Dear Prajagale, sometime back in May, 2008 our friend Narayanan wrote a very thought provoking post with the possible solution to strengthen Bangalore's public transport system. That post received very good response and post-analysis reviews. The discussion was about re-hauling present bus routes that exists in Bangalore.
http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/narayan82/2008/05/30/bmtc-zones-and-routes
I took this post for further analysis and tried to see if the zoning system makes sense and can it be practical? For my analysis what I did was to
- Make table of all the Zones being the center where passenger can start/change/end their journey
- Going from each zone to other zones, mark where the passenger would make a change.
- As suggested in the post, moved away from a concept of connecting places with direct service/route
- Instead for analysis, tried to provide with nearby zones and high demand zones.
- The Bus routes would be inter-zone and intra-zone
- There is also a fact that not everybody from one zone like Hebbal needs to go to other zones all the time
- In the chart '0' (Zero) means no change required, 3 letter indicating the zone where passenger would change.
The facts/results that emanated from this analysis are:
- The extreme case would be where a passenger has to take maximum of 3 changes only
- Start with a intra-zone service going to nearest Zone Center
- 1st change at nearest zone to take the bus which would take to an intermediate Zone center
- 2nd change at the intermediate zone center for taking the inter-zone route nearest to the destination
- 3rd change the nearest zone to go the destination
- Example - Peenya Industrial area --->Jalahalli ----> Shivajinagar ----->BTM Layout ---->Madivala
- Average should be not more than 2 depending on where one lives.
- Can also run some circular routes to serve some high density corridors as suggested in ABIDA, BCIC forums
- With real-time inputs, the zoning, routing can be further optimized and made to see that every locality is connected with either Trunk/Main road service or last mile connectivity
I also did another analysis to see what is the basic transport need of every consumer/entity that lives in Bangalore. The analysis once again indicated that Public Transport system fits the 60-70% of the needs.
Look forward to a complete presentation soon on Road Based Public Transport System solution that fits all the models that are suggested in various studies and efforts. One aspect that stand out from these studies and analysis is to make BMTC as the service provider rather than a transport planning authority. Basically end the BMTC monopoly.
Syed
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Consumer Needs of Transportation.doc | 48.5 KB |
| Zone-to-Zone-Matrix-v2.xls | 25.5 KB |
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Immediate Requirement
Syed, seeing the Narayan's zones once again, I feel there is an urgent requirement of hitech TTMCs in the IT areas of Bangalore namely Bannerghatta Road, Electronic City, Kadugodi / ITPL, Koramangala. These are high traffic zones in other words high number of car zones are causing too much traffic. All the localities should be connected to these zones.
Office cabs can pickup people from these TTMCs reducing the number of cabs for the company and thereby cutting the company cost. Taxi and auto services can also be provided along with the local shuttles.
zone matrix
effective competition - the only answer
"Basically, end BMTC's monopoly" - I think that needs to be put in bold, and possibly repeated a hundred times.
Like I have stated before, if private operators had been in the field, they would have grabbed with both hands the wealth of gyaan made available by PRAJA members, and implemented many of the suggestions, in the process benefitting themselves and as well as the public in general, and simultaneously sorting out many of the city's traffic as well as other connected problems.
As compared to that, as a monopoly, BMTC's aims & objects may as well be re-written as
1) Providing opportunity for politicians and babus in power to milk it through various rackets (building fancy TTMCs is the latest, and all located at the wrong places),
2) Promote and perpetuate various rackets of, for and by the union mafia,
3) Promote Kannada (could have been considered laudable if pursued in other ways),
4) Provide a naam-ke-vaasthe bus service to carry on the above.
The first two cannot go on if there's competition. And, that's why the mafioso involved have to carry on a shrill campaign against it, all in the name of Socialism. Unfortunately, a large section of the public is not readily able to see through this game, though it is being played right in front of them. The biggest challenge is to make these people open their eyes.
There is a regulatory body, BMLTA, already in existence. Yes, it needs to be properly empowered. Well, that can happen simultaneously with the opening up.
Once effective competition comes in, very much like Indian, BSNL, National Insurance, SBI, etc did, you'll automatically find BMTC also responding to the kind of valuable inputs Syedbhai has compiled here.
On my part, I shall try to bring it to Prof Ashwin Mahesh's (ABIDe) notice.
Muralidhar Rao
Zone matrix !
TS,
The basis for my zonal matrix is drawn from Narayan's post on BMTC zones and routes. Let me knwo if you have any specific question.
Syed
Presentation on Roadbased PT System !
Vasanth,
To your question of
//I feel there is an urgent requirement of hitech TTMCs in the IT areas of Bangalore namely Bannerghatta Road, Electronic City, Kadugodi / ITPL, Koramangala. These are high traffic zones in other words high number of car zones are causing too much traffic. All the localities should be connected to these zones.//
Pls see my presentation "Road Based Transport System" which answers all your questions.
zone matrix
aha. thanks syed. will get back this weekend
Metro Vajra??
After seeing the Vayu Vajras, it just flashed to my mind about Metro Vajra - A feeder service to Metro stations.
Whatever the critic may be about BMTC, somehow Volvos have pulled some crowd by its sheer comfort and speed and comfort of cars. Now the fleet is expanding and connecting to most of the localities. (I saw the Marcopolos, and it was not as appealing as the Volvos - looked like Normal BMTC bus finish outside)
Long routes in parallel to Metro alignment like the 333P may not attract the crowd as it is today since people will prefer Metro over Vajras. It will run into losses. Instead, if it does short haul from Byappanahalli to ITPL, it will increase the frequency, and few buses are needed. An unified Metro+Vajra pass should take care of one't transport needs. An unified pass for Metro+Normal Parisaravahini should also be introduced to take care of everyone's needs.
Metro Vajras as feeder will not only attract people to public transport, but also will ensure that it doesn't run under loss giving A/C comfort to Everyone. We also need normal buses as feeders (Metro Parisaravahini??) for those who cannot afford the high costs of Vajra.