Suhas

Yes, there was a bit of cockiness on the part of the MD when he kept insisting that enough thinking was going into the various aspects by the concerned people in the government agencies involved. Now, if that was quite the case, we wouldn't have all the mess we see all around us, would we? And, while there's an air of professionalism about the way the BMRCL is going about things today, this kind of cockiness can be its undoing eventually, landing it up as another BMTC down the years.

At a presentation made recently at the IIMB by Delhi Metro authorities, they had specifically talked about how they had taken over traffic management in the project sites, and managed it well enough to the extent of avoiding having to put up notices stating 'inconvenience regretted'. BMRCL's approach on the contrary appears to be '"that's the traffic police's job; we just execute the project", quite as blsri has stated.

Even on the matter of changing of the station architecture, one would have expected them to provide a lot more information suo moto than the sketchy responses to our specific queries.

Perhaps, since we have, over the years, come to expect very little from government organisations, we see them as being pro-active. But, in my opinion, there's quite some way to go.

Muralidhar Rao

IDS, Narayan - I agree with what you say. Feeder buses will be provided from all stations & should be used for access to Metro stations. The stations at end points & those that are far away from central areas along the Metro routes are the ones that need some parking spaces for those that prefer to park & ride, certainly not 2-3 football stadium sized ones with moving walkways /walkalators !

Providing parking at stations in CBDs & midpoints is not required, & in fact, defeats the very purpose of building the Metro, which is to reduce the no. of vehicles plying on the roads.

Suhas - Buidling Metro at grade is much less expensive when compared to having it elevated or underground, no doubt, but still much more expensive than running buses or BRT. As I had mentioned, building a Metro where development is sparse is neither necessary nor is it financially viable as costs would be too high. Metro, by design is to carry tens of thousands of commuters, typically servicing dense CBD areas. Most of the Metros in the world have been built after the normal buses & trams were found inadequate, & I dont think there is a single example of a Metro being built first & development occurring later. This being the case, most of the Metros are either elevated or underground, barring a few outlying areas as space constraints do not permit Metro at grade when the city's CBDs are already dense.

Metro at grade on ORR is not necessary as CTTP survey has shown that phpdt levels at 2025 are lower than 15,000, & BRT or Monorail would suffice, & is being planned accordingly.

The authorities have decided to keep a very wide median on PRR to allow for trains (not necessarily Metro) to be run in the future, if ever it becomes necessary, whilst also making provisions for BRT.

Blrsri, Murali - DMRC managing traffic & also running feeder buses - this is good reference information, & is not a prescription for all cities. BMRC does not necessarily have to follow this example. One can understand their reluctance to get involved with operating feeder services or manage traffic. The situation here is pathetic as regards co-ordination between various agencies is concerned, again because things have gotten very bad with the enormous traffic & other infrastructural problems. Thus, urgent steps have to be taken first to improve this.

As regards station architecture, BMRC is providing some stations within CBDs with futursitic designs whilst at the same time ensuring that inconvenience to general public during construction is minimal, as stated by Mr.Sivasailam.

"And the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time" - T S Eliot, Poet

ASJ - This is exactly my language !  I have seen the disappearance of the bicyle in Bangalore over the decades. And this has been a tragedy, to me.

When we were at school & in college, we pedalled 3-4 miles without any problem. Now, one cant even pedal a few hundred meters as the cars & motorbikes have taken over the streets with impunity & chase away the bicycles.

We have these groups, seeking multi-level garages, demanding flyovers, urban expressways.

When cars begin driving to shopping malls, instead of bicycles riding to parks, it certainly is a symptom that the city is ill, needing a cure !

Could you do me a favor ? Could you find out if they market these bicycles in India, particularly Bangalore ? I know that ITDP has developed a bicycle & rickshaw in Delhi, but I have been unable to locate a retail outlet that sells this. I now opt for the one that is pictured on the video, & would love to buy one, if available here.

Suhas

Suhas,

Experience overseas & also in this country has shown that when parking slots are made available easily, car usage goes up, whilst public transport gets ignored. This is beacuse public transport can never be as convenient for point to point access when compared with private transport. North America is a prime example, where public transport had largely been ignored in development of their cities, barring a few exceptions such as New York, whilst road construction, costing huge amounts went along. Today, they face a serious situation with calls from the whole world to reduce their emmissions. It would be better for this country to start curbing this sort of car-dependent mobility as there are many social implications, pollution & other costs of road space usage.

Cars occupying a disproportionately high percentage of road space which is also meant for buses, public transport & other essential emergency services, whilst carrying so few, is obviously undesirable. If we want our roads to be clutter free when we want to use the car for taking our old or injured to hospital in an emergency, or when we are time pressed for some reason & prefer to use the car & are prepared to meet the costs, we want roads that are clear for these quick trips.

Thus, costs for car usage & occupying road space which effects so many others must be made higher whilst supply of car facilities are simultaneously lowered. This is the reason why we have congestion /cordon pricing in the leading cities as the social costs of occupying street space (particularly during peak hours) that delays & inconveniences so many others using buses /public transport, emergency services, etc must be met by the user/s.

Even in the most developed countries, traffic restraints have been necessary to keep a check on private vehicle usage.

BBMP had foolishly stopped collecting parking fees all over the city, & parking of vehicles along the street kerbsides could not be kept in check due to poor public transport all these years. They are now working on a policy to charge for parking everywhere, based on a formula of differential pricing, once the Metro is operational. The CBD areas will attract much higher parking fees, similar to Manhattan in New York or in central London, whilst it will be lower in outlying areas. Also, supply of parking will be strictly controlled to keep a check on car usage.

Unless such controls are in place, car usage will not diminish beyond a small percentage, which will anyway get taken over by newer users who will try to fill in the voids left by Metro users if strict controls are not in place.

I hope it is clear now as to why supply of parking slots needs strict control, as also why there is a need for higher costs for car usage.

Undercharging for car use has led to this mess, & surely, we do not want it to continue !

Suhas

The moral of the story is that unless the last mile connectivity is good enough to get even the likes of Vinay (and not just Vasanth) to avail them, METRO ridership will not be good enough to either sustain the operations or reduce congestion on the city roads. That's where TVS/ Kingfisher could come in, so that while Vasanth mingles with the Janata in a BMTC bus, Vinay relaxes in style in the TVS bus (and, perhaps sipping beer on the evening run if in a Kingfisher service), paying may be double the fare.

Muralidhar Rao

I am sad at some of the reasons for justifying parking. In Mumbai where all I ever used was buses and trains, walking was a part of daily routine. The nearest train station was 1.5 km away. In London, I use the train everyday, the station again is a mile away (1.6km). Have people in Bangalore forgotten how to walk, is walking going to become extinct? Huge number of tube and train users walk 10-15 minutes evefry day.

Buses - BEST is a model worth researching (I have said it so many times). They have 1500 less buses than Bangalore and yet manage to carry half a million more!!

But here we are at a time when climate change is the biggest of challenges wanting more investment in motorised transport?

WHY? Because, footpaths are not there. WHY can't we cycle? Because roads are unsafe, cycle tracks are not provided. WHY can't we use buses? Coz connectivity is poor......

All these things that are considered basic in developed world are missing and instead of fighting for them we are making lack of these facilities as an excuse for more motorisation.

Pune Corporation has now been pushed to developing a NMT cell. Is there one in Bangalore? If not, fight for it. We have spent many man hours discussing bus route and frequency rationalisation - take that agenda forward. If footpaths are missing, ask why IRC norms are not in place. Force the Corporation to accept on paper every road without footpath to be given a status of 'incomplete road works' (we have partly managed this in Puen).

Also look at the figures, rethink them, fast forward 20 years and then ask if more facilities for parking is the right way forward.

Mumbai's investment in 55 flyovers in 90s is described as the - 9% plan. This is because 82% use buses and trains, 9% use intermediate public transport (taxis and rickshaws) and 9% are in their cars. So for sake of 9% 1500 crores were spent when by now, the economic capital should have had 5000 Volvo like buses.

Now work out (for sake of ease use 10 instead of 9%) what 10% of 16 million is? It surpasses the number of vehicles in Pune today. Pune is 4 million, it will keep growing (as will Bangalore), to become another Mumbai. 80% of Pune uses personal vehicles. PMC wants to reverse the stats. They want to make 80% travel in PT (buses and trains) but are investing 10k crores on road expansion!! What they have not done is basic maths - by 2030, if Pune is 16 million, 20% of that still beats number of vehicles on Pune's roads today.

So work on projections. What will Bangalore's population be in 2030, 2040, 2050? Even 10% of that were to use vehicles, the roads will remain clogged.

I would ask BMRC MD another question (someone can if there is another meeting). Is the cost of ticket going to be cheaper than use of a scooter? If not what are they planning with the Corporation to change this equation.

Finally, yes, two wheelers are less space occupying, but they do pollute, they are dangerous and they contribute maximally to congestion by virtue of the ease with which they cause chaos on our roads - London got it right by calling it the Congestion charge (rather than a pollution charge lest people think overnight all vehicles will become electronic).

Start walking, start cycling, start using those 4000 buses and demand more of these 3 things.

ASJ

PS: Had to come back and edit my typo.

Singapore MRT stations have no provisions for parking (except for cycles) paid or otherwise.   Many of them have bus interchanges next to them from where buses head out to the hinterland.  If there is no interchange, then there will be a bus stop right outside the exits.  All have taxi stands next to them for people that want to get home quicker. 

I am not happy with Mr.Sivasailam's answer that his job is to run trains.  His job is NOT to run trains.  His job is to move people as quickly as possible (trains can run empty) and therefore he needs to link up with BMTC and not assume that it will be managed by someone else.  Just shows how blinkered even the vision of top people can be!

There is plenty of time before NM will chug out.  The layout of the tracks is well known and the location of the stations.  BMTC has to provide feeder services.  Again, in Singapore buses reach out to every nook and corner in the hinterland.  Once buses reach a locality, they stop every 200 m.

I agree with Dr. ASJ (Doc - please break up your post into paragraphs to improve readability).  The whole emphasis is on enabling the car owner to reach his destination quickly (remove signals, widen roads, etc) and not on improving the quality of commute of the 90th percentile and below.

Srivathsa

Vinay,

Nice to hear you say "I am all for having cyclist-friendly streets, and even more important, pedestrian-friendly streets. That would be simply great".

You are correct - it is going to be an uphill task, but that's the only right path there is. All others lead nowhere & are much worse !

As for improvements - rest assured, if we fight & convince people, they will respond. As to when they will respond, it would depend on how strong our plea is & how much we push for it.

I am quite certain that our pleas are being heard - BBMP planning this parking policy is one example !