TRansition from TRaffic to TeRrific?

By now, I am certain beyond any doubt that a lot must have been said about the traffic in Bangalore not just in newspaper and magazine articles but also in a number of blogs. I myself have written about it a few times and have pondered over it many more times than I’ve spoken about it. What could be the possible solutions to the problem that this city faces? What are the traffic police doing about it? Aren’t they thinking of solutions that the public is thinking of? Or are they not able to implement their ideas? Questions to which I don’t know the answers for sure. But these are possible solutions that I can think of:

·         traffic police should set up a committee of devoted and sincere members from a cross-section of the society and brainstorm it out

·         traffic police should learn from other cities across the world that found themselves in similar situations

·         traffic police should influence Corporates to bring in some changes in the corporate world that helps overcome some of the problems – like options to work from home, work shifts, placement of teams in same offices to avoid inter-office shuttling,

·         creation of traffic police blogs to instruct, communicate, inform, and advice the public

·         traffic police to search the minds of general public (and blogs) for possible ideas, problems

·         in-depth traffic analysis using intelligent software and recommendations based on type of traffic, routes adopted, peak hour traffic, restrictions on certain vehicles, etc

·         administrative initiatives like better city planning, expansion and migration assistance in case of high severity  

·         utilization of tools to promote innovative and creative solutions that may even seem absurd. Residential quarters for office goers near office; mini-flights from central areas to electronics-city, ITPL, Peenya etc,   

·         during execution/implementation of solutions – prioritization of solutions to implement the top 3 to achieve quick wins 

The thought of a Blog from the traffic police sounds exciting to me. It would be one way to keep Bangaloreans happy as it would eliminate problems of transparency and communication gaps and even invite comments, feedback, ideas etc from the public. 

Extending the thinking a little, it would be cool to see government and ministry-based blogs that tell all thereby capturing knowledge for ever so as to sustain initiatives irrespective of which party is at the helm. Of course, this is assuming that political parties are serious about their responsibilities.  

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I just finished writing up this post and caught up with the daily news and was pleasantly surprised to read this piece of news: Instant gratification!

DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT POLICE LAUNCHES WEB LOG 

The Hindu Business Line 

In keeping with the policy of the Karnataka Government to implement e-governance in the day-to-day administration to the maximum extent, the Dakshina Kannada District Police launched its official Web log (blog) on Thursday.  Addressing presspersons after launching the blog, B. Dayananda, Superintendent of Police, Dakshina Kannada, said important matters relating to the district police would be regularly posted on the blog.  All can easily access this. With this, authentic and official information of the department can be given to the press and the people swiftly.  He claimed that the innovative idea of launching a blog is the first of its kind in the State. The high penetration of Internet in the district has helped the department to host this blog.