oa BTRAC – Bangalore traffic improvement project – A case study

From 3 lakh vehicles in 1985, to about 53 lakh now, vehicle population in Bangalore has increased more than five fold during the last two decades. While the vehicle population is growing by at least one lakh every year, total road length has remained the same. Many of the arterial roads and junctions are operating over the capacity and to upgrade the city's traffic management system and resulted in the creation of the Bangalore Traffic Improvement Project, B-TRAC 2010 by Bangalore City Traffic Police. The BTRAC Project was conceptualized to address traffic congestion in Bangalore by employing the latest traffic management technologies. The components of BTRAC which are a reality on ground include the state-of-the-art Traffic Management Center which is the hub of transportation management system in Bangalore, Intelligent Transport Systems, Surveillance and Enforcement Cameras, Signage, Road Markings, Street Furniture, Junction Improvements and Capacity Building. Various traffic and road safety education and training activities have also been conducted with citizens and traffic personnel throughout the city for generating awareness about traffic rules and familiarising them with the latest technologies being adapted. As a result of such consolidated traffic control and management effort, Bangalore today has a full-fledged traffic maintenance system. This has resulted in creating transparency in enforcing traffic rules and levying adequate and timely penalties. BTRAC has resulted in better management of traffic, ensuring safety and security on roads and prevention of road accidents, with the monitoring and regulation of flow of vehicles in a systematic manner. BTRAC has reduced the occurrence of road accidents in Bangalore and is creating a safe road environment for commuters. The absolute number of road accidents witnessed a growing trend till the year 2007 and then followed a declining trend over the consecutive years with 5230 cases being reported in 2013 and 5004 cases in 2014. Even the fatal accident rate is showing a declining trend over the past five years.