I often get stuck in traffic jams on my way to work. On those days when I am too tired to hold the book in the bus, I look out of the window to see if I can figure out the reason for the traffic jam. The first reason of course is that there are too many vehicles that come in too many varieties (as I wrote earlier). Obviously!! But the second reason is that there is always some moron or the other who tries to do something spectacular, like going on the wrong side of the road, crossing the yellow line or something and then the whole traffic collapses into a catastrophic chaos.
I must admit I have had my share of jumping the red light, over taking from the wrong side etc. But as always is the case, I never get caught. Exactly! If I was caught the first time I jumped a signal or parked in no parking, and penalized heavily, chances are that I would never ever do it again. Believe me, I have lived in Singapore. The fine system works just fine.
So now we have a solution that makes the traffic a bit more streamlined and lives a bit more safe. The solution is to catch the violators and fine them heavily. Easier said than done. The biggest problem is that there are not enough resources with the police to man every junction, watch every yellow line.
That is where yours truly will apply his extra-ordinary brain powers to come up with a solution.
The solution is as simple as it sounds. Just privatize the traffic regulation.
How it works is, I - being a private contractor- take up the ‘rights’ to monitor certain area, say M.G road (the same way BMP used to auctions parking lots). I pay the government certain money for giving me the right. Then the government tells me “see, you can go catch and fine all the people out their risking their and others lives, but you can not fine anyone without first having a photo/video of them violating the rule”. Then I invest some more money to hire people, equipment (traffic cameras, speed radars etc). Then I go install the infrastructure on MG road and I will record on my camera every guy who crossed the yellow line or jumped the signal or the like. I catch that guy at the next junction, and tell him ‘Dude, we have you on the tape crossing the yellow line. That would be 2000 Rs fine. Will that be fine?’.
Now do you see how it works? The government is happy because it gets more revenue than before. The contractor is happy because he makes more money than he invested, the police are happy because now they can concentrate on really important things like channeling traffic to help VIPs go to a dinner party, the average commuter is happy because the traffic is smoother and he know he cant be implicated without genuine evidence. The only person who feels sad is may be the guy who paid those 2000 Rs. But 4 out of 5 is still a good score.
I must admit I have had my share of jumping the red light, over taking from the wrong side etc. But as always is the case, I never get caught. Exactly! If I was caught the first time I jumped a signal or parked in no parking, and penalized heavily, chances are that I would never ever do it again. Believe me, I have lived in Singapore. The fine system works just fine.
So now we have a solution that makes the traffic a bit more streamlined and lives a bit more safe. The solution is to catch the violators and fine them heavily. Easier said than done. The biggest problem is that there are not enough resources with the police to man every junction, watch every yellow line.
That is where yours truly will apply his extra-ordinary brain powers to come up with a solution.
The solution is as simple as it sounds. Just privatize the traffic regulation.
How it works is, I - being a private contractor- take up the ‘rights’ to monitor certain area, say M.G road (the same way BMP used to auctions parking lots). I pay the government certain money for giving me the right. Then the government tells me “see, you can go catch and fine all the people out their risking their and others lives, but you can not fine anyone without first having a photo/video of them violating the rule”. Then I invest some more money to hire people, equipment (traffic cameras, speed radars etc). Then I go install the infrastructure on MG road and I will record on my camera every guy who crossed the yellow line or jumped the signal or the like. I catch that guy at the next junction, and tell him ‘Dude, we have you on the tape crossing the yellow line. That would be 2000 Rs fine. Will that be fine?’.
Now do you see how it works? The government is happy because it gets more revenue than before. The contractor is happy because he makes more money than he invested, the police are happy because now they can concentrate on really important things like channeling traffic to help VIPs go to a dinner party, the average commuter is happy because the traffic is smoother and he know he cant be implicated without genuine evidence. The only person who feels sad is may be the guy who paid those 2000 Rs. But 4 out of 5 is still a good score.
What do you think?
10 comments:
Extremely good score. But not good enough to get into IIT's or IIM's! LOL!
Ok. Serious Adi now.
That was a good idea Shastri. Come to think of it, an excellent practical solution to our present day scenario esp in Bangalore.
But the problem, who will bell the cat? I mean, if we can convince the government on this, then this can be a very good business idea. A risk-free, yet something very practical to streamline our trafic situation!
Great post!
Aditya, thanks for liking the idea. I knew I was a genius ;)
But seriously, I am sure this is very much feasible if there is some political will power at action. The toughest hurdle is to convince the govt. to allow a private firm to collect fines.
There is a workaround to that.
We could form a new department under the boundaries of a government itself headed by someone like "Kiran Bedi" with an IAS officer. The department will recruit people to carry out whatever you have said. The new depatment could have teams like an IT Team, Operations Team & Audit Team.
IT Team for procurement of the cameras and things required for running the monitoring kiosk at the points identified by the police. Also, connecting everything centrally at a central office or control room. So that issues if any can be directly settled at the control room.
Operations team for running the show. This team will be divided into geographic regions. Jayanagar 4th block, etc. etc. We could use bus stands as prominent landmarks to geographically construct the teams. Each team will have a kiosk, and they will be monitoring the system. The minute a violation shows on the system, the nearest van is signalled so that interception can happen and that cost is all added in the fine. That will also mean the farther the offendor runs, the more his charge becomes! :) Interesting na?
The Audit team will be in place so that the situation doesn't go out of hand to ensure that the law-implementing agency doesn't become corrupt or starts unnecessarily harassing people. This team could be headed by "Kiran Bedi" or someone like that themselves!
This could solve a few issues. I have refrained from calling it Special Task Force because the STFs have already acquired enough negative brand image.
Well, my two cents.
Fantastic idea!!
Next post: How to put it in action!
Loved the subtle sarcasm in the police are happy because now they can concentrate on really important things like channeling traffic to help VIPs go to a dinner party
Aditya, really laughing about the idea of adding the chasing bill. Along with 2000, 35 Rs chasing charge too!! and 1.5 times after 10 PM ;)
I guess its a good idea to set up government controled unit. But the key pointer will be to give the unit enough power and independance, and then, more critically, hire the right people. I liked your way of setting up an 'organization' around this. I guess its quite possible given that someone whats the things to change.
Shruthi: Thanks! My next post about the HOW part. aah! How I wish I knew the shortcut. I know it is not very easy to implement without some responsible move from the goverment. For now my hope is that some IAS officer or someone like that stumbles across this post and takes this to the level I want it to go. But I guess I should give it a thought whether there may be Public groups and the like who may be interested to lobby for this. Let me know if you know of any.
About the sarcasm, too much reading of Dilber Blog archives I guess. :) I just love the way he uses it. Want to learn from him.
Will wait to see your comment on astrology.
Shastry: I would have agreed with you, had the following statement been not there in your post.
"I must admit I have had my share of jumping the red light, over taking from the wrong side etc. But as always is the case, I never get caught."
Don't you think it's us ,who have to change rather than expecting the system to change...
Sudhakar,
You are absolutely right in saying its we who must change than demanding that the system changes. What I meant in this post is that by nature, we (all human beings) are all porne to break and violate laws. Penalising appropriately is one way of ensuring that slowly the law itself gets inculcated in our culture (like in Japan now). What I was suggesting is one way to achieve this. I was basically talking about changing the people by force. Anyway, I said I broke the rules becuase I did. I am not pretending to be a saint which I am not. ;)
There are major issues that u have fogotten. the private contractor would not be able to penalise any sahib and his relatives (jaante nahin! Mein kaun hoon! or mein kiska beta hoon!) and they would be the major violators of traffic. Besides, for getting the contract, he might have had to pay hefty bribe and after that wekly hafta must also be paid to them to keep the contract.
Chitra,
I would agree with you that corruption can ruin any system. I am not saying the solution I propose is immune to corruption either. But instead of being cynical, I would prefer a way to work around those limitations is found. May be as Aditya suggests above, if its a team of honest government officers, then the issues you raised do not cause too much trouble.
But then, its only me, the incorrigible optimist :)
I see your point.. more realistic
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