BENGALURU: Bengaluru Traffic Police has decided to come down heavily on motorists jumping traffic signals and stop lines in the city.
City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood on Sunday tweeted that stop line and signal jumping enforcement would be the top priority for the traffic police in the city.
According to Bengaluru Traffic Police records, the number of motorists booked for jumping traffic signals in the city has increased from 6,88,027 in 2014 to 7,22,738 in 2016 (see graphics). This means an average of 1,980 motorists booked for jumping traffic signals in the city every day last year.
Many commuters welcomed the move and said most violators are private taxis and buses, BMTC buses and autorickshaws. However, experts said people in the city are too impatient and tend to jump signals and stop lines as travel speed is as low as 10 kmph in most places in the city during peak hours.
“Traffic congestion in the city is not an excuse to break rules. Jumping traffic signals not only causes accidents but also creates severe traffic congestion. We have decided to take stringent action against such violators in the coming days,” said a senior traffic police officer.
Subramani Gurumurthi, a resident of the city tweeted: “I travel from JP Nagar to Nagawara every day and I see at least 10 signal jumping violations”.
Another resident, Soham Pablo, tweeted: “My taxi jumped at least 5 signals from airport to HSR last night, 2 of them right in front of Hoysala vehicles”.
Traffic police officials said they have installed Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) cameras at 10 important junctions in the city to book offenders. The RLVD cameras captures red light violations, and licence plate of the vehicle will be identified and will be generated challan.
“We are planning to increase the number of RLVD cameras across the city,” said a senior traffic police officer.
On complaints of long waiting time at traffic signals, he said, the city traffic police are also in the process of installation of ‘adaptive traffic signal lights’ at 35 major junctions across the city.
The proposed adaptive traffic signal lights can sense the traffic and change signalling pattern accordingly compared to the traditional traffic signals that have pre-programmed timings.
According to Bengaluru Traffic Police records, the number of accidents in the city has increased from 4,828 in 2015 to 7,506 in 2016, the highest jump since 2009. The number of people who died in accidents in 2016 touched a five-year high, at 793 deaths.
The proposed amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act is also expected to bring jumping traffic lights as ‘dangerous driving’ and may attract fines of up to Rs 5,000 for the first offence and double that amount for
subsequent violations.