Tamil Nadu is setting up a high-end vehicle tracking cum speed enforcement device

[varunsangal]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

Ah! I guess I will miss the soon to be good old days of unrestricted speeds on the unregulated roads.

Given the number of unlettered and untrained speeding maniacs on the road, it might be a good thing to have monitored and speed restricted roads. This is just to ensure safety for those who never wanted to be a part of a race track anyhow.

A possible replacement for unregulated road is possibly more racetracks around the country where common folks can attend track days and get the adrenaline pumping on fenced, built for purpose roads.

And as staunch enthusiasts, we will pray for the utopia where India can have Germany like autobahns with no speed restrictions, trained population od drivers and German cars to run on them.

[Miel]

Speed cameras are good, but speed limits need to be sensible and reasonable.

For an enthusiast, a good drive is a destination in itself. But that does not mean one wants to putter along all day on the road, fearing speeding tickets, especially when the roads are lovely, wide, and free? (inspired by Robert Frost )

Kerala has speed cameras installed on both State Highway-1 (a.k.a MC Road) and NH-66. The speed limit varies between 60-80 Kmph. While this speed limit makes sense on 60% of these highways, there is a 40% where you can make good time if you go beyond the limit. But, sadly, this is where you will find most speed cameras. As many have pointed out, how else can revenue be generated?

When the governments begin focusing on revenue generation, rather than better standards of life and living, in the country and in its people, then things take a turn for the worse.

We often cruise at triple-digit speeds between Salem-Krishnagiri on our long journeys between KA and KL,TN. And that isn't the only place we do that. I open up the throttle wide whenever there are >2 lanes to each side, there is a median, and the roads are good, wide and not too busy.

Modern cars let people easily do 120+ speeds, and while the thrill is present, personally that is not my biggest reason for going fast. Instead, I want to reach my destination soon, and spend more time there than en route.

[Abhishek3001]

Originally Posted by Miel

Speed cameras are good, but speed limits need to be sensible and reasonable.

+1
I've come across many stretches of roads with ridiculous low speed limits.

While the system does sound good on paper but it may fail on the most fundamental level which is, recognition of the number plates. According to the law the number plates should have a standard font but we see many cars with fancy,often illegible font. We even have an entire thread dedicated to such number plates:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...-plate-52.html

And what about those commercial vehicles whose number plates are often covered with mud or located behind a grill in such a manner that it might not be visible to the camera mounted high above the road, for example

And there are many vehicles on the road with no number plates at all.
In order for this system to be effective we need enforcement of proper rules regarding the number plates and also speed limits which are set sensibly.

[NiInJa]

I have no doubt this system will fail to 'train' people to drive within speed limits. People will pay the fine and go ahead and drive fast and rash again. For the next ten years, India should impose very strict punishments like revocation of license, asking people to undergo strict training programs to get back their license, improving the process of getting driver's license, confiscating RC of vehicles or even impounding them failing to adhere to standards etc.

As an example, anyone from a nearby village comes to bigger cities with a car registered as taxi or cab, gets a driver license by passing a joke called examination and drives fast without caring about his surroundings. He gets fined sometimes, but he is back to his ways in no time. The problem is about mentality, and I am not sure if such measures work 100% to improve it. Not just drivers, but even pedestrians must be trained.

I would share a small story here : I was on a solo trip to Bali last year, riding on a scooter (yes, I bribed the police there) but I was surprised to see how people, both pedestrians and drivers respect each other. There was a signal at a cross road in a small village far away from the city, the entire stretch was empty, not a single vehicle crossing, an old man on his Honda scooter stood at the signal alone with no other vehicle around except mine, for complete 120 seconds when he could have easily crossed the road safely. But he stood there, waiting for the signal to turn green and left only when it turned green ! There were no police or cameras as I too was inspecting the surroundings (probably because it was a village), How many of us Indians would actually do that ? Bali's average education level is much less than India's yet, most people follow traffic rules, pedestrians cross roads properly. There is corruption as well, but I could not associate it with rash driving in Bali. I was roaming around at late nights alone on my scooter, I could not find a single car exceeding speed limits on empty roads ! So, I feel there is something fundamentally wrong with our country !

[pradkumar]

Start compounding the fines by a small percentage and vehicle owners will run to get their addresses updated.

Pradeep

Originally Posted by varunsangal

Brilliant initiative nonetheless.

The only issue with the entire system is that the police keeps issuing challans, but many offenders have incorrect phone numbers or address, so difficult to get them to pay fines.

[varunsangal]

Originally Posted by pradkumar

Start compounding the fines by a small percentage and vehicle owners will run to get their addresses updated

The Mumbai Traffic Police challan system has a field for compounding, though doesn't seem to be used so far.

But agree it is an effective way to get people to pay. Also, if RTOs make it mandatory to clear all traffic fines on a car before processing any work on the car (e.g. transfer, hypothecation, NOC etc), people will become cautious with keeping fine payments up to date. also, hopefully start driving carefully.

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by Naveen_0181

Even if a single life saved/accident prevented would be worth all the efforts.

It is proven by now that enforcing low speed limits aren't going to save any lives. Take your own place, the USA for example. Despite the increase in speed limits from the national average of 55 mph in 1996 to 65-85 MPH now, the accident rate has fallen despite the increase in number of vehicles.

Originally Posted by varunsangal

Given the number of unlettered and untrained speeding maniacs on the road, it might be a good thing to have monitored and speed restricted roads.

My idea of unrestricted is more like 120-140 but would be real happy even with a 100 limit. What I am worried is the moronically low limits enforced on four lane roads for example in Kerala. (70 kmph ). Those make sense on narrow roads not on 4 laned ones.

Originally Posted by pradkumar

Start compounding the fines by a small percentage and vehicle owners will run to get their addresses updated.

Pradeep

Originally Posted by varunsangal

The Mumbai Traffic Police challan system has a field for compounding, though doesn't seem to be used so far.

As if the present liability of the seller being responsible for accidents and fines not being enough, you are proposing compounding.

You guys don't exactly seem to understand the problem. The problem is not about the address but about the owner itself.

This country has no law to force the buyer to transfer ownership to his name.

If I a sell a car to a dealer or an individual , there is no way to force the person in question to transfer ownership. The cops or the courts don't have a mandate to for it.

Transferring the ownership before handing over the car is a non starter. Most buyers won't take it leave alone the dealers.

[varunsangal]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

As if the present liability of the seller being responsible for accidents and fines not being enough, you are proposing compounding.

You guys don't exactly seem to understand the problem. The problem is not about the address but about the owner itself.

The idea is to ensure people follow traffic rules while driving, not the ease/difficulty of selling and transferring a car.

[sridharj77]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

It is proven by now that enforcing low speed limits aren't going to save any lives. Take your own place, the USA for example. Despite the increase in speed limits from the national average of 55 mph in 1996 to 65-85 MPH now, the accident rate has fallen despite the increase in number of vehicles.



My idea of unrestricted is more like 120-140 but would be real happy even with a 100 limit. What I am worried is the moronically low limits enforced on four lane roads for example in Kerala. (70 kmph ). Those make sense on narrow roads not on 4 laned ones.






As if the present liability of the seller being responsible for accidents and fines not being enough, you are proposing compounding.

You guys don't exactly seem to understand the problem. The problem is not about the address but about the owner itself.

This country has no law to force the buyer to transfer ownership to his name.

If I a sell a car to a dealer or an individual , there is no way to force the person in question to transfer ownership. The cops or the courts don't have a mandate to for it.

Transferring the ownership before handing over the car is a non starter. Most buyers won't take it leave alone the dealers.

While there are many reasons for accidents, the major reason is over-speeding. I fail to understand why we allow vehicles with with the ability to comfortably reach speeds of 150+ and then fine for over-speeding


Pass a law that only Law Enforcement, ambulances and other necessary vehicles can go that speed - for all passenger cars, max speed is 100. It's like giving the Elon Musk's flamethrower to people and asking them to light their gas or cig!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

It is proven by now that enforcing low speed limits aren't going to save any lives. Take your own place, the USA for example. Despite the increase in speed limits from the national average of 55 mph in 1996 to 65-85 MPH now, the accident rate has fallen despite the increase in number of vehicles.
.

I dont think that is strictly true. What is true is that relatively few accidents happen on motorways to start with. In many European countries you will find speed cameraas on rural roads (typical 60-80 km/h limit) and inside many towns and even villages. (typical 30-50km/h).

I rarely get speeding tickets, but the other day I got one from speeding in a 50 km/h zone in the Hague. I was doing 53 km/h. Never saw the camera and it wasnt in my TomTom either. (cost me some Euro 35-35 or so)

Rural and cities areas are where the vast majority of accidents happen and it has been proven that putting speed cameraas in place does reduce the average speed and the number of accidents in that particular spot.

Not wanting to complicate matters further, but in many European countries speed limits are enforced not for safety, but for environmental reasons. So the ringroad around Rotterdam, whilst a motorway, has reduced speed sections with average speed checks of 80 and 100 km/h. Same for Amsterdam. Not for speed, but because the council has to limit the emissions.

Jeroen

[jensjoseph]

I would prefer if this system was not implemented. India, by and large, has had issues with getting any system implemented properly and I fear this vehicle tracking system will have the same issues.

There are far too many vehicles that

1. are not registered to their proper owners after a sale (or resale)
2. have broken or missing number plates
3. have maniac-like drivers.

I would be happy if the authorities left highways alone and concentrated on the city roads for all the offenders. That where the real money lies.

[blackwasp]

Will the authorities also implement a fine on slow moving traffic? Why only target the speedsters, I'd say the slower trucks, 3-wheelers and others are equally if not more an hazard for other road users.

This is a good move, I'm all for it. A safer journey is always preferred over a saving of perhaps 5 mins at the most.

[srinath.s]

How difficult would it be to relay the offending vehicle's information to the next toll booth and fine the driver instantly? Will this not solve the hassle of having to fetch owner information and send the challan to his address (neither could correspond to the person driving at the time of incident, as pointed out by many here)?

Originally Posted by Ragavsr

the vadivel joke of a guy who is not able to stand up on his own legs...

Own "legs"? Really?

[tilt]

Originally Posted by sridharj77

While there are many reasons for accidents, the major reason is over-speeding. *SNIP*

Can you please point me to some data (not anecdotes) that supports this view?

Thanks and cheers

[arjab]

Originally Posted by batman

Tamilnadu is setting up a high end vehicle-tracking cum speed enforcement device, installed on the road which would automatically trace the vehicle registration number and create an e-challan for the traffic violation, as per the article in Times of India.

This is already in existence in Calcutta/KOLKATA. If you exceed the stipulated speed limit on most of the important city flyovers or main arterial roads in the city, you immediately get an SMS on your mobile alongwith the e-challan details. On some city roads, apart from the speeding angle, indiscriminate lane changing, stopping at a traffic signal by violating the "stop line"; all are recorded and violations texted to the registered mobile number.
You can log in to the Kolkata Police website, check the outstanding e-challan against your vehicle's registration number and pay online.
Must say it's been quite effective as our family driver has become very docile and nowadays even extols the virtues of good driving practices!!