10:03 AM
This engineering graduate from Vellore is working on an automated traffic signal plan using the global positioning system for Bangalore traffic. After four months of detailed research, Imran is now confident of completing his project by the year-end.
Before January 2011, 22-year-old L Mohammed Imranullah was like any frustrated Bangalorean who found himself stuck for long hours in traffic jams. The sight of ambulances increasingly affected by such gridlocks moved him to action and think of feasible solutions.
Today, this engineering graduate from Vellore is working on an automated traffic signal plan using the global positioning system (GPS) for Bangalore traffic. After four months of detailed research and approaching various agencies, Imran is now confident of completing his project by the year-end.
"I want to make it simple and reliable. It must be an intelligent system that functions well even at night and strictly based on traffic density at the junction. More importantly, it must be able to detect ambulances a few yards away from the signal itself so that they get the right of way. This is possible if we use available technology to its maximum potential. This is what I am working on," he told TOI.
Following his detailed mail, IIT-Chennai has asked him to visit them for discussion. "All this support has been very encouraging. Even my office is open to my taking time off as it concerns solutions for city traffic. I only hope we all find a way out of all this soon," says an excited Imran. Earlier, he worked on increasing vehicular movement on hairpin curves along hilly areas, which he has also submitted to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.
THAT DAY, THAT MOMENT
Imran has been in the city for 10 months now. He stays near Cantonment area in Bangalore East and prefers travelling by bus to his office in Koramangala every day. But what changed his complaints into action was watching seven ambulances helplessly stuck in a jam near Hosur Road that is banked by a crucial line of hospitals. He was in the bus watching them helplessly. "I could do nothing but watch them stuck in the jam with no way. All of them had patients inside. It was such a helpless situation," he recalls.
THE BIG QUESTION
Why are ambulances increasingly becoming victims of traffic jams? Will Imran's solution clear the way for them?
EXPERT OPINION
This solution already exists.
Only it needs constant reinvention. We welcome such efforts but they may have to take into consideration traffic realities on our roads. Bangalore has over 1,500 ambulances. Barring 108, almost all others work in isolation. As a result, most of them have to traverse 10 times the distance travelled by an 108 ambulance. There is a need to bring all ambulances under one umbrella with a GPS system and call centre.
— Praveen Sood, additional commissioner of police (traffic & security)
What Imran proposes is very much the need of the hour. But the biggest hurdle we see in implementing this is civic sense of the common public. Further, his solution must also focus on how to integrate GPS with the existing vehicle and traffic systems in the city. We are trying to do a similar set-up at the corporate level. Today, cabs don't have a proper communication system other than the wireless. One of the major reasons we are unable to implement IT application in urban areas is lack of database.
— Shyam Sundar S Pani | president, global initiative for restructuring environment & management (girem)
Public participation is an essential tool for efficient traffic management, also known as local area traffic management schemes. This is where other countries score over us. Not that we don't have it yet. In fact, the system exists in Bangalore for 10 years now with suggestions also sent across. But not many of them are implemented. The main problem: Most of these ideas are not sent to the right authority. We need a platform to debate, discuss and take such ideas forward. What Imran has proposed is possible and is the need of the hour but this will also require all vehicles to be fitted with GPS integration unit.
Before January 2011, 22-year-old L Mohammed Imranullah was like any frustrated Bangalorean who found himself stuck for long hours in traffic jams. The sight of ambulances increasingly affected by such gridlocks moved him to action and think of feasible solutions.
Today, this engineering graduate from Vellore is working on an automated traffic signal plan using the global positioning system (GPS) for Bangalore traffic. After four months of detailed research and approaching various agencies, Imran is now confident of completing his project by the year-end.
"I want to make it simple and reliable. It must be an intelligent system that functions well even at night and strictly based on traffic density at the junction. More importantly, it must be able to detect ambulances a few yards away from the signal itself so that they get the right of way. This is possible if we use available technology to its maximum potential. This is what I am working on," he told TOI.
Following his detailed mail, IIT-Chennai has asked him to visit them for discussion. "All this support has been very encouraging. Even my office is open to my taking time off as it concerns solutions for city traffic. I only hope we all find a way out of all this soon," says an excited Imran. Earlier, he worked on increasing vehicular movement on hairpin curves along hilly areas, which he has also submitted to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.
THAT DAY, THAT MOMENT
Imran has been in the city for 10 months now. He stays near Cantonment area in Bangalore East and prefers travelling by bus to his office in Koramangala every day. But what changed his complaints into action was watching seven ambulances helplessly stuck in a jam near Hosur Road that is banked by a crucial line of hospitals. He was in the bus watching them helplessly. "I could do nothing but watch them stuck in the jam with no way. All of them had patients inside. It was such a helpless situation," he recalls.
THE BIG QUESTION
Why are ambulances increasingly becoming victims of traffic jams? Will Imran's solution clear the way for them?
EXPERT OPINION
This solution already exists.
Only it needs constant reinvention. We welcome such efforts but they may have to take into consideration traffic realities on our roads. Bangalore has over 1,500 ambulances. Barring 108, almost all others work in isolation. As a result, most of them have to traverse 10 times the distance travelled by an 108 ambulance. There is a need to bring all ambulances under one umbrella with a GPS system and call centre.
— Praveen Sood, additional commissioner of police (traffic & security)
What Imran proposes is very much the need of the hour. But the biggest hurdle we see in implementing this is civic sense of the common public. Further, his solution must also focus on how to integrate GPS with the existing vehicle and traffic systems in the city. We are trying to do a similar set-up at the corporate level. Today, cabs don't have a proper communication system other than the wireless. One of the major reasons we are unable to implement IT application in urban areas is lack of database.
— Shyam Sundar S Pani | president, global initiative for restructuring environment & management (girem)
Public participation is an essential tool for efficient traffic management, also known as local area traffic management schemes. This is where other countries score over us. Not that we don't have it yet. In fact, the system exists in Bangalore for 10 years now with suggestions also sent across. But not many of them are implemented. The main problem: Most of these ideas are not sent to the right authority. We need a platform to debate, discuss and take such ideas forward. What Imran has proposed is possible and is the need of the hour but this will also require all vehicles to be fitted with GPS integration unit.
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