An artificial intelligence (AI)-based traffic signal at Banglamotor, one of the busiest intersections in the capital, malfunctioned at around 6am on Monday, causing severe traffic congestion and inconvenience for commuters.
As a result, traffic police had to manually control vehicle movement at the busy intersection for several hours.
The AI traffic signal became operational again at approximately 10:25am, after which the traffic situation gradually began to improve.
Earlier, the traffic officer on duty at the intersection, Sabbir, said that the relevant authorities had been working since the morning to restore the signal.
According to commuters, the signal failure during the morning rush hour created confusion among drivers. Many motorists ignored the instructions of the traffic police and attempted to cross the intersection simultaneously from different directions.
Office commuter Ripon Ashraf said that the malfunctioning signal had created widespread chaos, as most drivers paid little attention to which direction had the right of way.
A pedestrian also described the situation as completely disorderly, saying: “Drivers were operating their vehicles recklessly and ignoring traffic signals.”
Another office-goer, Yasin, who was crossing the intersection on a motorcycle, said: “Many people are not following the rules. Even so, I am trying to obey the traffic laws. This situation is completely unacceptable. Drivers should not rely entirely on AI-controlled traffic signals; they should also act responsibly and follow traffic regulations on their own.”
Traffic officer Sabbir stated that the signal failure had made it significantly more difficult to manage traffic at the busy intersection. He added that officers had to regulate traffic manually, and maintaining order became especially challenging due to the heavy volume of vehicles.