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TTMCs - Will They Solve Problems ?

10 June 2008 - 11:18pm — Naveen
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TrafficPublic Transport
This is a continuation of discussion started by thebangalorean ('bus stops to have shopping malls'). Here is what the CTTP report states about development of Traffic & Transportation Mgmnt Centers, or TTMCs (Shantinagar TTMC pic courtesy rednivaram):

"TTMC’s are planned to have multi-level parking lot, public utilities like mini-shopping centres and food courts. These centers in addition to providing park & ride facilities are also proposed to act as hubs for Mini–Buses planned by BMTC to transport the commuters from every major residential area to the nearest TTMC, so that commuters can board a bus of their choice.

"BMTC has planned such TTMC’s at the following 45 locations. Of these TTMCs at Bannerghatta, Kengeri, Domlur, Yeshwantpur, Koramangala, Vijayanagar, ITPL, Banashankari and Shantinagar are planned to be taken up very shortly. In fact quite of few these center will act as Intermodal transfer nodes and will provide logistic support to MRT modes like – METRO, Mono-rail/LRT, BRT & CRS etc. through Park & Ride as well as other facilities. In fact as the MRT network grows some additional TTMC’s may be required and in some case a slight relocation of some of the following TTMC’s may be required."

This effort seems one of the better initiatives. Will they solve or at least help reduce congestion ? -- remains to be seen. One such TTMC at Shantinagar has so far not helped in any way, though admittedly all the facilities described above are still to open up. Most of the visitors to Big Bazaar there arrive in private vehicles & leave without using a bus !

These are early days & with many more TTMCs under development, the concept, if understood & accepted by the public at large, might assist, though I am skeptical if such facilities will usher in a turnaround in traffic volumes. This is because unless car users (the largest contributors to congestion) are assured of travel out of clean surroundings, in convenience, comfort & a savings in time, these TTMCs might turn out to be nothing more than mini-versions of Shivajinagar bus station with a shopping market & Bangalore-1 centers added with the hope that it will help people to board buses & leave their vehicles behind.

If it doesn't pick up the anticipated enthusiasm & interest, real estate developers will not show much interest & only second-rung sort of shopping outlets might end up functioning from these TTMCs.

Echoing this, the private car & two-wheeler users will also shy away, other than to use the parking slots made available wherever the locations are convenient. Shivajunagar & Shantinagar parking lots, though have been failures as they are not at convenient locations for the car users.

What are your views ?

Comments

Transmogrifier's picture

TTMCs contd.

Transmogrifier - 11 Jun 2008 - 5:50am
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Couple of things that came to mind when I saw Naveen's (re)posting of the TTMC thread:

  1. The last-mile connectivity seems like one of the best things that I have heard in a long time. What is hoped though is that these are really thought and studied through before any construction is done as silkboard recently pointed out. Retro-fitting has never been cheap!
  2. Most of Big Bazaar's clientele are families who buy in large quantities (and have cars to take all that home). That might not necessarily be a bad thing. If that means that the cars drive up to the nearest Big Bazaar (and not go across the city), purpose achieved right?!

The concern is more, what keeps them from taking it further into the city.

  1. If parking is really expensive (Rs100/hr in the CBD)
  2. It actually costs something to take the car in (congestion tax- London)
  3. It just takes too darn long with traffic(BRTS/HCBS to the rescue).

My purpose here is not to preach to the choir, but to show how valuable BRTS/HCBS can be over other alternatives. 

transmogrifier

TM

Vasanth's picture

Traffic Police Should Become "Ridiculous" to reduce traffic

Vasanth - 11 Jun 2008 - 2:32pm
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To promote public transport and better use of this model, traffic police needs to be ridiculous in putting hefty fines more for rash driving and violations of rules such as crossing lane etc.

These hefty fines plus the increase in fuel costs will make people to think of these kind of initiatives.

As said by Mr. Narayan, car users are causing more congestion and grid locks. Car users needs to be punished more compared to 2 wheelers since their affordability is also higher compared to a middleclass man 2 wheeler driver. But, the fines should make them to think before they get their vehicles on the road.

tsubba's picture

ttmcs

tsubba - 14 Jun 2008 - 6:24pm
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227 users have liked.
some thoughts on this. principle focus should be running an efficient transport system. basically the ttmc is a transit stop whose primary function is interchange. apart from interchange, information, toilets, seats, shade, safety, conveniences (tea-cofee-snacks, magazine stalls) are fundamental essentials. beyond that is all tangential to transport issues. putting a stop at a mall is different from putting a mall at a stop. stop at a mall is a convenience. mall at a stop could be convenient to some but it can also encroach upon the functioning of the stop. it is not guaranteed that people who come to the mall will only be bus users. apart from crowding the station, and thus inconveniencing the passengers, it could also cause nightmares in managing traffic flow around it and thus inconvenience the bus operations. malls could be a real money spinner for the bmtc. in the ideal case, they would use this to subsidize the pax. but the real danger is that they could be easily distracted, no, invested in these ttmcs. ttmcs have have an impact on network. fixing ttmcs would fix the network. with the declaration of these 40 odd ttmcs the plan it appears that bmtc is headed towards a multi node network design type. grid type systems are almost ruled out unless they get creative. this means, we are back to same old system where the routes are where the bmtcs wants to go and not where the people are actually going. while some ttmcs will actually wrk out, not all ttmcs are going to be crowd pullers. having invested so much in ttmcs, will the bmtc have the flexibility to respond to these types of situations or will they insist on routing there buses through their ttmcs? in any case, a lot of people are eager to build malls. but beyond that will bangalore ever build a public space where a person is thought of as a felow citizen, an ordinary person, a passenger even and not as a consumer?
j_venu's picture

Public Parking above Shivajinagar Bus Station to be Closed ?

j_venu - 4 Nov 2008 - 6:19pm
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The Parking Space above shivajinagar bus station was good to place to park the car and go to nearby areas like commercial street, shivajinagar market etc. But my last visit the Parking Entrace Gate Closed and a board hanging outside stating "Parking closed" , Traffic Police offices upstairs. After that i couldnt fine parking at the dispensary road junction nor anywhere nearby and had to change the plan. I believe traffic police offices are coming up here. I am not sure if the parking space is temporarily closed as board outside did not mention that . I always used to wonder why the shivajinagar parking facilty was so underused ? As compared to the Maharaja Parking Complex at Majestic , The Parking Utilization was very less at shivajinagar. Given the fact that Parking fees is also less at shivajinagar as compared to Majestic . Was public not aware of its existance ? With so much activity interms of entertainment, General shops , markets etc around its pheriphery the parking space was mostly half Empty. Although i always felt a shuttle service (Minibus) to Nearby areas like MG Road, Commercial street would have been Nice to have and may happen someday , Now looking at the closure of the Parking Space itself is a huge disappointement. With this being the trend , i some times think would TTMCs be successful ?

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