Google to help cops search fastest way out of jams

The Bengaluru traffic police are all set to introduce a dashboard exclusively developed by Google India for effective coordination to unclog city roads in the shortest possible time.

The new system is likely to be introduced by November-end.

The first of its kind in the country, Google dashboard will enable users to view and manage personal data collected about them by Google Inc. Recently, representatives of Google India met the traffic police higher-ups and briefed them on the dashboard concept, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R Hithendra told DH.

The dashboard will help the police take preventive and corrective measures to decongest roads in the shortest possible time in case of vehicle breakdowns or wrong parking.

“We liked the concept and decided to introduce it,” Hithendra said.

A team of six police officers are being trained by Google to handle the new system, he said. All inspectors and assistant and deputy commissioners of police have been told to compulsorily follow it.

How dashboard works

Google has redrawn an exclusive Bengaluru city map with boundaries of every police station. The dashboard will use the data generated by mobile towers and the Global Positioning System to indicate congestion on roads and at junctions. It also has coordinators named “no congestion”, “less congestion”, “slow moving” and “congestion” to indicate the existing situation on roads.

A six-member team at the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) will constantly monitor the dashboard indicators, which are sent to mobile phones of inspectors, ACPs, DCPs and the Additional Commissioner of Police Traffic).

The higher-ups will get into action if inspectors on the ground fail to decongest roads within 15 minutes. The TMC staff will guide inspectors to redirect traffic on to less congested roads.

Based on the prevailing situation, the TMC staff will advise inspectors to manually operate signals to allow more time for vehicles on heavily congested roads to pass.

Predictions about the possible time taken to clear the congestion will be sent to the dashboard by the ground staff.

Alerts

The police will flash alerts about the congestion and the approximate time for restoring normality on their social media platform to help road users.

“The dashboard is one of the ways to help commuters stranded on roads due to congestion. It will help the police keep the traffic moving or circulating. The data will also help in additional deployment at junctions wherever there is a need,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic-Planning) R I Kasim said.