Citizen Connect Initiative

I happened to come across this ad in Times of India dated 11/22/09 and it immediately caught my attention. I tried to recollect how many times I have complained about Bengaluru city and it's traffic problems and never once tried to think how can that problem can be solved. The reason was always simple. It's not my problem, it's a problem of the system and government should look into yet. Yes, government might need to own the problem, but as a citizen, I thought we should co-own that responsibility and atleast try to share our thoughts on how it can be improved especially in proper forums where message can be taken to government authorities. An example of such of forum is the recent Citizen Connect Campaign, an initiative taken by Lavasa in association with Times of India.

Having thought about this, I decided I will atleast make an attempt(keeping aside how good or bad the solution is). Unfortunately, I realized that the end date for this is 11/25 and I had very little time for this and I did not want to lose this opportunity like I lost in similar iniatives before, because of timelines. So, what was this initiative about? It was about answering four questions on one of the chosen cities(Bengaluru, in my case) and the four questions were:

• How can the transportation system in your city be made more efficient?
• How can your city be governed better?
• How can technology be used in your city to make your life better?
• How can you improve the cleanliness and the look of your city ? 

Each of the above questions had to be answered in less than 1000 words. At the end, I felt I needed to spend more time on each of these questions but nevertheless I am happy that I was able to attempt. So, here are my answers to the 4 questions:

How can the transportation system in your city be made more efficient ?
-Have mass transit transportation system immediately
-Encourage people to do use public transportation by providing tax benefits(at the beginning)
-Levy peak hour traffic charges if pooling of vehicles is not done
-Take signature of drivers/vehicle owners on paper during RTO registration/license services that they will obey the traffic rules & automate the system to fine the drivers violating traffic rules
-Encourage usage of modern technology & greener vehicles. Offer subsidies & benefits to such manufactures
-Have organizations shift working hours to manage the peak hour traffic
-Have real time tracking of public transportation vehicles & real time bus arrival/departure updates to citizens
-Have convenient vehicles for senior & elderly people,women & children. Reserve seats for them.
-Have stringent rules near schools & take immediate action against those who break the rules
-Conduct regular transportation awareness campaigns
-Invest extraordinary resources & update citizens on a regular basis

How can your city be governed better? 
-Have an honest, sincere and result oriented office who does not hesitate to take tough decisions for betterment of society.
-Have frequent ward/locality meetings to discuss the problems. Use of latest communication channels like twitter, facebook, email & website is also encouraged
-Be transparent, share most of the information with public & ask feedback & suggestions from public.
-Have citizen representatives from each ward to be part of decision making
-Citizens and governing bodies should trust & believe in each other. Criticisms should be taken in constructive manner
-Demonstrate by building a model governing body and then other bodies can follow
-Lot of learnings & research from cities around the world, data collection has to be done before arriving at a decision. Best practices being implemented should be considered

How can technology be used in your city to make your life better?
-Use centralized transportation monitoring system
-Wherever possible, online services can be provided
-Use of technology tools like twitter, facebook, email, internet can be used to communicate
-Speed governors & GPS can be installed in public vehicles and speeds/location of vehicles can be tracked real time
-Real-time arrival & departure timing of public transport can be displayed at each pick-up/drop point
-Automate the street signals to change the color depending on the traffic of vehicles
-Have sensors installed in vehicles to alarm if another vehicle passes very close by
-Use technology to provide services to people who cannot see, cannot hear & cannot talk
-Implement automated billing services(like electrity city bills should be generated without electrical person coming home to take the reading)

How can you improve the cleanliness and the look of your city?
-Paint the walls of public places with paintings of great sports personalities, historic monuments & places to visit in the state so that citizens don't litter them
-Enforce discipline, remind & encourage citizens that it is their duty to keep their surroundings clean by creating awareness through different mechanisms thus imbibing pride for their city.
-Encourage healthy competition among citizens for keeping their locality clean & marketing their locality
-Ask citizens to follow Gandhigiri with those who don't keep the citizen's clean. Advise citizens to walk the talk.
-Expand the ongoing social activities of cleaning surroundings by including small industries, corporates, universities & schools
-Encourage planting of saplings whenever there is opportunity