Daybreak - Is tech the only answer to Bengaluru's traffic troubles?

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

Bengaluru is best known for two things: great weather and terrible traffic. The Silcon Valley of India is the sixth slowest city in the world! How come no one has come up with some innovative tech-based solutions?Actually, they have.  But you’ll be surprised to know that one the key reasons why the city's traffic troubles never end is because the focus has mostly been only on tech driven efforts. Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganesh, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Bangalore is best known for two things. Great weather and terrible traffic. For those who live here or who have visited, have you ever wondered, how is it that a city known for being amongst the most Innovative places in the world still has not managed to figure out how to deal with traffic jams effectively. It is the sixth-slownest city in the world. And it's not just about wasted hours. People have missed trains and flights and even business deals.

It has been years. Governments have come and gone and they've tried a bunch of solutions from expanding roads to public transport. I think it was sometime in September last year when commuters. witnessed one of the worst traffic jams ever. People took to Twitter or X to say how a one and a half kilometer long stretch took them three hours to get out of. If you've attended a cricket match at Chenosami Stadium or a music festival in the city, you would know how insane it is to leave. It's complete chaos at the venue. Now, you might think Bangalore is the tech capital of India. How has someone not come up with a tech-based solution. But here's the thing.

They have. And you'll be surprised to know that actually one of the key reasons why the traffic troubles of the city never seem to end is because of the focus mostly being on tech-driven efforts. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Dar Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time.

Today is Monday the 19th of February. Past 10 years, the traffic police of Bangalore has tried a variety of technologies to help ease traffic. They have already tested intelligence signals which monitor area-specific traffic, variable messaging systems which give regular updates on congestion, and of course, big data analytics through which traffic is monitored from a control room. Take Moderato, for example. Moderato stands for management of origin destination-related adaptation for traffic optimization. It is a Japanese technology that automatically adapts traffic signals based on real-time data.

The initiative was started back in 2014, 10 years ago. But the signals were only installed in August 2023, which is last year, at 28 junctions along MG Road, Horsal Road and Old Madras Road, among others. And even after the installation, none of it was actually operational until December because of technical reasons. Can you take a while guess at what one of the main technical reasons could be? Construction of roads and metro lines and what not, which if you live in Bangalore, no is perpetual. So even Moderato has repeatedly missed deadlines. And nothing has really managed to help Bangalore Traffic Police figure out the puzzle so far. Enter MS. Anuchat, the Traffic Joint Commissioner of the city. The 40-year-old IPS officer

is on a mission to solve the traffic crisis of Bangalore. He is armed with a squad of 5,600 traffic cops and a slice of the Bangalore Police's annual road safety budget of 55 crore rupees. and he too is betting big on technology to reach his goal. My colleague Shashita Kundo Chaudhari, a reporter at the Ken, saw him in action recently. The man means business, says Shashu Do. Here is how he describes him. And I'm quoting, On a regular weekday morning, the fit, muscular 40-year-old strides purposefully through the corridors

with four officers in tow. Doors swing open on the fifth floor traffic control room, hard-heeled leather shoes click on the shiny white-tiled floors and suddenly the room comes alive. All eyes turned towards the 2009 batch IPS officer. End quote. Last month, Anuchate deployed an artificial intelligence-backed app called Astram, which stands for actionable intelligence for sustainable traffic management. It was developed by Arcades, which is a Netherlands-based design engineering and management consulting company.

Anuchet explained to the ken how the new tech taps into data from not only traffic cameras and drones, but also ride-hailing apps like Uber and Ola. These companies share the number of cabs or auto-rickshaws active on their platforms and origin destination data at any given time. He claimed that it will help the traffic police understand the flow and cascading effects of traffic across the city. One crore rupees has already been invested by the traffic department in the Astram project spread over two years. The app has predictive and simulative features that allows the police to anticipate congestion and prepare accordingly.

It also streamlines incident reporting and lets on-ground staff update the database quickly with specific details and photos. Venkata Suburraud Chondoru, the director of Arcades IBI group, told us how during its trial Astram helped the police understand traffic during cricket matches at the Chinaswamy Stadium. Apparently, what happens is that during a match, congestion gradually grows and afterwards, because everyone leaves at the same time, it leads to chaos.

Arcadist folks simulated the whole situation for the police and showed them which places will have the most congestion and what kind of interventions will be needed. Anushit, the traffic commissioner, told us how on a small scale, the results have been promising. He said that they have identified new congestion areas which were previously unknown to them. And their response time to congestion has also improved and they can now identify events like accidents even before they are reported.

He told us that cops at 50 traffic police stations have also gained insights into the ripple effects of hotspots on nearby traffic. Plus, with the 15-minute congestion alerts to all traffic cops on telegram, the police can quickly come up with alternative routes to reduce congestion and prevent escalation. But here's the real question. The issue of Bangalore traffic is huge. It is deep-rooted. To what extent can this sort of technology really help?

Stay tuned to find out. A traffic and transport expert in Bangalore pointed out to the ken that intelligent signals have been ineffective because of the technology's isolated approach. They said, and I'm quoting, they focus only on local traffic around individual signal intersections and not on the entire corridor. It is only useful during disasters or emergencies, especially for less tech-savvy drivers. End quote. They also said that the variable messaging system will become obsolete with the availability of advanced maps.

While Arcades and Anuchet insist that there is hope in tech-based solutions like Astram, the heart of the problem of Bangalore traffic is beyond managing traffic signals. To begin with, there are just too many vehicles. Anuchet himself told us that the vehicle population of Bangalore has been growing at 10% annually. According to the Karnataka Transport Department data, Bangalore beat Delhi last year with 2.2 million registered private cars. A Bangalore-based transport expert pointed out that the scope of a complete tech-based solution is of no use if the number of vehicles keeps going up and there is no adequate infrastructure

in place. An infrastructure cannot be built overnight, right? Take the popular Hebel junction, for example, where multiple lanes converge into a relatively smaller junction. Vehicles going to different parts of the city have to use that junction because there are no alternative routes. So how can a better signal system alone solve the issue? Even if they add more lanes, or widen the roads, the problem is still going to remain. Now, let's come to public transport. Yes, the metro lines in Bangalore have seen an expansion, but the metro network in the city is not nearly as well connected or expansive as, say, Delhi Metro.

Vijay Kowali, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, told us that there may be hope only when all the metro lines become operational. And as far as buses go, which carry about half of those who use public transport in Bangalore, their fleet size has remained stagnant for years. Dhabal Asher from the World Resources Institute said that practical solutions like removing street parking and bridging gaps in the road network to ease bottlenecks could ensure better traffic distribution. Gadipali, who is a World Bank consultant, told us meanwhile that he believes incentivizing the use of public transport is essential to address the traffic issue.

What do you think is the best solution for Bangalore traffic? 1. Better public transport. 2. Better road networks. 3. Tech-based solutions. 4. Limited number of vehicles on the road. Number 5. Or a combination of these. I would love to hear your answers.

So please write to me at Snigda, S-N-G-D-H-A at the ken.com. It is d-H-E-H-K-E-N dot com. That's all for today. Thank you for listening and I'll catch you again on Wednesday. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only apps and podcast extras.

Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. I am Snigda Sharma, your host, and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.