Countdown timers doing little to smooth traffic flow

Countdown timers make roads safer and help reduce pollution.

By Nandita Raman

BANGALORE (Oct. 18)—Many countdown timers installed at traffic signals by the Bangalore Traffic Police to help combat traffic violations are either not working or fulfilling their purpose.

The timers, which were in installed in 2009, make commuters less likely to jump signals.

“The idea of these signals is for people to know exactly how long they have to wait, “said M. A. Saleem, additional commissioner of traffic for Bangalore. “It helps the commuters prepare. They don’t violate as much at the signals that have the timers.”

As the timers in Bangalore are only linked to red signals, vehicle users know how long they have to wait and not how many seconds they can travel during a green light.

“The Bangalore traffic police have not paid for both the services, which is why it is present only for the red signal,” said D. Ravikumar, manager at Bharat Electrical Ltd. (BEL), the company contracted to install the timers.    

According to BEL, the traffic department upgraded 150 signals and added 184 new signals in 2008. All the new signals got countdown timers, as did around 35 of the upgraded ones. 

Nevertheless the timers have not had much of an impact in the city.

“Some timers have not been working, and BEL will fix them and install them again in the next month or two,” said Vasant Bhagwat of the police Traffic Management Cell.

Timing ‘not properly calculated’

“The traffic police don’t properly calculate the time that is spent at each signal,” said Shree Hari, associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering at R.V. College of Engineering. “They do not take into account the traffic volume and calculate the time…leading to all the bottlenecks in the city.”

do not take into account the traffic volume and calculate the time…leading to all the bottle necks in the city.”

A pilot project has been launched in the M.G. Road corridor to test the efficacy of the Vehicle Actuated Detector, a wireless technology that senses the traffic flow and times signals accordingly. 

If the project is a success timers throughout the city will be shifted to this new system.

A lesser known benefit of installing timers is that commuters switch off their engines when they know the signal is going to stay red for a long time, thereby saving petrol and cutting pollution.

“Since I know exactly how long I have to wait, I switch off my vehicle and turn it on just when it is around six seconds,” said M. Deepak, a commuter.