Cars parked in a no parking zone.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Traffic violations like driving into no-entry zones, taking cars with defective registration plates, using mobile phones while driving, and parking on footpaths "plummeted to 75 per cent" between 2022 and 2023 (a 50 per cent dip).
This is because the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) now rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras, installed under the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS).
While these cameras detect traffic violations, a few of them "escape their attention".
Violations like driving in no-entry zones or parking on footpaths are left out of its radar. Small wonder that the number of cases recorded under driving in no-entry zones came down from 4.99 lakh in 2022 to 1.44 lakh in 2023. In 2024, so far, only around 58,000 cases have been recorded.
A driver takes a U-turn where it is specially prohibited on a busy stretch along M G Road.
Credit: DH Photo
In November 2022, the BTP were asked to stop physically checking vehicles.
In December 2022, the AI cameras "took up the responsibility". These cameras have been successful in detecting majority of the traffic violations. But they are not equipped enough to identify violations such as driving into no-entry zones or parking on footpaths. That is the reason for a decrease in recording such violations. Moreover, though incidents of jumping signals and failure to use safety belts may have gone up significantly, they have not been recorded.
Acknowledging that there was a dip in the number of cases recorded for a few violations, M N Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), told DH that they are now planning to upgrade the AI cameras to detect close to 10 traffic violations as against the seven they can detect now.
"Since physical checking has reduced and the cameras are not equipped to completely identify a few violations, the number of cases has come down. We will now use advanced technology to upgrade the existing cameras so that they can identify other violations as well,” he said.
The data also revealed that riders and pillions not wearing a helmet were the most violated rules, followed by jumping traffic signals and driving without wearing a safety belt.
Earlier, citizens had also raised concerns, stating that they were wrongly penalised even though they had not violated any traffic norms.
Following such complaints, the BTP has deputed a team of 18 officials to manually re-check all the violations recorded by the cameras.