The New Adaptive Traffic Control System (ACTS) by Mangaluru Smart Cty Ltd MSCL Creates Chaos & Confusion among Motorists near Horticulture/St Theresa School junction; near Bendoorwell Junction
Mangaluru: We live in a congested and overcrowded City named Mangaluru with increasing vehicles day by day. We don’t live in a City named Chicago-USA, or Paris in France or London in England, where the roads are wide and have a well-managed traffic system, with no hassles or inconveniences caused to the motorists. In Mangaluru where the roads are narrow at some prominent junctions and wide in other not-so-prominent junctions, and with increasing traffic daily, having these new traffic lights installed for the smooth movement of traffic is too complicated and not worth the money spent in lakhs.
If you go around the City, you will notice that at a few junctions, the older type of Traffic Lights system is not working properly, and many have been removed and dumped to rust. To replace the old traffic lights system at a few busy junctions in the City, like Bendorewell, and 15 other places, the Mangaluru Smart City Ltd has started working on a project to convert a bunch of traffic signals in the city into smart signals using Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) to ease traffic flow in the city.
Speaking to Team Mangalorean, a technician with the company that handles this System said, “In Phase II of the ICT project, MSCL is providing an Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS) as a part of the Intelligent Traffic Management System. These signals will be capable of deciding the on-time of each of the traffic streams in the junction based on the Queue length measured by a RADAR system. These signals can also be synchronized with a set of signal lights for better traffic management. To ease traffic congestion at busy roundabouts, and other intersections in the city, we have decided to convert a few traffic signals into adaptive traffic control systems (ATCS)”.
“With this, the sensors in the signals will be able to gauge the volume of traffic moving from a particular side and increase the time limit of green light on its own. This will help in clearing more volume of traffic faster and commuters will not have to wait in traffic jams. The ATCS will help in adjusting the timings of red, yellow, and green lights to accommodate the changing traffic patterns and ease traffic congestion at different intersections. It will also help monitor and control traffic violations and speeding even at small intersections in the city”.
“The traffic signals will be connected to the integrated control and command centre of the MSCL, from where authorities concerned will be able to detect traffic signals which are not functional, signals with faulty timers, whether green light for pedestrian movement is functioning properly or not, on a real-time basis. To help with surveillance and traffic management, the MSCL has already installed full surveillance cameras at many points in the city as part of its ‘Safe City’ project, with features such as automatic number plate recognition and red-light violation detection”.
“Adaptive traffic signals help in managing optimum cycle time of green and red lights, reducing the queue up. It adapts the whole cycle time in a particular junction in such a manner that the average wait for the traffic remains minimal. These signals work on sensors laid on the ground, which assess the (vehicle) queue length and manage time based on that. These systems also have to ensure that enough time is allocated for pedestrian movement so that it doesn’t lead to accidents.”. added the Technician.
However, When Traffic Lights installed in the past at the same junction had failed miserably and were allowed to RUST why even someone had planned to install the ACTS and already in the last two days these traffic lights have malfunctioned where you can see the yellow lights blinking 24 x 7. I can bet that these new traffic lights will stop working within a few months, and they will not get repaired-just like the bunch of other traffic lights in the City, which have stopped working and left to Rust In Peace (R.I.P). Don’t our Smart Officials learn from past experiences- or is it just to go ahead with the projects and fill their pockets with part of the money sanctioned for these unscientific projects?
In the last two days a trial run of these new traffic signal lights had been done, and believe me or not, the traffic was blocked a mile long on all four sides of the roads. If such a traffic jam is happening the only people who would come to the rescue in controlling and moving the traffic ahead will be the TRAFFIC COPS, TRAFFIC WARDENS or VOLUNTEERS! Even today, despite the new traffic signal lights it was the traffic cops who controlled the traffic, many motorists were not aware that the signal lights were on and there was a little confusion in the traffic movement with this sudden change.
When the Traffic Lights Malfunction People like a TRAFFIC WARDEN………….
……or a POLICEMAN or a VOLUNTEER are More Effective n Servng the Purpose
Just go around the City, and see how many of the Traffic lights are in working condition for TWO- near PVS Junction and the MCC Building -Lalbagh, while the rest of them are installed near Nanthoor Circle, Balmatta Circle, Jyothi Circle, Bendore-well Junction, Kankanady, among others are OUT OF ORDER, a few months after they were put up. And when such is the situation of these Traffic Lights in the so-called Smart City, why even bother to install brand new ACTS traffic lights? For that matter, there were traffic lights at Hampankatta junction earlier, which flunked within a few months, and also they didn’t serve many purposes since traffic was getting backed up due to the timing of the lights.
One among the non-working traffic Lights at the Nanthoor Junction, which were installed spending lakhs of rupees- and they flunked within days- and since then all the traffic lights are out of order- and some of them have been dumped on the roadside. Even a solar-powered system to run these traffic lights has not been working. There’s a saying that “We all learn by our mistakes?”- but here in Mangaluru our officials, be it in Mangaluru City Corporation, Mangaluru Smart City Ltd, or the Police Department don’t learn from their past mistakes. Even though traffic lights have been in Mangaluru for years, and which didn’t work- a few years later, new traffic lights were installed. And the BIG result: ALL OUT OF ORDER?
Why even spend hard-earned taxpayers money on projects that don’t serve a damn thing. Despite an increase in vehicle population, the city has added a few traffic lights in busy spots, but the results have been negative. None of them are working. For most commuters, crossing a busy junction where traffic lights are either absent or do not function is an exercise in skill and patience, and often involves avoiding being hit by moving vehicles. Even as previously minor junctions have turned into bottlenecks, the city adding new traffic lights has gone to waste. Until sufficient working signals are provided, the immediate measure to improve traffic flow is to limit the number of cross-roads on long stretches.
The Defunct Old Traffic Lights lying on the ground – Rust In Peace (R.I.P)?
The main problem in all these new traffic development plans is the misunderstanding between the Traffic Police Dept and MSCL/MCC- where each of them has their ideas- and for that matter, no one likes all these Smart Project ideas put forth by ONE MAN in MSCL with a Ponytail who thinks all his ideas/plans are HIGH Tech and Unique, but many of them get changed once they are implemented- and similar has been in this case of Signal Lights.
The immediate outlook, however, does not look good. There is a need for more working traffic signals, particularly upgrading manned signals. But it doesn’t seem like it’s happening. With all these new traffic lights, someone is making money and filling their pockets, before their tenure ends-that’s it. The traffic department needs to get rid of traffic lights because they don’t serve the purpose of the busy traffic in Mangaluru. Add more cops to handle the traffic woes/chaos, rather than depend on these traffic lights which don’t function 99 per cent of the time. Period! And please don’t waste money on such gadgets which don’t last long, apart from not serving any purpose. Thank You!
