Beat the Bangalore traffic with this terrific application

A couple of weeks ago, while returning home from work in Bangalore, I was stuck in a traffic jam that lasted 2 hours on a stretch that was less than 5km long. The next day morning I read news of the Delhi government removing the toll on the much publicized Delhi-Gurgaon toll road. The reason – terrible traffic and toll management that was leading to hour- long queues of vehicles before the toll gates. The drivers had enough and insisted on not paying any toll if they had to wait this long.

What is the solution to this traffic madness? India has seen the highest vehicular growth in the last few years (two and four wheelers), compared to any other country. Clearly banning or limiting purchase of vehicles or their plying on roads is clearly not a viable solution. Neither is permanent work- from –home. While the Thumbs Up Mahesh Babu “toofani ” ads are nice to look at but offer no practical traffic beating solutions. Most people I know, just use their time in traffic to make important calls or browse the Internet using their smart phones. I was doing the same one day when I chanced upon an application called TrafficMate.

The App, owned by Indian Traffic Network and built on Android and iPhone OS, claims to ease traffic snarls by offering motorists real time updates on traffic. One can download the app and share updates and also view them on the website. The product is in its development stage with beta release due shortly. In its future versions, the company plans to add features to the App such as providing users with alternate routes they can take to commute through high traffic areas. There is also another module in the TrafficMate app for Emergency Services Organisations where they can provide geographic advisories or alerts to users. Ambulance routes are also to be included to alert motorists of approaching or nearby ambulances so they get time to try and make a clear way for emergency ambulance traffic.

I contacted Michael (“Mick”) Paul, CEO, Indian Traffic Network, to understand the inspiration behind such an App and most importantly – would it work?
Mick is an engineer with close to 30 years of experience in the traffic management business and has worked with firms like Motorola (as Chief Engineer of an International Division) the Japan Traffic Network (as Techincal Director), OneTel (GSM) and then with web-based clients who wanted to develop apps for traffic management.

Why Traffic? “Traffic has become a social problem, every major city in the world suffers traffic issues every day during peak traffic hours, morning and evening. While the issues may vary slightly between cities the problems remain the same - Motorists spending too much time stuck in traffic jams due to road infrastructure capacity during peak hour rush,” says Mick.

(Source:www.Indian Traffic Network.in)

The trigger therefore was to do more with gathered traffic information every day. Media businesses focused on traffic management typically broadcast traffic on commercial radio and/ or TV. They gather, verify, script and broadcast a lot about traffic every day and then discard that information. Mick’s former employers were no different. “I believed that there was more that we can do with the information by data basing and creating historical data sets, calculating ‘mean averages’ for any road for any time or day of the week, for that matter for any season or weather condition,” he says. Ultimately, creating a predictive travel times for users and merging it with more traditional traffic “incident” information in real time, gave motorists an edge.

This has worked well in the case of Australian Traffic Network (ATN). ATN which started as a small effort in 1997, today supplies traffic information to over 70 radio stations in Australia and many TV channels as well.

But will this work in India? Mick thinks so. Although the App is yet released, people who have heard of it have received the idea well. Plus Mick is seeing interest in the App from other companies and sees this as a positive sign. “I do expect that that release version 1.0 will make a significant impact – simply giving users traffic alerts that are truly relevant to them will help motorists make route decisions. V1.1 will have more features like providing users with alternate routes where ever possible and practical.”

I look forward to the App release in Android stores soon.

Do you think such an App would make a difference to your life in traffic? I would like to hear your views.