[sarathlal]

Data for Public Good and the Bengaluru Traffic Police have come together to organize a hackathon called 'THE BENGALURU MOBILITY CHALLENGE, 2024'.

ABSTRACT
Bengaluru has been ranked the most congested city in India in terms of traffic for several years now. This hackathon is aimed at creating innovative solutions to the traffic management problem in Bengaluru, and is co-sponsored by the Bengaluru Traffic Police, the Centre for Data for Public Good, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

The hackathon will have two phases.
The first phase will be about short-term traffic volume prediction, given video feeds from cameras installed at junctions.
The second phase will be about vehicle re-identification.



(attached pdf document contains the details of the program, participation details, objectives, goals and prize details)
BTP hackathon description v2.pdf

For participation and additional information, please visit: https://ieee-dataport.org/competitio...challenge-2024

[Mad Max]

Interesting exercise to identify vehicles. But not sure how this connects to mobility. Someone please enlighten me.

I glanced through the document and it doesn't speak about speed, lane or anything else that would help with mobility. It just asks for unique vehicle identification at signals and turns. Maybe the theory is that if they track a vehicle moving slowly, they can assist with next steps to enable faster commute around that vehicle? I am definitely missing something here.

Whatever it maybe, as long as we drive the way we do in Bangalore, all of these would just be a drop in the massive ocean of vehicles.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Interesting exercise to identify vehicles. But not sure how this connects to mobility. Someone please enlighten me.

The link abstract does explain that. It says the re-identification tech will allow the system to know origin-destination path and therefore know the time taken. If I understand correctly, this will be useful to see where the volume is actually flowing and then deploy traffic management accordingly.

But I’m actually a bit disappointed about the problem statements of both Phases. They are too specific to allow for any creativity in solution. It seems like they want to know a future volume prediction along with volume flow direction. They could have just left it at that and let the participants decide how best to do this.

[PreludeSH]

Doesn't current gmaps, tom-tom etc provide the path taken by majority of the vehicles, delay at various points, ultimate travel time, density at various points etc ? Or can the authorities develop a app and hope people use it and get the data ? Is the above similar to this ? Sorry, didnt go through the document.

[Avikbrio]

It won't make much difference as the basics of traffic management is never sorted.

1. Cops are nowhere to be seen at important intersections and if they are there most of the time they do not manage traffic until a gridlock is created.
2. Cops do not even get proper gear like visibility jackets and hand light signals
3. Cops do not stop offenders who deliberately break rules even in front of the cops. At most they take picture and generate a fine which they never collect.
4. Bad road conditions slow down traffic even more

[ShreyG]

Sorry to say but seems like BTP will try everything and anything under the sun than address the core problem -

1. Extremely strict discipline on crimes such as wrong side driving and red light jumping. Perfectly motorable roads are turns into a traffic pile up because of some idiot wanting to save a few Rs worth of fuel (time is hardly saved because of the pile up caused)

2. Bring the BBMP to task on the potholes. Many pile ups on the ORR are caused by vehicles slowing up owing to potholes on the main carriageway. It is a matter of great shame that Bangaloreans pay amongst the highest road tax in the country and what they get in return. And I say specifically Bangalore. OT, but last week I was in Mysore and was taken aback by the overall good quality of roads there and how well the medians, pedestrian pathways etc were maintain (Quality of motorists remains consistent across the country it seems). No intent and a pure mentality to loot has really taken a toll in Bangalore.

3. Control those massive NL and AR registered buses operating during peak hours in the city and causing mayhem, stopping where they fancy, breaking all the possible rules in the book and just having their way with the city traffic in general.

Automation and AI cameras might fill in the coffers of the government (which seems to be the general theme for the recent decisions taken by the guv, unfortunately) but not make the general populace fear the law.