A few of us are meeting Mr Upendra Tripathy (BMTC) this Thursday. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to organize this as a broader and open-to-all-who-are-interested type of meeting. But, we will:
- Talk to him and explore ways of connecting our upcoming "working group" here with BMTC
- Try to show him as much of the good suggestions that have come up here so far
If you have suggestions on how to get a practical and ongoing 'relation' setup with government bodies like BMTC (and more), please share them. Remember, our theme is democratic. The upcoming working groups will be open to all, and all active members will get opportunities to take part in these type of interactions.
PS: Some day, we will broadcast these meetings live on the site. Lets see :)
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Few points...
I always wanted to put forth these points and never knew when and where...
1) What actions are taken on BMTC buses who skip traffic signals... (it is very intimidating when a bus from the adjacent side just swishes in front of you when you have got a go green). It should be very easy to penalise a BMTC driver atleast. Jus noting the route number should help.
2) BMTC buses should always stop right in front of the bus stops(almost touching the footpath, if one exists), and the people waiting should be on the footpath only.
3) Autos and other motorists should never be allowed to stand in front of a bus stand. this makes the bus to stop far away from the bus stand and the entire road is blocked.
4) All bus stands should have a route map of every bus that goes through the stop along with the timings (if they can keep up, that is)
5) When a BMTC bus is standing in front of a stop, any other BMTC bus should stop only behind the first one and never beside it.
These points are only acts of common sense, and need not be written rules. But they become rules in the absence of sense, so that the sense and order prevail.
Specific Agenda
The Malleswaram Underpass has now a service road which can be exclusively used for buses. I'd like to know if Mr. Tripathy and his organisation would be able to make better use of this facilitiy now.
In addition, BMTC should publish it's schedules on the net and in print in regular so that people could better organise their schedules.
Hi Guys, Its good to see
Hi Guys,
Its good to see Praja Bangalore being active in taking to civic bodies to improve Bangalore.
All the same, I give credit to BMTC for their efforts in providing better service and quality buses for the public. However, I have the following questions:
1. There are many types of buses in operation - Suvarna, Parisara Vahini, Pushpak, Pass bus and Volvo's. There is a sense of 'too much variety' in the offering. This is not my personal view, but the view of some people who i have spoken to. Is there a possibility in the future to focus more on consistency (in terms of quality) rather than variety.
2. This is a specific case - in Chenammakere Atchukattu bus depot (Kathriguppe), I feel the depot is grossly underutilised. I see more buses parked outside than inside the depot. Even with full parking, this depot can play host to double or even triple the number of buses compared to BSK main bus stand. Is leasing out this space an option considered especially for two/four wheeler parking? Or even allowing part of the land to be used for wider roads or another main bus stand?
3. Another specific case - BMTC promised bus bays to improve the flow of traffic on the roads. However near DG petrol bunk, there are two bus stands having a bus bay. The bay is not asphaulted and the buses are still forced to stop in the middle of the road. Can immediate action be taken to get this good concept working?
Jammy97
Welcome onboard Jammy97
You are right Jammy, all the bus bays are underutilized. People complain that we want bus bays, but, they never stand in the bus bays to take the bus. They instead come to road to see if 'My bus is coming?'. When I complained the same to a driver in a BMTC bus, he told no one will be standing inside the bus bay, that is the problem he is facing.
Something should be made to make these buses stop in bus bays. Huge investment of bus bays is not serving any purpose.
I stay near CMK Acchukattu and I found the same. It is a very huge land underutilized. Land is such a precious resource in Bangalore now. Basically lot of people travel on the ring road. This CMK acchukattu Bus Depot as well as BHEL depot on Mysore road can be made like a park and ride centre as well as prepaid autostand (preferrably shared autos with 5 rupees charge) to anywhere near depot. This gives good first mile and last mile connectivity.
This can also be used as upcoming Monorail station since Monorail will pass on ring road.
Yelli Iddira ?
I saw this site : http://www.clinf.com/yi/Y...
And was quite happy to see such a service. But alas it doesnt work. I tried sending several sms's but to no avail.
I would love to see this service functional and it can add a lot of value in getting people to use the public transport. How about asking BMTC on what happened to this service and when can we see it operational.
This can be a great service.
PS : A news snippet about the service, http://www.thehindu.com/2..., looks like an old news. Not sure why the service never took off.
A few more points..
Here are some of my suggestions/queries-
Small suggestion
Proposal for developing journey time contours
Dear All,
I have a proposal, if somebody is really interested in helping BMTC and provided they are ready to help somebody can develop BMTC buses travel time countours which would actual bottlenecks.
Yep, this would be one of its kind done no where in the world ( i cannot recollect any study). The logic is simple: we have contours (lines) joining points of equal travel time. The base statation can be Majestic/ ....
The BMTC buses can provide their journey time ( say at 10 minutes interval) on all roads radiating from bus station. This if collected for consecutive days during morning, afternoon and evening can be superimposed on the map (to some scale) and lines can be joined to points of equal journey time. This would give actual represntation of congestion in specific spots . This is much better than LOS/PCU.... It actually indicates the catchment area of major transport hubs.
It takes time and lot of data (error free) of course ( GPS would do). Put the idea across Mr. Tripathi so that somebody can take initiative. I had thoughts of doing this a long back but had to move out of Bangalore.
re: Proposal for developing journey time contours
The way we get-on and off the bus.
Please read : http://www.linux.com/feat...
This highlights a smart card solution for ticketing in BEST buses in Mumbai.
We would like to know from the BMTC as to why we in bangalore follow a method of getting on and off the bus which is so different than the usual. Everywhere else, people get on the bus from the rear door and get off from the front door. But in bangalore it is not the case, only ladies are allowed to get on and off the front doors and the gents are only allowed to use the rear doors.
This causes huge practical problems:
1) if you would like to introduce a system like the above link tells about, you will not be able to.
2) The bus spaces are not utilized well and the conductor has to keep crying hoarse requesting people to move away from the door and into aisle, but because people want to get down they dont want to move away from the door.
3) The driver doesnt get to know clearly if someone is getting down from the rear door, and many times this leads to mishaps as the bus starts moving just as someone is getting down.
why i gave up on BMTC