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At the recent Annual Crime Conference in the city, traffic authorities released figures showing various traffic viilations. Mid Day brings you Mumbai's traffic scene in graphs and charts, because sometimes a picture can say it better than words

At the recent Annual Crime Conference in the city, traffic authorities released figures showing various traffic viilations. Mid Day brings you Mumbai's traffic scene in graphs and charts, becauseu00a0 sometimes a picture can say it better than words

A city that has 19 lakh-plus vehicles is Herculean to manage. That is why Mumbai's traffic police, though much caricatured and equally reviled, need a salute.u00a0



Recently, at the Annual Crime Conference held in Mumbai, the Joint Commissioner of Traffic, Vivek Phansalkar, made a power point presentation to Sanjeev Dayal, Commissioner of Police.

A few points gleaned from the presentation show that the authorities have cracked the whip on cabs and autos, which refuse to ply since last year.

A traffic management modernisation program is underway and workshops, training seminars and even placards and slogans are seeking to hammer home the, drive safely message.

The Mumbai traffic police claims to have received 7,811 complaints against auto rickshaws and cabs through their website from April 1 till date. The authorities have forwarded these figures to the RTO for action.

14,462: Autorickshaws: action against them for refusing to ply.

7,192: Cabs: action taken against them for refusing to ply.u00a0u00a0

One can see from the figures by Traffic Control Branch, Mumbai, which released broad details of cases under specific violations through the years, that there has been a spike in rash driving cases and speeding.



Rash driving figures

2009: Cases 6,212. This climbed to 7,396 in 2010.
Mumbai's self-styledu00a0 Michael Schumachers seem to have increased. There were 17,841 speeding violations in

2009. In 2010 this jumped to 18,929.
Cases of talking on mobile phones while driving have decreased slightly. They were 24,922 cases in 2009. In

2010, this was 18,433.

Safety belt violations have also dipped. From 57,895 cases in 2009 to 54,546 in 2010 is not something to shout about, but it does show that maybe awareness campaigns and constant reinforcement is driving home the message with greater effectiveness.

Alcohol and driving is a lethal cocktail and the police have become much more
aggressive in its drunken driving vigil. In 2009, there were 14,681 cases while in 2010 one saw 16,290 cases of drunken driving.



Numbers
1,204 BEST drivers: Training on safe driving
200 MSRTC drivers: Training on safe driving
720 students and 90 teachers of 180 MCGM schools: Training on road safety
7,650 students, 582 teachers and 1,968 parents, 137 schools: Participated in trainings held at Traffic Children Park, Cooperage
2,115 students, 148 teachers and 47 schools: Participated in trainings held at Traffic Children Park, Ghatkopar
2,489 auto rickshaw drivers, 1,722 taxi drivers: Training on safe driving
100 Cinema Halls in Mumbai: Don't drink and drive slides were distributed
Placards with safety slogans were displayed at junctions s
150 drivers: Licences were either suspended or cancelled after being arrested for drunken driving
To dissuade cases of persistent drunk driving, the traffic police have called in people, earlier arrested for the offence, to take a pledge of not driving under the influence of alcohol again

Website:u00a0www.trafficpolicemumbai.org



Commuting

157 sq km
Mumbai City

446 sq km
Mumbai Suburbs

130 lakhs approx
Population

1,941 km
Road length

19 lakhs approx
Vehicular Population