Bengaluru Traffic Police partners with apartment federation to tackle city’s traffic woes

With Bengaluru’s traffic congestion increasing each day, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have been crowdsourcing data from platforms like Google Maps, MapMyIndia, as well as travel data aggregators like Ola, Rapido, and Namma Yatri. This information has aided BTP in real-time monitoring of congestion, providing route recommendations for commuters, predicting future traffic conditions, and helping develop strategies to reduce congestion. To improve crowdsourcing data, BTP is now taking inputs from residents in apartments from across the city. 

With Bengaluru’s traffic congestion increasing each day, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have been crowdsourcing data from platforms like Google Maps, MapMyIndia, as well as travel data aggregators like Ola, Rapido, and Namma Yatri. This information has aided BTP in real-time monitoring of congestion, providing route recommendations for commuters, predicting future traffic conditions, and helping develop strategies to reduce congestion. To improve crowdsourcing data, BTP is now taking inputs from residents in apartments from across the city. 

The BTP and the Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance road safety and alleviate traffic congestion in Bengaluru by exchanging real-time traffic updates and working together on initiatives to tackle traffic challenges. Real time updates will be exchanged between BTP and nearly 1,300 apartment and villa resident welfare associations (RWAs) who are members of BAF.

Speaking to The Hindu, Vikram Rai, president, BAF said, “The BTP has implemented an AI-enabled system called ASTraM this year, which is their backbone of the entire traffic management system. We have plugged into the same system, which will be reflected in our member application and website. Of course, there are applications like Google Maps etc. that help commuters identify congestion, but through ASTraM we will get real time information from the police who are managing traffic and are on the field.”

“Commuters who are members of BAF can get the information from the app and the public can get onto the BAF website and seek information. If there is a major traffic development or an incident that could cause congestion, we will push out the information on the BAF WhatsApp groups, giving immediate information to commuters,” he added.

While the discussion between BTP and BAP began four months ago, the initiative started less than a week ago and has helped many residents, said Vikram. 

Meanwhile, M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said that under this MoU, BTP will share real-time traffic updates and alerts with BAF, allowing apartment residents to plan their commute better. “Our teams will also attend BAF cluster meetings to offer training and awareness on road safety and traffic rules. We will provide hyper-local updates and traffic alerts within a 5-kilometer radius,” he added. 

Real time traffic alerts:A first-of-its-kind technology integration between BTP traffic congestion information systems and BAF member communication platform, that enables live alerts of traffic congestions across the city to be notified via BAF Connect Member Mobile App, BAF Website and BAF WhatsApp Channels.