BENGALURU: Bengaluru Traffic Police has added 50 new traffic signals this financial year, taking the total to 501 signals in the city. The department is now undertaking a study to ascertain where traffic signals can be added or removed, for better regulation of traffic. Experts, though, say signals are unnecessary until people follow traffic rules.
Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Karthik Reddy said the department is planning a study in the next few days to analyse where more signals can be added. Some have already been removed and a few more could go in places where signals are at a distance of less than 100 metres. Reddy said that before installing a signal, detailed ground assessment is done.
A team of police officials is stationed to take note of the rising Passenger Car Unit (PCU) density, road details and presence of residential, commercial, medical and educational institutions. The volume of traffic, pedestrian crossings and intersections are also noted while installing a signal.
A traffic police official, seeking anonymity, said the number of signals is only rising as traffic police officials are finding it difficult to streamline movement. It has also been noted that people are not following traffic rules at most of the newly installed signals, so police officials are stationed on duty at the same junctions, to ensure that rules are followed. This is becoming a futile exercise.
As per traffic police department records, the city has a road network of 14,000km with around 44,000 intersections and 1.2 crore registered vehicles plying. The department is also taking stock of the number of traffic signals in other cosmopolitan cities to compare with the city, and find out if Bengaluru has a few too many.