Real-time traffic signal plan in Thane backfires

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and traffic department’s experiment of installing signals that worked based on real-time traffic monitoring at two important junctions has been stopped within 10 days of being set up.

This is because the real-time traffic monitoring worsened congestion instead of resolving it.

The real-time traffic monitoring system was installed at the Nitin Company and Teen Haath Naka junctions on a trial basis on September 4. Officials pulled it down on Friday. “In the coming week, civic officials and traffic department will discuss the issue and decide whether the real-time traffic system should continue or not,” said Amit Kale, deputy commissioner of police, Thane traffic department.

“The system was supposed to give the signal depending on the traffic on the particular lane near the junction. However, the signal took more time than usual to release traffic in each lane,” said a traffic official from Thane.

According to traffic officials, a normal signal takes 40 to 50 seconds to clear each lane of the junction. However, as the real-time traffic system works depending on the number of vehicles in each lane at a particular time, this could increase the waiting time to above 80 seconds.

The congestion at Nitin Company junction affected other routes as well as it is connected to the main highway, another TMC official said.

It also affected other internal routes in the city, which have bus stops along the way, he said. “Every half an hour, the traffic police had to stop the system to ease traffic,” the official said.