Slow and steady: Bengaluru sees drop in speeding and road fatalities

Bengaluru: A strategic series of media campaigns and police action has managed to slow down Bengaluru’s notoriously fast-moving traffic. According to a new evaluation report, the city saw a significant drop in average speed and a marginal decline in road fatalities over a three-month period.

The "Karnataka Mass Media Campaign Evaluation Report," launched on Monday by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in collaboration with the Karnataka State Road Safety Authority (KSRSA) and Vital Strategies, revealed that average vehicle speeds in Bengaluru plummeted by 9.4 km/h falling from 45.91 km/h to 36.56 km/h.

The campaign, titled "Motorcycle Reconstruction," featured road safety expert G Gururaj and was aired across 12 TV channels, 500 cinema screens, and hundreds of billboards starting in November 2025.

The report highlights that the "instructional-style" campaign did more than just inform, it drove compliance. Data shows that 47% of riders who recalled the campaign messages reported following speed limits, compared to a 4% among those who hadn't seen it.

The messaging was backed by a sharp spike in enforcement. Speeding violations detected across the state rose from 49,717 to 55,311 during the campaign period, with fine collections increasing by 11%, totaling over Rs 5.5 crore.

“We strongly believe that the media narrative helps us in traffic management,” said Karthik Reddy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic). He noted that while the reduction in deaths (13 lives saved during the period) though not significant, the shift in speed is a positive indicator that the city is on the right track.

Dr Gautham M Sukumar, Professor at NIMHANS, emphasised that knowledge of speed limits increased from 25.8% to 30%. "The message has been drilled into a significant section of road users, which will indirectly save lives," he said.

The KSRSA plans to replicate this model in districts with high fatality rates. Recommendations in the report suggest tailoring future campaigns specifically for two-wheeler users, who remain the most vulnerable group on Karnataka's roads.