Wait no more: Bengaluru gives go-ahead to signals that adapt to traffic!

By Tanvi Patel

February 15, 2018

These signals will have a 360-degree camera installed which will collect data from all the arms of the junction.

Sounds Interesting? Share it now!

1 Trafficked by a Family Friend at 13, This Survivor Has Now Rehabilitated Over 4500 Girls

2 ‘I Have Seen Poverty in Its Cruel Form’: 56 YO Helps 4,000 People in Villages Find Jobs

3 IPS Officer Educates 1000s in MP’s Villages, Helps Them Escape Intergenerational Sex Work

You are on your way to attend a meeting or have just stepped out to meet a friend, but your plans come crashing down when you get stuck in a traffic jam for a tiresome amount of time.

Those of us who live in Bengaluru are very familiar with this situation! Whether you commute by a public transport, car, or a two-wheeler, this is a situation you face on a daily basis, and sometimes, the traffic signals add to your distress when you have to wait for a long time at a red signal, although the road ahead is completely clear.

The Bengaluru City Traffic Police (BCTP) have decided to lend a helping hand and end these woes by introducing smart adaptive signals that will glow red or green by sensing the volume of traffic on the road.

These signals will have a 360-degree camera installed which will collect data from all the arms of the junction, form a virtual loop about it and allocate the ‘go’ time accordingly.

Representative image of traffic at a signal. Source.

A trial of 35 junction signals has already been carried out—the old fixed-time signals were replaced by the dynamic, data-driven signals in December 2017. Seeing the success of these signals, the BCTP has decided to introduce 453 such signals across the city. 353 of these will be a replacement for the existing signals, and 100 will be introduced anew.

The State Cabinet cleared around RS 85 crore for this project last week, according to The Hindu.

R Hitendra, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) told The Hindu, “we are finalising the technical specifications for the tenders, which will be called soon.”

In the second phase of the project, BCTP is set to upgrade these dynamic adaptive signals to create a network with neighbouring signals to the flow of traffic is even smoother. By communicating oncoming traffic to the next traffic signal, these smart traffic signals will ease congestion further, creating a smoother way for vehicles.