3 days Ago
Pune: The police have identified 11 primary causes of traffic congestion on city roads resulting in commuters spending longer to reach their destination. Police made changes in 59 different spots on the city roads which helped the motorists to travel fast on the roads. These changes showed that the average speed of vehicles have increased by 10.
50 %. The reasons include indisciplined traffic in the chowks, disregard for traffic rules, potholes, infrastructure project works on roads, heavy flow of vehicles, festivities, rallies or processions on roads, breakdown of heavy vehicles, accidents, VIP movements and non-functioning traffic lights. A study by the city police revealed that 184 traffic jam incidents were due to the above reasons in Jan this year, while 118 and 126 incidents were in Feb and March, respectively.
"We kept a constant eye on traffic congestion using live data feeds from almost all roads. Our focus, however, was on 32 roads across the city that carry a maximum number of vehicles per day. The control room officials responded to traffic jam situations after keeping an eye on the live feeds, calls made by people and other sources," said additional commissioner of police Manoj Patil, "After receiving the data and inputs, the information was relayed to ground-level staffers immediately, and they cleared the traffic," Patil said.
The study further revealed that the average congestion level reduced to 34% in Nov-Dec 2024, as compared to the average congestion of 36% in Nov-Dec 2023. The police, acting on these inputs, have taken several measures to reduce traffic congestion. These include a ban on right turns, a road widening project with PMC, shifting of luxury bus stands and removal of encroachments, among others.
"We can easily avert traffic jams at the junctions, inculcate discipline on the roads with the presence of police personnel and regulate vehicular movement during festivities. However, we do not have any control over traffic jams in cases such as vehicle breakdowns, VIP movements and sudden power failure of the signal system," the officer said. The police recently undertook short-term measures to reduce congestion at 20 chronic spots.
"We took measures like shifting of bus stops, shifting bus stands of private luxury buses, removal of traffic islands and segregation of heavy vehicles from the city traffic," he said, adding, "We also reduced congestion at Juna Bazaar Chowk and RTO Chowk by synchronising the traffic signal timings of the two junctions." "These measures have increased the speed of vehicles on city roads. The number of congestions has also reduced to 22 per day from 38 per day," Patil said.
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