Bengaluru traffic police launches campaign to experience commuter woes first-hand

Can you imagine seeing an officer in plain clothes on the road with you while you rush to your office? If you do, do not be alarmed. This is a part of a novel initiative by the Bengaluru Traffic Police’s south division, where some commuters will be joined by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic, South) to experience traffic troubles first-hand.

The division launched the ‘Join the Commute’ campaign on Monday to identify collaborative solutions to challenges experienced by Bengaluru commuters. The campaign aims to bridge the gap between the police and the public to identify common chokepoints, infrastructural challenges, issues with various modes of transport, and road safety concerns.

Citizens can sign up as volunteers on the jointhecommutebstp.in website to share their daily routes and modes of transport. A few commuters will be selected to be joined by Shiva Prakash Devaraju, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic, South), in their commute to experience their challenges first-hand.

Through the campaign, the traffic police will collect insights into how people move in the city, which will be used to develop actionable solutions to improve traffic flow.

Devaraju wrote in a statement: “I am stepping onto the streets to walk, drive, and ride alongside the people of Bengaluru. Their insights and experiences will guide us in making our roads smoother and safer for everyone”.

He aims to cover at least 10 to 12 unique routes, one every few days starting from Tuesday. “We want to do this for a month, based on how many registrations come in, and will map out routes that do not overlap. As soon as registrations start coming in, we will start contacting the commuters and plan our trips between 9 am and 10.30 am,” Devaraju told DH.

He is also planning to make short videos of the trips and post them on the traffic police’s social media accounts to raise public awareness and enable more people to pitch in with their ideas for potential solutions.

“We will try to highlight the issues we experienced along the way and list out what we attended to. If the solutions require other agencies’ involvement, we will write to them accordingly,” he added.