Traffic Issues - Lets do something about it

[Subhash Gandhi]

Discussion page for two plans to bring in a change in our Traffic System:

Quoted from http://grayfaceofindia.in/2013/10/18/an-attempt-to-fix-traffic-violations-part-2/

But we get to discuss on our idea and Traffic issues in Chennai with an official, who doesn’t share either his name / contact number with us. We had a discussion on Traffic issues for almost 2 hours. We touched all parts from non-working signals, Signal Violations, Hit and Run, Theft cases, Accidents, Power of Police over the Politicians who are in real control, how such problems are handles in other countries, etc., etc., and drew up the following action plan:

Plan 1:

1. Videos to be recorded, 3 different times of a day and for 5 days. The video should be for 1 hour.
2. Videos to be taken for 5 days, thus 3 x 5 = 15 videos.
3. Analyse the videos thoroughly and note down all violators, in the format: violation type, vehicle type, vehicle registration number, time of violation, etc.
4. Document the whole as a project and submit it to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
5. Then based on our project, they might officially take decision on strong enforcement of laws, etc.,

Plan 2:

1. Create a web portal for public to upload videos of Traffic Violations.
   
2. Publicize it and attract more social activists in getting videos of Violations.
3. When around 1000s of videos are gathered, contact ACP office again.
4. Then they will take it up forward.
   

Help Needed: If anyone is willing to shoot videos; analyze videos and list out violators; any IT guy ready to develop a web portal, etc., please post here.

Also this is not only about the violators, but also about non-working signals, poor road infrastructure, etc.,

Also please do share your valuable opinions / suggestion.. :-)

Related Links:
1. Traffic Post 1: http://grayfaceofindia.in/2013/05/18/an-attempt-to-fix-traffic-violations/

2. Traffic Post 2: http://grayfaceofindia.in/2013/10/18/an-attempt-to-fix-traffic-violations-part-2/
3. Sample Complaint: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzT8m6ELWmHheU1IYnpVRkN2Y2M/edit?usp=sharing

4. India tops the list in Total fatilities in Traffic Related death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate (Click on the column "Total fatilities latest year" and see for yourself)

5. For 10th year in a row, Tamil Nadu tops India in road accidents: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-24/india/40165541_1_road-accidents-fatal-accidents-tamil-nadu

We really should change this. Our politicians and Administrators, never cared about us, a common human's life !!! We should definitely do something on this !!!

I beg to everyone who see this message to take a pledge to yourself to stick to traffic rules from today. Lets be the start of a positive change :-)

Thanks :-)

[Saiyasodharan R]

Mr. Azhagar Senthil, a Social Activist in Porur showed interest in buying a high quality camera worth INR 25K just for the purpose of this.

But we need help in analyzing the videos, find and list out the violators.

Warning: For me, analyzing 1 min of video to find red signal violators, stop line violations, helmet violation would take 15 mins. Its a time consuming work, but we need it at the moment.

We did a few activities with his guidance few months back to remove encroachments in Porur signal. But nothing moved because of pressure from high corrupt people !!! Because they probably get a lump amount from the big guys who encroach the road !!!

[Jamsheed Jasar]

Hello,

This is indeed a very good initiative. 

I do have additional points to add for this. 

The idea of creating a video record and submitting it to the police for further action is very good indeed. But there are some caveats that you need to understand about how our system works in order to fully understand whether this will be effective. Once the complaint is submitted, the police can trace the vehicle only through the vehicle's registration number. And in our system, the registration details mostly will not be updated. And even though the law states that you have to update the vehicle's registration address, each time you move into a new house, I am sure that most of the people would not have done it. You could probably do a poll among the members of this group itself to understand (assuming that all members respond truthfully to the poll :) ) 

Ideally, the mechanism should be that of spot fines. The argument against this by the traffic cops would be that they are under-staffed. In that case, maybe this group can create a group of volunteers who can assist the cops. But this spot fine activity should be supplemented by an awareness campaign also. We can distribute pamphlets informing the violators why they were being fined. Additionally, even innovative methods such as making them write impositions (as it was done by some cops in Kerala), marking the cars with bumper stickers proclaiming that they violated traffic rules etc. can also be done. 

But the long-term solution for all traffic woes is nothing but proper education of the citizens. Somebody in the website pointed out that people break rules because of bad roads, inefficient administration. This might be so. But the fact of the matter is that as a citizen we have broken a law. And breaking a law invites punishment. This realization is lacking in most people. There is a pervasive "chalta hai" attitude. That is why whenever we see people being pulled up for overspeeding or jumping a signal, they tend to argue with the cops or try to bribe their way out of it. They think that it is perfectly alright to do this. The same persons who blatantly flout traffic rules, would not dare to even think about arguing with the cop, or bribe their way out, if they are abroad. Perhaps, we might have a very long way to go for this to happen in India. But I think that we are in the right direction with this initiative. 

For the education campaign, we could do lot of activities at major traffic signals across the city in a phased manner. We could distribute pamphlets and let people know what rules they are violating. We could get help from more experienced people on the forum to help us out in this regards.

Thanks,

Jamsheed.

[Saiyasodharan R]

Hi Jamsheed,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here :-) You exactly nailed the problem here, with good solutions. As you told Educating people and also enforcing the laws, would solve the problems, in my opinion. Individual volunteers distributing pamphlets and educating people in signals is a good idea, indeed. Along with it, if the Traffic Police decides on strict law enforcement, by giving a media release on day, and make sure they are catching the most violators they could with the available force, it will generate a lot good revenue, that might help to offset the revenues from Tasmac :-) Just a random thought !!!

Myself right now focusing on the development of online RTI Generator (preview: http://grayfaceofindia.in/rtigen), while Alex is busy with replying to our mails. Will look shift back our focus to Traffic Violations, once its ready :-)

Meanwhile, you can drop us a mail to grayfac...@gmail.com with your contact number, If you would like to discuss more on this or any issue :-)

[Saiyasodharan R]

Hi all,

Preparing a RTI to enquire more into Traffic Department and Traffic Issues. Find the rough draft here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jGF3iX7MdbK0Qz92NCt-QVvy7mbimPO7z4qnq8cUHd0/edit?usp=sharing

Please post feedback / suggestion in a week. It will be filed and sent next week. If anyone else willing to file and send the same RTI in their name, it would be great. I believe, filing of a single RTI by more than a single person would strengthen it :-)

[Saiyasodharan R]

The RTI to enquire more into important officials in various zones of Chennai is filed last week:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B76vDSSLMZVuelg3bjQwRjFNRDg/edit?usp=sharing

Few important pieces of information required are:

1. Name, Designation, Contact number, Mail ID and Police Station address of Top Officials in each of the Traffic Zone.

2. Are they (the top officials in each Zone) authorized to take action against Traffic Violators, if the complaint is made against the violators with Video Proofs

3. Are they (the top officials in each Zone) authorized to take action against Encroachments which causes Traffic Congestion.

4. If `NO` for Item 3, who is the authority to take action on complaints against Traffic Violators. Provide their Name, Designation, Contact Number, Mail ID and Police Station address.

5. If `NO` for Item 4, who is the authority to take action on complaints against Encroachments. Provide their Name, Designation, Contact Number, Mail ID and Police Station address.

6. List of Traffic Violations along with Fine amount and details on various provisions to pay fine.

[Saiyasodharan R]

Hi all,

For the Traffic Violations RTI which we filed last month, we received response from TNagar and Adyar Traffic Police Stations. The provided information is good, but not 100% complete and we are yet to get info from all other zones.

TNagar response: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzT8m6ELWmHhUERENUNkVENub1k/edit?usp=sharing

Adyar response: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzT8m6ELWmHhWXQ2YTdvcVZhdk0/edit?usp=sharing

Next step is to file a first appeal to get the complete information, which I will do in the next week.