RTO's conduct training on unique mobile simulator for two-wheelers

Mumbai: RTO's conduct training on unique mobile simulator for two-wheelers

Mumbai's Regional Transport Offices are seeing a unique form of real-time training. Four-hour-long classroom sessions on safe/defensive riding followed by a demo by trainer & assessment on a unique mobile simulator for two-wheelers, India's first such, is being conducted at RTO Andheri.

"The simulators are also for new and those who know how to ride a two-wheeler. Till date, we have trained over 7245 youth in safe two-wheeler riding. Further, we have formed a total of 88 Road Safety clubs with the help of trained students who have carried out close to 297 awareness activities on road safety," a training volunteer said.

The training is being conducted by United Way Mumbai, a part of the 130-year-old United Way movement spanning 41 countries across the world. The mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities to advance the common good. "Our flagship programmes have been in the areas of civic awareness, public safety, health, and greening. United Way Mumbai has been implementing a special community impact initiative namely 'United For Road Safety (URS)'," he added.

Keeping in mind the two-wheeler road crash-related deaths, UWM under the umbrella of URS initiative is running a project called 'Two Wheels, One Life' -A CSR initiative by Castrol which aims to educate and sensitize youth to become safer and more responsible two-wheeler riders. It is implemented in collaboration with Mumbai Traffic Police, RTO Mumbai, NSS- the University of Mumbai, National Safety Council of Maharashtra Chapter.

"Beginning May 2019, we at United Way Mumbai in collaboration with Andheri RTO started special training activities at Andheri RTO for the training of applicants with a 2-wheeler learner license. All the learning license applicants are getting trained safe riding practices through classroom session & simulator training 2 days per week. This as part of a project namely; Two Wheels One Life, (supported by Castrol India under their CSR initiative), under the aegis of our flagship initiative- United For Road Safety," he added.

He said that all the applicants with a 2-wheeler learner license are encouraged by the RTO officers to attend our brief training on safe 2-wheeler riding. It's a combination of classroom training (1 hour long) followed by hands-on training on our two-wheeler simulator. This is India's first mobile two-wheeler simulator.

The key topics covered during the training are road marking, traffic signs, rules of the road, the importance of safety gears such as helmets, speeding, drunken driving, distraction while driving and vehicle maintenance and daily essential checks, etc.

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"Till date, we have conducted 94 training sessions at Andheri RTO and thus rained 1,844 individuals. Out of that, 527 have also been trained on the two-wheeler simulator. The training on simulator helps assess all the traffic violations committed by the individual while riding on the given track on a computerised simulator," he explained.

"We have even had a few participants who failed in the online test and after attending the training have cleared the test. This is ensuring training of individuals at the right stage i.e. before they are licensed to ride a two-wheeler," he said.

"We are planning to take this to all the RTOs and make it a regular (daily) affair based on success and learning at Andheri RTO," he added.

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