Breakdowns biggest cause of congestion on Bengaluru roads: Traffic police data

Bengaluru: Ever since Bengaluru Traffic Police adopted the AI-powered tool Actionable Intelligence for Sustainable Traffic Management (ASTraM) in January, they have been monitoring traffic flow patterns for effective traffic management. 

Besides providing congestion alerts, the tool allows the traffic police to report incidents that impede traffic via a mobile application and, in coordination with the Traffic Management Center (TMC), resolve such incidents to ensure free flow of traffic is restored.

Through this technology, they have identified that vehicle breakdowns form an overwhelming majority of incidents reported.

Data from February-April showed that 71% of a total of over 2,462 road incidents were vehicle breakdowns. Until the vehicles are towed away or restored to a working condition, they contribute to traffic congestion, especially on major roads such as Outer Ring Road, Ballari Road, Tumakuru Road, Old Airport Road and Old Madras Road.

Of the total, February saw 800, March saw 645, and April saw 1,017 incidents that caused traffic congestion. Apart from vehicle breakdowns, accidents, poor road conditions, water-logging and public events were recorded as incidents that obstructed traffic.

M N Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), told DH, "The correlation between vehicle breakdowns and congestion lengths indicates a direct relationship, with higher congestion lengths observed when the number of breakdown events is elevated. During peak hours, this leads to a 15 to 20-minute delay in commute."

He added that commercial vehicle associations, public transportation authorities, taxi aggregator service providers, private vehicle owners and other road users must all take efforts to reduce the frequency of vehicle breakdowns. "(This) combined with our field officers' assistance will contribute to a significant reduction in traffic congestion caused by vehicle breakdowns."

A majority of the vehicles that broke down in the past three months were buses —including BMTC, private, and KSRTC — and heavy goods vehicles, followed by a single-digit percentage of four-wheelers and two-wheelers.

Ahead of the monsoons, rain and waterlogging on major roads are expected to exacerbate this situation.

A senior BMTC official explained that the drivers, conductors and support staff are regularly monitoring the conditions of their buses to avoid a breakdown situation.

"Engine checks are conducted each night and the drivers are instructed to note any complaints related to the engine or brake systems in a log sheet. Mechanics then attend to these issues overnight so that the vehicle is fit to ply on the roads in the day," the officer said. 

If breakdowns occur, mobile jeeps from several depots such as Yeshwantpur, Shanthinagar, Majestic, Whitefield, Banashankari and Domlur, immediately reach the spot to fix them, they added.