Latest patent on Fault Monitoring of Traffic Signals

I searched for patents on Traffic Fault Monitoring Systems and found lot of patents granted in USA and found the latest  one was granted in Sep 2008. This carries the patent number 7425798 and complete details can be viewed on internet site that deals with US patent.

Title :  Intelligent Light degradation sensing LED traffic signal

TOI - 3rd Dec 2008 - Traffic Signals of the blink

Megha Suri and Spana Verma of TNN says that if you are increasing stuck at chaotic intersection where traffic signals are not working, you can blame the frenzied construction work, delayed repairs and general indifference of the authorities for your plight.

Commuters are outraged at apathy of traffic police. Said business man Sohail Khan: " I deal in electronics and can assure you that repairing a traffic light can't possibly take more than few hours. if signal like these are not working for days, it's obviously because of negligence and lack of accountability" 

There are 1190 signals in Capital and out of which 80 are claimed to be out of order.

Read complete news at TOI website.

Printer friendly version is here

Newspaper view is here

SRI LANKA RAILWAYS TO STRIKE AGAIN DUE TO DEFECTIVE TRAFFIC SIGNALS

As per a news article in leading newspaper of Colombo on Jan 15,2009

The main unions of Sri Lanka railways have decided to launch island wide strike due to unresolved issues.

Main issues are " DEFECTIVE TRAFFIC SIGNALS and SALRY ANOMALY"

Read the complete article here

Also read the status of Indian Traffic Signals in same blog. There were around 8 lakh signal failures in last seven years in Indian Railways

HT Impact - action taken by traffic signal agency

Five months after it stopped working,  a traffic signal at an extremely busy intersection is working at Delhi-Noida is back to work. After 15 days of report in HT (already covered in this blog) This signal was set right.

Great Job Abhishek Saran. You can write to him at abhishek.saran@hindustantimes.com

You can view the article here in HT Delhi Jan 30,2009

A web version is here 

Printer friendly version without photographs is here

TOI - JAN 22,2009 - Pedestrian Operated Traffic Signals Lying Defective

Megah Suri (megha.suri@timesgroup.com) wrote that as many as 1989 people died on Delhi roads last year, more than half were pedestrians.

But 42 pelican signals installed on accident prone stretches to help cross pedestrians cross the road safely are lying in disuse.

At foot of oberoi flyover, any one can switch off the signal as on/off switch has been provided on the pole and is open for tampering. 

Traffic police installed them at the cost of Rs 4 Lac each and still pedestrians have to face the risk of accident every time they run to cross the road.

Most of the pedestrians are not even aware about the signals as board indicating signals have vanished.

Complete article in TOI Jan 22,2009 is here

HT - Jan 15,2009 - DANGER ZONE - TRAFFIC SIGNAL NOT WORKING FOR 5 MONTHS

Dept red tape keeps traffic signal out of work for five months. According to Abhishek Saran (abhishek.saran@hindustantimes.com) "This is the ultimate in red tapism" 

By the way signal is being maintained by KELTRON, a public sector company. Deputy Commissioner of Police Suvashish Chaudhary assured that it will be done in 4 days.

A survey report done by Traffic Police says that 4643 vehicles cross this signal in morning and 5017 in the evening. 

For pedestrians this is a disaster.

Complete news article in HT Jan 15,2009 is here

HT Jan 31,2008 - Over 8 Lakh Signal Failures in Seven years

(head line is misprinted, check details/internet)

and 1500 accidents, 600 deaths and 2000 injuries. In an news article in HT by K.P. Narayana Kumar (narayana.k@livemint.com) based on RTI reply by railways. One retired person said that "India invests very little on improving signalling systems and we need to spend more on improving the system".

Govt has doubled spending to 4000 crore to upgrade signal systems in the country through a special safety fund. 

RTI reply says that "using non-standard and locally fabricated material, limited availability of supplies, ageing assets and delayed replacement along side mishandled equipments - caused signal failures"

For more details read HT Jan 31,2008 Delhi Edition (may be other cities also carried this on same/different dates)

 

Business Plan Entry for Tatva'09

Prachi Mahnot, Prachi Agarwal and Ashutosh have worked for whole day on Jan 25th,2009 to make a executive summary. The last date for same is Jan 26th midnigh.

Ashutosh, had very good fundas about business plan. The end result on 25th was excellent.Ashutosh further modified and sent another version at late night (or early morning)

I got enough motivation after seeing them and also reaslised that one of the reason for not growing financially was that I never gave serious time for business planning.

The credit goes to multiple person including Apoorv Sharma, Rahul Jain, Rahul Agarwal and of course these kids from Amity.