Bengaluru today is the most wanted city in the Country. The rapid growth in the IT industry, increase the job opportunities in the city. With the rising population in the city there is also a corresponding increase in the number of vehicles in the city and a huge increase in the demand on land.
What adds to the traffic pressure in Bengaluru in particular is the Two wheelers. The Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), B. Dayanand made a point that, Two-wheelers and not cars are the main contributors to traffic congestion in the city. Bengaluru is a city of two wheelers, as Two wheelers constitute more than 70% of the total volume of the traffic, while cars comprise 15%, autos 4% and the remaining 8% includes other vehicles such as buses, vans and tempos.
At a conference on ‘Crime and traffic in Bengaluru City’ organized by the Advocates’ Association, Bangalore, on September 26th, he explained that the population-to-vehicle ratio in Bengaluru is 2:1. Two-wheelers account for 31.7 lakh vehicles out of the 46 lakh in the city. The City Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar spoke on the high vehicular density on the city roads and added that Bengaluru has the highest number of vehicles among cities of its size in the world.
He also added, the cause of worry is that, with the increasing density of vehicle, the number of road accidents has been on the rise since 2002. To overcome from these problems traffic infrastructure has to be modified. He said that there are 53 pelican lights, 20 variable message signboards which will be increased to 40 soon), five traffic enforcement cameras and 174 surveillance cameras. Another 100 CCTV cameras will be added in the city soon. Mr. Auradkar pointed out the lapses in traffic infrastructure, and said “To begin with, we don’t have enough lanes and bylanes while in cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi, 30 per cent of the traffic load is taken by them. Our roads are also very narrow. Speed breakers, which are supposed to be on the side roads and not main roads, are on main roads here. Also, dividers have openings at short distances, creating opportunity for U-turns,”.
He also promised to launch the Android-based app in a week’s time, using which pictures of traffic violations can be directly uploaded on the Public Eye website.