Soon, speeding motorists will be warned through digital signboards

BENGALURU: Your vehicle speed on accident-prone stretches in the city will soon be displayed on a digital board ahead of you.
For the first time, Bengaluru traffic police will put up 50 radar-speed signboards on medians or roadsides on major stretches across the city next month.
The idea of radar-speed signboards is to caution drivers about approaching vehicles when they are driving above permissible speed limits.These speed indicators will display variable messages such as ‘your speed’ and ‘slow down’ along with the speed of the approaching vehicle 50 metres away. The ‘slow down’ message will be beamed in case the approaching vehicle is above the permissible speed limit.
Additional commissioner of police (traffic) R Hithendra said they recently finalized tenders for 50 speed signboards which will be installed on accident-prone roads by August 15. “We will put up these speed signboards at every 5km of the accident-prone roads so that motorists get an alert at least every five minutes. This will also help passengers travelling in cabs as they can ask the driver to slow down without having to look at the speedometer.”
“This is expected to create awareness among motorists. Over-speeding, particularly at night, is one of the major reasons for accidents. Some motorists are not even aware how fast they are driving,” said Hithendra.
Traffic police officials said elevated expressways to KIA on Ballari Road and to Electronics City on Hosur Road and along Old Madras Road, Tumakuru Road, ITPL Main Road, Mahadevapura Ring Road, Outer Ring Road and Kanakapura Road are likely to get these speed indicators.
However, for the time being, traffic cops won’t fine motorists based on the readings from these speed signboards. While radar-speed signboards are already popular in foreign cities, in India, cities like Kolkata and Chandigarh recently installed these boards which are found to be effective in creating awareness among motorists on over-speeding.
According to Bengaluru traffic police records, the number of over-speeding cases in Bengaluru has increased from 1 lakh in 2016 to 1.3 lakh in 2017. Till June this year, it has booked as many as 46,126 motorists for over-speeding.