I have not seen the voting results but I am sure last mile connectivity will be one of the biggest bottlenecks for people to use public transport. Well the obvious choice would be auto rickshaw. Ok hold on now, I know what you guys are going to say about them, but, look at it through an auto driver’s perspective. An auto driver is a businessman (not an employee as he does not get fixed salary) who has to earn his living by driving people around. As a businessman, he has to make hundreds of decisions a day to maximize his earnings. The decisions mostly are poor (due to less education, less knowledge) range from where to stand to get good’ bhada’, how to make it a longer route, when to ask 10 rupees more, using kerosene etc. With all their ‘creative’ ways, their earning is not more than Rs.300-400 per day that translates to not more than meagre Rs.6000 to 8000 per month after all the expenses. But, damage they are doing to the environment is huge and by roaming around 30 to 40% of the time empty about 30 to 40 kilometres a day (multiply it by 100,000 autos), they add enormous burden to the Bangalore traffic.
It is in our hand to use them productively. We have to devise a plan to banish, I mean keep them to the local area and use them for last mile connectivity. We have to give them enough business within the small area so that they need not go elsewhere. If more and more people start using public transport and use autos for last mile connectivity then they will have enough business. I know, on a day to day basis people cannot afford to pay auto for their commute but, it is possible to subsidize it from government, companies etc. But this requires lot of planning and execution, which we will do it later. This is my plan for the bus day.
My company, IGS (actually it is only me) is willing to sponsor 100 new commuters for the last mile connectivity. We will hire few autos for the day and provide service within 2 kilometer radius of the bus stops. In order to have a controlled pilot program, I have selected area of the ring road between ragi gudda temple and silk board junction. Anybody staying in between these two points can avail the service both to and from the ring road to catch a bus going towards electronic city or ITPL. We will arrange the return journey from bus stop to home also. For this, the commuters need to provide the pickup place and time in advance.
I will leave this idea for discussion for a day and give the contact and other details. I may need some volunteers to help me put it together.
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Comments
Excellent Idea Ashfaq.
Ashfaq,
Really nice idea and I am very positive this would get thumps up from PRAJA.
Pls join in for Praja's monthly meeting scheduled for this Saturday @ 10 PM IST. It is an online meeting via Skype. Leave me a PM with your skype ID.
http://praja.in/en/events/2010/01/monthly-praja-meeting-online
Syed
Poll Results
Ashfaq,
The result for poll we are running currently on Praja site is available@ http://praja.in/en/node/2983/results
Great idea...
I second kbsyed, its a brilliant idea: Hiring autos and asking them ply with in a locality.
@ashfaq: How are you going to implement this idea? Have you already hired auto? Put up more details so that we can discuss and thrash out solutions.
vinod
This is what I had in mind
There are 4 bus stops between ‘ragi gudda temple’ and ‘silk board junction’, 1. Ragi gudda 2. East end circle 3. Udapi garden hotel 4. Silk board junction. People coming from inner road to these bus stops can use the designated autos.
We can have two autos at each bus stop (symbolically green autos) between 7 am to 10 am and 4 pm to 7 pm. We need few volunteers at each of these stops to provide information on bus schedules as well as to help commuters with auto ride. These free autos will be available to the first 100 people who sign up (through praja.in). (We can do this in a big way for the next bus day)
In addition, I believe there are few places in Bangalore (suburbs) where auto guys offer 5 rupee ride from point to point which can be extended to these congested areas.
Good Idea
But the big problem is not about efficiency but the attitude of being honest. From my office which 3.0 KM from Marthahalli crossing you can not find anyone plying on the meter even meter + 15 ( Minimum they take is Rs 50) . I have few friends who gave up bus because of this issue.
It will be great if Auto guys agree to such a suggestion and it will improve the day to day travel as well.
Bharat