Google aims to help reduce traffic congestion and improve road safety in India with key tie-ups

Google on July 27 announced a series of partnerships with local authorities in India to help improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion.

The tech giant will now start showing speed limit prompts on Google Maps, based on the data shared by the local traffic authorities, starting with Bengaluru and Chandigarh. These speed limits will appear on the user's map screen depending on the roads they navigate.

Google also announced a partnership with Bengaluru traffic police to help them better optimize traffic light timings at key road intersections.

Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP - Google Maps Experiences said in a select media briefing that they did a pilot in Bengaluru wherein they took the traffic information at an aggregate level, worked with their researchers to understand the traffic patterns and helped Bengaluru traffic authorities figure out what is the right duration of traffic lights based on road congestion.

Dr. Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru said Google's revised plan resulted in an average 20% wait time reduction per driver going through the pilot intersection during the day, as per the data provided by the company. "We are excited by the positive impact this can have on reducing traffic congestion, road rage, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Google said this initiative will be further expanded to other parts of Bengaluru and cities like Kolkata and Hyderabad in partnership with local traffic authorities. Daniel said they will slowly expand this initiative in the country as they do partnerships with more traffic authorities from other cities.

The company is also tying up with traffic authorities and aggregators to help people across eight cities in India, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Agra, to provide real-time information on road closures and incidents to commuters helping them make informed travel decisions and avoid congestion zones.

Air quality information pilot

To provide users with authoritative air quality information, Google has announced its collaboration with the Central Pollution Control Board. People can access this information overlay by tapping the 'Layers' button at the top right in their Maps app and selecting the 'Air Quality' option.

Daniel said they are also piloting hyper local air quality information, which will provide granular information on air quality at the street level and hope to roll it out in a few cities including Rourkela, Rajkot, Chennai and Hyderabad in 2023.

Google also mentioned that four Indian cities - Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Aurangabad - are using transport emissions data from its free tool Environmental Insights Explorer to develop climate action plans, with Aurangabad's data also made publicly accessible to research organizations to help propose sustainable solutions to the city.

Environmental Insights Explorer helps cities and local governments measure emissions based on traffic patterns and identify strategies to reduce them with the help of public transport activity data.

The company said it has collaborated with 250 NGOs, 60 Universities, 30 government agencies, and 15 research organizations who have used its geospatial products to find actionable insights on climate change.

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