CITMS: a mathematical solution to the traffic management crisis

In 2002, Md Ashraful Alum was a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Architecture, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). He lived in Dr. M.A. Rashid Hall with his roommate Shuvo, a junior from the same department.

Despite the age difference, they had a friendly relationship.

One day, Ashraful received a call from Shuvo’s number, but there was someone else on the line. The voice said, “He died in a road accident. You can identify him because you were the last person he talked to. Please come to the mortuary.”

A courier van ran over Shuvo in the capital’s Jatrabari district.

This event left a deep mark on Ashraful. He promised himself that he would work on road accidents for at least a year. He would perform a root cause analysis of the problem.

Ashraful lived up to it. He took to the streets. He began to observe the movement and behavior of vehicles on the roads. About two and a half years passed in this way. He witnessed firsthand the full extent of the capital’s deadly traffic system.

Issues such as mechanical defects in vehicles, unskilled drivers and frequent violations of the law came to the fore.

He identified several common causes of road accidents between two signals. These include setting up shop or parking vehicles on the road, stopping vehicles in the middle of the street, careless crossing of pedestrians and the competitive attitude of public transport drivers.

“I observed that drivers had no premonition about accidents. This is a systemic failure of our society,” Ashraful told The Business Standard.

“To understand the importance of solving a problem, we must first realize how much damage it is causing. I believe that traffic jams and road accidents are the silent killers of our economy. But because we don’t directly see the damage they cause, we don’t feel it.

As a result, we are drawing conclusions at the expense of huge losses,” he said.

We need to look at the traffic problem from a mathematical point of view. This needs to be solved with numbers and data. Our system has huge business potential. If we charge just Tk 30 every month for full traffic alerts, I think around 10 lakh people will benefit from it.

Although Ashraful did not propose any solutions at that time, it initiated some awareness-raising activities such as organizing photo exhibitions, advanced driver training, etc.

He later pursued a career as an architect. Although he was driven to work on this issue by a sense of responsibility, he took a long break, dissociating himself from road safety initiatives. Instead, he focused on his career.

However, something noteworthy happened in the meantime. Ashraful identified 20 black spots along Savar-Manikganj highways and shared his report with the superintending engineer of the Roads and Highways Department. Just a month later, the infamous accident occurred in one of these places, in which Mishuk Munir and Tarek Masud died.

The year 2017-18 was a turning point.

He returned to the issue of road safety – or maybe it came back to him. He learned about the Asian Development Bank (ADB) project. He then proposed a modernized signaling system.

He started working on this issue again.

Fast forward to recent years. Ashraful put together a team and, through his company TrafFix, developed an integrated AI-based solution that he called CITMS, short for Customizable Integrated Traffic Management System.

How CITMS works

The basic idea is to keep everyone informed about traffic situations so that they can cooperate seamlessly. This is where data comes into play.

“We want to engage the public in our system. Everyone can help by reporting traffic information using our system. In case of serious traffic jams or disruptions, you can take a photo or video and send it to our system. Our team will then try to reach the scene to resolve the issue,” Ashraful said.

The CITMS solution consists of three main parts – signal, camera and operations.

The signaling system will be fully automated. Each signal will be equipped with cameras providing real-time images. Traffic police officers can enter information into the system from their locations. If a road is closed due to an accident or for repairs, everyone will be informed in advance so they can avoid the route.

It can also serve as a means of communication between traffic police officers, replacing walkie-talkies. It will not require an internet connection or electricity.

“The system can record the actions and effectiveness of traffic police officers. This will increase their accountability,” Ashraful said.

According to Bangladesh Jatri Kallyan Samiti, 7,902 people lost their lives in 2023 alone. A survey conducted last year by the Center for Political Dialogue (CPD) found that Dhaka city residents waste about 276 hours a year sitting in traffic jams.

“We need to look at the traffic problem from a mathematical point of view. It needs to be solved with numbers and data, otherwise we won’t be able to find any solution,” Ashraful said.

TrafFix consists of 16 people, including four founding members. Most of them are qualified software engineers.

Ashraful mentioned that experiments were carried out in Dhaka to implement three to four systems in which hundreds of crores were invested, but all of them failed.

However, it claims that CITMS is future-proof – meaning it is designed along an “open architecture” model to meet future requirements. Thus, the team has been working tirelessly to modernize the system over the last few years.

As the word “integrated” in the name suggests, the central point of the solution is the mobile application. The app contains various modules that connect various stakeholders including the municipal corporation, police, BRTA, journalists and government agencies.

Artificial intelligence will handle tasks such as assessing traffic flow, monitoring average vehicle speed, understanding the effectiveness of signal synchronization, automated data analysis of traffic light effectiveness, and identifying vehicle license plates.

Additionally, it will be responsible for tasks such as detecting and reporting traffic light violations, illegal parking, illegal lane changes and speeding, as well as analyzing traffic congestion data, etc.

“Our system has huge business potential. If we charge only Tk 30 every month for full traffic alerts, I think around 10 lakh people will use it.”

The solution is available at an affordable price because the raw materials are sourced locally. While it may vary, the device, lights and accessories will cost roughly between Tk 25 and 50 lakh – almost a tenth of the price of imported ones.

Ashraful believes we can even export the system to other countries. If the government invests in this, the return on investment will be achieved in less than two years.

“We have shared our project with experts and several interested parties, and they see it as a solid and sustainable solution. However, we are currently waiting for talks with officials of the new interim government,” Ashraf concluded.

TrafFix wants to work with the government for two years to implement its solution and strengthen the government’s capacity. The government will then take over and keep them as shadow consultants.