Fine

Namma Bengaluru has been a leader in India in collecting fines from citizens. The compliance to traffic and other civic laws is fairly poor and the deterrence of fines has not been very successfull. Meanwhile Bengaluru won the designation of most congested city in 2019. It is not clear if these fines are having their intended effect.

I would recommend an experiment to scrap traffic fines completely, and replace them with ‘nudges’ to move the needle towards compliance. Few ideas

1. All violations against a particular vehicle should be listed on a website - A type of social network for vehicles.
2. Few violations should be posted on Social Media, to set examples and create awareness
3. Follow-up on call with the vehicle owners who have multiple violations
4. Impound the vehicle if the follow-ups fail to resolve compliance and auction it if necessary

The goal is better compliance, and fewer accidents. Bengaluru is in the process of formulating a Parking 2.0 policy, and that should bring in some revenue. We want traffic police to be gainfully utilized in reducing congestion and not focused on collecting traffic fines.

Best, Umang