Bangalore: New age Variable Message Signs (VMS) are ready to dot city junctions. These new boards will not only offer advice on better driving, they will also suggest alternative routes in case of traffic jams. The 20 hoardings likely to come up in addition to the existing 20, will have multi-coloured displays of traffic solutions.
B. Dayanand, Additional CommisÂsioner of Police, (Traffic), said that the VMS boards will give commuters a choice of different routes to reach their destinations. “On several occasions, commuters get stuck in traffic because they don’t know the condition in junctions ahead.
If there are some alternative routes and there are gridlocks in the junctions located further ahead, they can switch routes,” Dayanand said.
A team of traffic officials is now deciding the locations of these sign boards. The police plans to install these boards at traffic junctions where gridlocks are common, so that commuters can take alternative routes if they arrive during peak hours.
Transport experts, however have said that the present VMS boards are not being used properly. “We are not using the present VMS boards with the right awareness. Moreover, there has been no useful information on the system.
The police must think of involving land transport experts in the upcoming Traffic Management Centre as this is the system being followed across the world. The TMCs are run by experts, not by the traffic police, who have other duties to tend to in terms of enforcement and traffic management,” pointed out Ashwin Mahesh, Member, ABIDe.
Mahesh also suggested that with the new TMCs, traffic police can analyse the pattern of accidents, response time to accidents and pattern of traffic congestion. “The trends can be displayed on the VMS boards so that commuters are aware of traffic dos and don’ts,” Ashwin said.
Dayanand, however added that the new boards will also have traffic advisory messages and locations will be decided only after the traffic teams visit different locations.
