Bengaluru records highest traffic violations in world as AI catches culprits

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) to manage Bengaluru’s chaotic traffic has enabled the city police to file over 1 crore traffic violation cases in a year, the highest for any city in the world, and earn close to Rs 180 crore in fines from errant motorists.

According to a News18 report, the highest number of traffic violations was for incorrect parking on roads with 12 lakh cases and another 1,54,000 cases were filed for parking on footpaths. The traffic police are being serious about both these offences and are filing FIRs against violators instead of booking them under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The traffic police finds the number of cases to be much higher as the contactless booking with the use of AI and CCTV cameras has helped track violations better.

Over the past five years, the traffic violations have increased by 25%. The traffic violations have shot up from 83,89,647 cases in 2018 to 1,04,65124 cases in 2022.

“This shows that our enforcement mechanisms are robust. We can effectively book violators and also give the people of Bengaluru the ease of comfortable and safe travel,” News18 cited special police commissioner (traffic) Dr MA Saleem as saying.

The 1993-batch IPS officer has done a PhD in traffic management for metropolitan cities.

The newly developed Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), which is an AI, helps in detecting seven visible traffic violations and generates challans. It has 250 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and 80 red light violation detection (RLVD) cameras.

“The 330 cameras installed under ITMS can detect violations like overspeeding, jumping signal, triple riding, using mobile phones while driving, driving without seat belt, or riding without helmet. The cameras capture the number plates and face of the person, and the information is then transferred to our server where the challan is automatically generated,” the special commissioner said.

This serves as a deterrent as well as motorists know they will be caught for traffic violations.

However, for easing traffic congestion it is also important that people move to public transport such as metro, buses and suburban rail. In Mumbai, for instance 73% people use public transport compared to only 47% for Bengaluru, the police officer said.