Case Study: Taking the Bus

• Jayanagar sector (covered Basavanagudi, etc)
• JP Nagar sector (covered Banashankari, etc)
• R.T. Nagar sector (covered Cox town, etc)
• Mathikere sector (covered Malleshwaram, etc)
• Vijayanagar sector (covered Rajajinagar, etc)
• BTM layout sector (covered Koramangala, etc)

1. Did not cover areas extensively
2. Since there were only one vehicle per route, the same vehicle had to come back for the second trip: This resulted in uncertain timings for second trip (due to variation in traffic).
3. Its size was limiting capacity

1. Personal: lower stress levels, lower fuel bills
2. Company: lower usage of precious parking space
3. City: lower the traffic snarls in peak hours
4. Environment: lower pollution

• over 70% of the people stay less than 8km from office
• over 60% stay less than 5km from office
• around 60% use cars for daily commute

• Flexible (Surprise! Surprise!!)
• Cost effective
• Scalable

1. Since coverage was given a priority, some of the routes were long. For example, the route destined to Yelahanka had to go via Cox town,  R.T. Nagar, Sanjaynagar and Vidhyaranyapura. Currently it stays as a single route as the volume is not enough to split it into two routes. As per the latest calculation, 30 users have to be there for the route to break even (given that there are two trips each in the morning and evening). Due to this, time taken to reach Yelahanka is sometimes as high as two hours in the evenings.
2. Even though top management at BMTC is extremely corporate-type and flexible to customers, the middle management is still the same depot managers who are slow to respond. This is occationally shown as delay in bus arrival in the mornings and that very rarely don't turn up at all.
3. Due to low volume for some of the routes, there are only two trips. Ideally, there should have been a trip once an hour barring afternoon. For example, multiple trips each at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 in the mornings and 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 in the evenings. For this kind of frequncy to be viable, I guess the volumes have to tripple from the current ones.
4. Since many companies are using the service, the whole system has lost a bit of flexibility. Some companies encourage flexi-time working and some others strictly enforce working hours (start of working hours that is. No restriction on end of working hours, as long as its later than 5:30PM!!!). One can know where it all leads to when the service has to be expanded and improved.
5. The BMTC service served only longer distanced well. For those who stayed closer (less than 5 km), who were majority, it didn't serve well. Even shorter routes (covered by private) failed to make it  attractive. The reason: Most had to walk 5 mins to the stop, wait  another 5 mins and travel for 15 mins. Whereas, if they took their own vehicle, they could reach in 5-15 mins.

1. As stated above, the top management of BMTC were surprisingly found to be more flexible than some of the other private guys. They agreed  to many special requests and were also very quick in responses. Very corporate like.
2. Cost of running big BMTC buses are cheaper than Swaraj Mazdas!! It maybe because of BMTC's own service and repair division. Also, it might be because the buses, in the off hours, can be run on its own regular routes to generate more revenue.
3. Each trip has a different bus, so first trip bus need not worry  about getting back to cover the second trip.
4. From the current running, it seems there are no major issues. There is a variation of about 5-15 minutes in the mornings - mostly due to traffic conditions. 90% of the time the variation is around 5 mintues. In the evenings on the other hand, the variation is between 5 to 30 minutes to reach destination. Most of the time the variation is around 10 minutes (invariably late by 10 minutes). Ofcourse, this is dependent on the route. This data is derived after looking at a couple of routes for about a month.
5. Another interesting observation on commute time in the evenings: Invariably, the bus arrives at destination later in winter/rainy days and earlier in summer's sunny days. One of the reason could be that, more people start moving towards home once its dark - and it gets dark sooner in winter. And, on rainy days, no need to explain - it would end up in multiple jams due to flooding and slow movement of vehicles.