hosur road, the officer added.