[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by macbeth

It may possibly be a purchased version of gmail, many small businesses are using it today as it saves cost

OT: But isn't the paid version supposed to give you an id like you[at]yourcompany[dot]com? Why would someone pay to get a gmail.com id?

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

A few days back I was crossing the street at the busy Kemps Corner junction and I noticed that EVERY car had stopped behind the white line (which honestly is very far back in this case).

Same thing today! Here's a pic

Originally Posted by arakhanna

I work out of BKC in Mumbai and people breaking signals in the area is a pandemic.

I always believe that the only way an effective implementation of traffic rules is going to happen in India is by using the Bowling Pin Strategy -- and somehow I always fantasize about BKC being one of the first places to enforce the rule (wide roads, well marked, bus lanes, working crowd, etc).

Originally Posted by Ruchitya

Is this an automated system, where a camera is programmed to catch such offences as crossing the white line? Or is there a control room where a human sits and manually clicks pictures of offenders?

While optical character recognition for number plates can be used, I'm sure it's majorly human controlled at the moment.

Originally Posted by mxh

Surely every vehicle owner cannot be expected to keep checking this site without receiving any notifications? I guess the system isn't fully implemented yet so I'll wait before logging in.

Yes, I don't think they are applying the compounding penalties as yet - for this reason.

Originally Posted by rpunwani

On the brighter side, I have seen a marked improvement in vehicles stopping at red lights, specially BEST buses and taxis.

See the picture above. I have a feeling that BEST drivers have been warned about this (the same way as Uber drivers etc have been) and this is doing a great job of making them lead by example, with others following suit.

Originally Posted by mvadg

Plus, a number of studies have shown that red light cameras don't reduce accidents (but I'd love to see those violators get imprisoned anyway.)

Those are US studies, and there's MANY different variables that are super different from India -- including the basic following of traffic rules to start with. Then there's the political and shady financials involved in the US setup of the cameras etc

Link for those interested in reading more: Red-light cameras are producing profits more than protecting drivers.

[S2!!!]

Rehaan, thanks for this thread.

While it's a nice idea, I really don't see the number of violators reducing. On the contrary, I've noticed more people jumping signals, driving in the wrong direction, riding on footpaths etc. much more than before. Holding people responsible for stopping over faintly marked zebra crossings and for parking in a 'No Parking' zone might be a good start, but there's still a long way to go before our roads are filled with disciplined drivers.

I just checked the site and have 2 fines pending. One from October 2016 for halting on the zebra crossing (Rs. 200). The other from January 2017 for over-speeding on the sea-link (Rs. 1,000); was clicked doing 113 kph on a wide, empty stretch of road .

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by subhro1988

Now coming to the offence. I stood ahead of the white line. But where is the white line?

I get your point about there being no white line, but will also say that the zebra crossing is clearly visible (on which your car is stopped), and the white line is always before that

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Secondly, with the current implementation it must be hard to identify license plates for 2 wheelers on the road.

I guess this would depend on resolution/quality of cameras, and the use of the the correct high security plates on the bikes (like they are being used quite commonly for cars).

What are the other hurdles for bikes? Maybe the front plate being too close to the headlight?

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

It doesn't even check if I have entered in the correct format. For e.g. I can enter MH99 XX 9999 or mh99xx 9999 or mh99xx9999. All are accepted.

I'd say this is a positive!

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

received the OTP and was surprised to see an offence registered against my vehicle. Like some others on this thread, there is no mention of offence committed. Location is nothing but coordinates. From Google maps, it is somewhere near CST station. On the Offence Date mentioned, I was in my office many kms away from that location. There is no evidence attached. And the license number is definitely not mine.

Given that the license number was also mentioned, was this fine paid, or is the "pay now" option shown for it?

As for this showing up on your account - Fairly sure this would be a clerical error. Am also sure there would be thousands of such errors, as this thread is clearly proving

Originally Posted by mxh

I find it quite surprising that the Police is using a gmail ID for official communications.

I think them using gmail is 100000x better than using some mumbaipolice.net.co.in type email address where half the mails bounce and the mailbox gets periodically full etc etc :-D

Originally Posted by macbeth

It may possibly be a purchased version of gmail, many small businesses are using it today as it saves cost

You can use your own domain for Google Apps too (though it's option, pretty much everyone does). It's just $10 additional per year to get a domain if you don't have one already!

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Holding people responsible for stopping over faintly marked zebra crossings and for parking in a 'No Parking' zone might be a good start, but there's still a long way to go before our roads are filled with disciplined drivers.

Absolutely. They need to pick the most serious offenses (that are reasonable to enforce in our infra conditions) and hit the offenders hard (high fines).

In business terms that's also less work for a higher profit!

Once they have that system nailed down perfectly (ie. no false reports, etc), they can move down the heirarchy of offenses to less serious ones like stopping past the line.

[PPS]

At a busy traffic junction at Malad, i noticed more than a dozen bikes & about half a dozen cars on & ahead of the white line just waiting for the traffic light to turn green & race ahead. Offcourse, i couldn't spot any of those camera's anywhere.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Rehaan, thanks for this thread.

While it's a nice idea, I really don't see the number of violators reducing. On the contrary, I've noticed more people jumping signals, driving in the wrong direction, riding on footpaths etc. much more than before. Holding people responsible for stopping over faintly marked zebra crossings and for parking in a 'No Parking' zone might be a good start, but there's still a long way to go before our roads are filled with disciplined drivers.

I just checked the site and have 2 fines pending. One from October 2016 for halting on the zebra crossing (Rs. 200). The other from January 2017 for over-speeding on the sea-link (Rs. 1,000); was clicked doing 113 kph on a wide, empty stretch of road .

Travel on the sealink or freeway recently?
The average speed of commuters there has come down considerably!

Even on signals where cameras are visible, people are being cautious.

Sadly though it is just a matter of time before everyone knows where the cameras are located, and will just be cautious in those areas.

Now to go an register online and see if I have any tickets pending. A while back we had received one for the S-Cross for stopping ahead of a white line, but there was no picture evidence.
The helpdesk is as slow as a typical govt. office when trying to get the details.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Sadly though it is just a matter of time before everyone knows where the cameras are located, and will just be cautious in those areas.

The cameras are EVERYWHERE!!! (At least in South & Central Mumbai)

Just look around. They might not be easy to spot, or in obvious places, but there is an insane number of them that suddenly sprung up about 18-24 months ago.

The silver lining of this is that things like hit & runs, chain-snatching and auto theft will be greatly thwarted.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

The cameras are EVERYWHERE!!! (At least in South & Central Mumbai)

Just look around. They might not be easy to spot, or in obvious places, but there is an insane number of them that suddenly sprung up about 18-24 months ago.

The silver lining of this is that things like hit & runs, chain-snatching and auto theft will be greatly thwarted.

I've seen those - the multiple cameras that popped up overnight on the free-way were a big surprise too!
But what I meant is that not every traffic light has a camera, so people will know where to stop and where to not even bother!

Personally, I am very pro this step, especially the CCTVs that are there everywhere. This coupled with the dashcam gives me a big sense of security should anything ever happen.

Another issue - what about the out of state registered vehicles? They flout the rules considerably too in their discounted luxury vehicles and are a pain to deal with!

[madhu33]

Some helpful information related tgo this topic about e challans can be found in below link :
https://trafficpolicemumbai.maharash....in/e-challan/

[S2!!!]

Quick question:

This morning, like a law-abiding citizen, I was waiting behind the zebra crossing. Because of the increasing traffic, the traffic cop standing on the junction asked me to move ahead - almost crossing the white lines. In such a scenario, will I still be fined? How will the camera differentiate when a person is waiting on the line out of habit or when he/she has been asked to do so by the traffic constable? Same goes for signal jumping...

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by madhu33

Some helpful information related to this topic about e challans can be found in below link :
https://trafficpolicemumbai.maharash....in/e-challan/

Nice! Some key takeaways for those who don't want to read the whole thing:

Added in this post

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Because of the increasing traffic, the traffic cop standing on the junction asked me to move ahead - almost crossing the white lines. In such a scenario, will I still be fined?

I'm guessing there's a way to deactivate the fining system when there is a traffic policeman at that junction. The same way cops can radio in and have the signals turned off at that particular junction.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Same thing today! Here's a pic

This is my daily signal on my way back home from work. 90% of times, cops at the junction ask you to move in the front till the pillar (completely on the zebra crossing) to decongest the traffic pile up that happens and prevents access to the Kemps Corner flyover for vehicles coming from Peddar road.

What happens in such a case if you are fined?

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

What happens in such a case if you are fined?

See my reply just above your post.

The example you've mentioned is exactly my point in the first post of the thread about the infrastructure needing to support the legislation, which it doesn't really do so well at the moment.

[riteshritesh]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Quick question:

This morning, like a law-abiding citizen, I was waiting behind the zebra crossing............. Same goes for signal jumping...

Good question, which had me thinking a while ago too. I am not sure how far things are automated, but if there are people (and there will be, till the time our number plates don't have some sort of barcode readers to be captured by the camera) in the control room monitoring CCTV footage and feeding in fines, this issue will be factored in.

[Agnijit]

This is a real good initiative by the traffic police. However I have my own set of arguments if this is for GOOD or BAD in the long run.

We at Team-BHP or for that instance all educated people are sharing views, paying fines etc.. on automated systems put in place by our governing bodies. But probably the question is that how many citizens are aware of this thing? Compare this with how many citizens are driving/riding on the roads.

Do we think that bike riders who do not wear helmets, drivers not wearing seat belts or talking on phone while driving ever realize that they made a mistake? If they would then they would have stopped, but they continue doing so.

IMO this is similar to Income Tax paying people. "Jo tax pay karta hai, wo pay karta rahega aur year end pe Returns bhi file karega. Jo nahi karta uska kya?" I hope this sentence in Hindi is understood by all and where I come from. Echallan is similar, one who knows about it will check and pay fines. What about all others?

I was surprised by the facts presented in Budget session on the percentage of Tax payers in India. I believe that for growth or improvement, every citizen of the country is responsible. Hence it is imperative that this thing gets drilled down to all using the road, even to the one crossing it when its green lights for the vehicles. Traffic is not caused by vehicles, it is by the people which include pedestrians as well.