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Public Transport Promotion Ad Agency

Metro RailPublic Transport

 LA Metro had appointed an Ad Agency and created various ads to promote the use of public transport. As part of Bus Day campaign, can we have similar such ads in local TV and News Paper.

LA Metro: Promoting Mass Transit from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

How about BOT Traffic Signals and Signs?

EnforcementTraffic

 After seeing elevated hosur tollway, I started thinking why not BTP can try BOT with traffic signs,signals, road signs.  

Silly? Not really? Why?

The idea/concept is to convert rule-breaking nature of people into revenue for short period, or till people become alright. Imagine every rule-break ,except non-humans :) , specially where is there is a clear signage/signal is fined/collected without fail. Example : in my short travel of 30 mins,today I noted at least 20 rule breaks where there was a signal/signage. Let us say minimum of 20*Rs. 100= Rs.2000 is fined and collected. 

I noted following where was clear traffic sign/signage:

 

1) Passing Red light : 5

2) Left turn where not allowed : 3

3) Leftmost lane vehicle right turning right. Lane is marked clearly with a " -> " sign. : 2

4) Crossing stop lines : 10

5) I did not observe for other rule-break.

 

Street improvements - Problems aplenty

Urban DevelopmentGovernance

Roads in most Indian cities are a complete mess, literally. When do we see them graduate to some sort of orderliness, if ever ? The reasons for this pathetic state of roads, heavy congestion & poor transport infrastructure are many. Most of us believe that the authorities alone are responsible & lack expertise. However, apart from this, there are many other reasons :

1) City officials are unable to acquire land uniformly throughout a street for maintaining width symmetrically because there are numerous establishments & private parties or individuals that contest such acquisition in courts - army land between Mekhri circle & Rajgopal rd & on ORR on the northwest (near Peenya) are examples, as is the traders agitation along CMH rd.

2) Where roads are of uniform width, 'No Parking' is difficult to enforce or indiscriminate parking is allowed due to the nature of activities on the road, or private vehicles park anyway & usually obstruct movement of traffic - examples are Sampige rd & Margosa rd in Malleswaram, 80ft & 100ft roads in Indiranagar & Koramangala that have numerous retail outlets.

Malathahalli Lake - Flushed out - Now a dry lake

LakesWater

Hi Prajas,

I stay in Malathahalli , especially close to Malathahalli Lake  When we moved in to this location, we really liked it as it was very calm, a perfect place to live amid nature, a lake close by and lot of trees. The lake was streching upto 7 acres ..

Unfortunately this was a short lived paradise, as i see that the authoriities have forcibly removed the water from the lake and now its a dry land. Upon enquiry, I was told that the BDA has taken-up this project and that would re-create a mini lalbagh and that they would introduce boating etc etc..

What I am worried about is that the water condition in the state is pathetic and if they forcibly dry out a natural lake then what.. Recently there was an artilce in Deccan Herald about the city bore-wells are drying up...

I am not sure if this information is true, however some activity is being conducted. Can you please if anyone who is reading this post have insight to this piece of activity. Thank you in anticipation.

Kind Regards,

Neeyathi

 

Relocation of Kadugodi Bus stand

BusPublic Transport

Now it is expected that Railway Overbridge at Kadugodi will be completed soon. It is the time to think about extension of Volvo bus service at least upto Safal Market as lot of residential layout are upcoming in this stretch. Kadugodi bus stand can be relocated somewhere near Safal Market where the land prices are definitely cheaper as compared to the existing location of bus stand.

Crowdsourcing Public Works

Governance

I came across this article on slashdot (a tech site). It's an excellent idea that is working for a lot of communities.

http://radar.oreilly.com/...

Is this something that can work in Bangalore? This a great way to report issues such that they are visible to everyone. The reports that are in the newspaper are easily forgotten. But this way it will remain until fixed.

We will also be able to guage the responsiveness of our local governments.

Discuss.

 

Thanks,

Nithin.

 

Mysore - Chennai New LHB Shatabdi Experience

Commuter RailPublic Transport

 This Sunday afternoon I travelled from Mysore to Bangalore on 2008, Mysore-Chennai Shatabdi with new generation LHB coaches. It was a very nice experience. I recently travlled between two cities a lot, mostly on road and it was very boring nowadays with too much traffic on Bangalore-Mysore road. Volvo and car travel as well take minimum of 2 hr 15 minutes from Nayandahalli (Bangalore city tip towards Mysore road) to Mysore.

Amazingly train took just 1 hr 50 minutes from Mysore station to Bangalore station, leaving Mysore at 2:15 and reaching Bangalore(Binny Mill) at 4:05. I had travelled last year in the same train but with older coaches, and it took 2 hr 15 minutes. The new coaches have made a lot of difference. We reached Nayandahalli within 1hr 40 minutes. Unfortunately we were not allowed inside the station, were halted with red signal near Binny mill and left inside only after 10 minutes making the journey 2 hours. Hope railways solves this problem.

BMTC - S1 Route (Vijayanagar to Vijayanagar)

BusPublic Transport

Saw these buses plying on outer ring road near BTM layout yesterday & today.

Looks like an extension of Big10 concept, Big10 to Circle Routes to S (not sure what it stands for) routes?

Surprisingly, while the BMTC call center did not have any detail to offer, the buses seemed to quite fully loaded!. I got bumped from the call center guy to the control room to Vijayanagar Bus Stand (22952362). All were cordial, willing to help, but had no info to offer.

Local Trains vs Circular Rail For Bangalore

Commuter RailPublic Transport

Analysis of  last three months discussion and media briefing by Shri MoS K H Muniyappa and CM Yeddiyurappa  shows  that MoS is favouring Circular Rail and CM is talking of Local Trains similar to Mumbai.

Now we will see one more round of study by SWR / Railways for Circular Railway and wasting time on this. RITES study on  Local Trains is not considered by MoS K H Muniyappa and no one is talking of this.

Do any one have the details on Circular Rail what MoS K H Muniyappa is talking.  We from Praja need  to do some serious work so that both proposal Local Trains and Circular Train services are sanctioned for Bangalore.

 

 

 

Karnataka State pollution control board (KSPCB) - active?

EnvironmentPollution

They have 10 offices in Bangalore alone (isnt that good news ;)
They have a lot of laboratories which are set up for KSPCB for data analysis and data gathering.
  
The site says "Samples collected by the Regional Offices of the Board, Industries, Organizations and from general public are analysed."
When i read this I only get evil ideas (evil because it might not be fun for a lot of people)

They have listed a number of parameter that they analyze.
Industrial waste water has: 41 parameters
Air: 6 parameters
Water: 26 parameters.

They have things like "monthly avg result of national ambient air quality" and "classification of river water quality as per GEMS and MINARS"
The only small, tiny winy problem is they have failed to update any new reports and the last one is of 2007.

The last annual plan has been put up for year 2006-2007.

So I have a simple question, what happened to KSPCB? Does it exist? If it does then where are the reports?
If they have reports then cant we file RTI to get it?

air sample parameters

Renewing DL at the RTO without touts/bribes

Private transport

 My wife and I went yesterday to the Indiranagar RTO to renew her DL.  As soon as we stepped into "the zone" there were touts offering help.  We, of course, ignored them and walked up to the RTO.  

As we walked up we realized that my wife's DL said "RTO BNG CENTRAL" (Koramangala) and we wondered what trouble that would mean.  But we decided to check anyway.

There was a helpdesk there.  It was operational.  We asked the lady there if we could renew the license here.  She gave us the forms and asked us to check at Window 3 if it was possible.  We also realized there was a medical fitness certificate (completely in Kannada) to be got from a doctor.

At Window 3 there was a reasonably helpful lady.  She told my wife that it was possible to do it there.  She confirmed if the address remained unchanged.  She asked us to write a letter requesting that the license be renewed there.   

We paid the Rs.250 fee at the cash counter and my wife went to get her MC done.

Traffic alerts on signboards - Variable Message Signboards (VMS)

TrafficTraffic jams

DH Reports :

Bangalore, the first City in the country to have Variable Message Signboards (VMS) on roads and junctions.

Four VMS were commissioned at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road, Airport Road at Hebbal (two signboards - one towards airport and another towards City) and K R Puram (towards City). These boards are connected to Traffic Management Centre (TMC).
 

The Variable Message Signboards help alert travelling public about prevailing condition on roads ahead and also help them choose alternative directions to reach their destination.
According to the Home Minister V S Acharya, the City traffic police will install another 16 VMS soon. The City police have utilised funds sanctioned under B-Track.

 

Bangalore Patrol

Times of India along with Janaagrah launch Bangalore Patrol (starting tomorrow) says the cover page of TOI today. I tried to look for it online but couldnt find a thing about the same. But if you have a TOI around check it out, it is impossible to miss.

According to the Advertisement "Bangalore patrol involves a stringent ward infrastructure and services assessment programme with the singular aim of demanding direct evaluating and accountability from the local administrative and governance system."

They will start with 5 essential civic rights of water supply, Mobility, Sanitation, Environment and Public amenities.

It will measure the same in 198 wards. By doing so they intend to monitor the work of our newly elected representative's in each of the wards. In my opinion the best measure of performance and also at the same time we get a good idea about our city.
According to the article "Progress report will be based on simple objective performance evaluation criteria and will be freely available to the public, empowering them to demand answers" 

The Lok Satta Party public interactions meet with JP

Politics

 After the recent BBMP election JP is visiting Bangalore in carrying forward the new party’s agenda. This interaction reminded us the probable scenario which might have prevailed at the time of freedom struggle.  The fight now is against the middle class apathy ignorance and above all their pretence to know best according to JP. 

JP stressed on the importance of local government. An increase in per capita income alone may make the country rich but still a banana republic. He felt that with proper management the malaise like power cuts etc can be avoided altogether. 

To days scenario highlights the viciously guarded statues quo by our politicians. The confused nonchalance and apathy of the voters is a boon to them. Many levels of changes are needed. JP alluded to the two major types of corruption, the extortional and collusive type of corruption. Both kind of corruption are to be tackled. 

Proud of my Corporator?

Governance

I just went across the profile of the candidate whom has won the BBMP election from my ward. I 'shamefully' admit to have voted for this person. Given that I had little info on the three candidates contesting, I just went by the party.

Now, I do realise that this great person is a 2nd PUC failure!!

Do you have any better luck, corporators that you be proud of?

And, considering that we have pushed ourselves in the levels of education since the Constitution was drafted in 1950, and considering that the urban electorate is a little more educated than the semi-urban or rural parts - Isnt it the time for us to review the minimal educational requirements of our candidates, atleast for urban local bodies?

With only such candidates on offer, can we ever expect them to understand the various issues of administration, let alone solve them? Your thoughts, rants, and solutions appreciated!!

-Srivatsava V

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