Will banning of Autos from CBD ease traffic chaos ?

Faiq:

Let me add a No. 4: Pavements to walk on!

That itself will take care of half the present autos used in the CBD. Sheltered Pavements with a good Volvol/low floor bus service can solve the problem on its own.

Rightly stated by dvsquare . It is not the auto that is the problem. The problem is with the person in whose hands the auto is in. Whether you put a mercedes or nano or an auto in the hands of the person the result is mostly the same.  Perhaps, if you put the auto in the hands of a singaporean cabbie in singapore the end result may be drastically different :-).

I agree with Mr. Vasanth that strengthening Public Transport, will reduce dependence on autos, esp. at Railway stations

Last night I arrived at K.R.Puram station at 9-30 p.m. (the Mumbai express being almost an hour late). After climbing up and down the steep stairway with luggage, (in this station the trains never stop so that you can avoid the stairs), I had to cross the busy Old Madras road with not stop traffic even at the marked pedestrian crossing.

Half a dozen automen were after me demanding one & half fare or more to go to Indiranagar even at 9-30pm. I waited patiently for Public Transport  more than half- an- hour,but not a single bus towards Ulsoor came. (later I found out there is a bus stop half a KM away and buses towards Ulsoor are routed that way).

At last I had to shell out a little less than one & half to one auto who did not get any other passenger.

In spite of numerous demands to provide connectivity at this and other Rly. Stns, BMTC is oblivious running their services where they feel like even if half empty, but not providing them where they are needed and demanded by the public.

No doubt this is main cause of the autos taking upper hand with hapless commuters , especially those from other places, unfamiliar with the city.

K.V.Pathy

"It is better for Law and Order and Transport authorities to tighten the screws on these ubiqutous red ants called Autos by random checking through squads of strict officials who are not malleable to the syndrome of /what is in it for me'."

Why such language? For two bad examples you cite here, I have 10 good auto experiences to counter argue that most of them are nice people. Just recently, I dropped my cellphone in an auto near Bagmane Tech Park, and the automan was waiting 15 minutes at the gate to wait for me to return to pick it up. Week before that, my family lost way (when driving) around Begur Main road, and an automan lead them out all the way to Hosur Road, all without expectations of money. I have 5-6 more, but will save for later.

Next, this dream of "squad of strict officials" is a dream, a dream.

Last, replacing auto with nano is just creating another set of vehicles to create chaos and jams. Essentially, I am lost between so many things you are trying to say - autos cause jam? Do you not want autos at all or do you want to see autos replaced with nanos? Do you hate autos because they cause pollution or because all automen are red ants? or all of these? what are the alternative solutions to "last mile connectivity"?

Talking one of above at a time with details of why autos cause problems is going to lead to more meaningful discussions. But taking out personal anger against automen by mixing up all of above is simply going to live on as rant.

There is a difference between anecdotal evidences and observation based extrapolation and analysis. There is a difference between discussing and propagating.

MVK sir - a humble but serious request. Why fall for quantity? With so much knowledge, awareness and financial acumen that you have, we have come to expect better quality posts from you.

Yes, I agree, its like that always. You will always find a handful of good automen out of all so-called ants. But it doesn't give us any good reason to not to raise our fingers on bad ones.

Its seldom if I want to go somewhere and auto doesn't ask for more money than the meter charge. Charging extra is one thing, they don't want to go anywhere, they even don't reply many times. They make a huge fuss about IT people that you get a lot of money etc etc.

Please give me a reason, while going from home to workplace by the same route everyday, why the meter charge is different each trip in the range of +/-10%. Can we ignore that too?

Have you not seen on the roads, that autos are driving very insane, thinking their 3-wheeler as 2 wheeler and try to put front tyre in the minimal space possible causing problems for other vehicles and jams on the road.

Have you not seen automen violating traffic lights and violating one-ways most of the times, and become cause of the accidents of other vehicles?

I am not at all in favour of the banning autos and replacing them with nanos, I just want that some strict laws should be there, so that they also have some fear.

Simpe questions are -

(1) For-Hire means, they are legally obliged to take where you want to go, isn't it?

(2) Why meters are always faulty?

(3) Why they always want more money what it shows in meter, ranging from 1.5 to 2 times in proper sunlight, forget about midnight?

(4) Why don't they follow traffic rules always?

If we are cribbing against the faulty meters, noise pollution, all autos not going to CNG, I will join the rant train. Absolutely.

But attacking their trade, or blaming them to be bad drivers - I don't think such discussion is fact based. We all suck at driving, autos are just a little worse, and that I would suggest is because of two reasons

1. Literally, their livelyhood depends on it. So they do things you and me will do less often.
2. Their vehicles are a little more maneuverable than 2 and 4 wheelers. Drive an auto if you want to feel it. Try it. Ask any automan, and 90% of them will be nice enough to let you ride their tool.

 While Silkboard's empathy towards the Auto drivers and his defending them  rightly so in not branding the entire lot is understandable , I can easily say that the general consensus would be that that you are likely to feel cheated atleast one out of 3 times you use an auto. I am saying this with personal experience when i had to use the autos regularly as my CTS( carpal tunnel syndrome) prone wrists were not allowing me to ride my bike.

Okie, after stating the above, I have some points to make and would lean towards replacing the autos for the following reasons

1) They are not safe and comfortable. I have seen quite a few accidents invloving autos including deaths.The steering mechanism of the autos make them that much more easy to move and at the same time dangerous in the hands of the drivers. They are feared by 2 wheelers and cars for this reason. My wife who takes an auto has been injured twice going to her office. They have almost zero lighting and are not safe in the night in poorly lit places.

2) They cause a lot of noise pollution. How often do you feel irritated by the sound of an Auto. I know for a fact that they tamper with the exhaust to enable make that sound. This is a menace to me atleast and we have to address this.

3) Meter tampering practice is almost a norm and the demand for double and 1.5 times over the meter.  I have seen a variation of upto  3.5 Kms for a regular 8 Km trip ( translates to about 25 Rupees more  for 56 Rupees Auto fare)

4) The autos have tarnished bangalore's image more than anything when you look at it from a relative perspective.

What i think could be an alternative.

1) Have Nano as a replacement as they seem commercially and financially viable with some attractive finance options and design modifications to suit the purpose.

2) Phasing out the auto over a period of time as you cannot bring about a replacement in a day.

3) Nanos would be relatively safer for the occupant and also for other people who drive around them as the car will not be as nimble and dangerous as the Auto.

4) Enforce some sort of GPS based distance and cost calculation. I dont mind paying a bit more if the tampering part is reduced as much as possible. There is a seperate department which is reponsible for all sorts of weighing and measurement related things which is behind the commissioners office. Its not doing its job properly at the moment though.

While I am all in for strengthening the public transportation as much as possible, we cannot do away with this mode of transportation can we. But atleast I feel it is time to move on with more safer means of transport as they have served as well.

"we will all join and give you a red rose, if you could kindly plan some programme to teach these automen about behavioural science, transparency, accountability, their livelihood, peoples' curses etc."

Perhaps, 70% of our country needs such lessons if you ask me.

"When an auto is not carrying passengers, the driver tries to safe fuel, switches off the engine and cruises on the inclined road as if the road is his ancestral property and in case he has passengers and  is happy with +1 extra-illegal, then the entire road is his property and he whizzes like a menacing red ant."

There you go again, good english as cover for unparliamentary language :)

And when our car drivers don't find parking on a crowded road, they either double park, or suanter around lazily trying to bide time with hope someonel will make way for them.

30% of the bikers I see don't think anything of hopping on to the pavements eager to rub shoulders with hopeless pedestrians.

Then there are pedestrians, who would walk on the roads and never on pavements even if you lay nice ones out for them.

The point is - we all suck at these things you are pointing out. singling out automen, with language showing an ovious bias is not fair.

Yep, they do these things a lot more than others, and are more visible because all autos look alike (but you have 50 types of cars, and 60 models of bikes).

Anyway, words against words, I hope I made my objections clear - its against perceptions, biases and possibly the tone.

cheers,

SB

I have seen the blame game of vehicles, a car user blames a 2 wheeler and vice versa. People complain about BMTC buses, but BMTC bus drivers seems to be better except for not stopping in the stop. The company bound buses, cabs , the Sumos and the Indicas are more dangerous. I have had many problems with them than the autos. They are rash and arrogant in nature. Pretend to beat you up if you say anything against them. Also they are fast, so damage will be more. Something needs to be done on this front more than autos.

For a vehicle that has just about started logging some kilometres, which is yet to be proven on the street to be viable, well functioning, easy to maintain, safe in a crash etc., the nano is sure getting a lot of hype.  Let's wait a little bit more and see the vehicle in action and listen to the feedback shall we, before promoting the nano? 

For the record, let me put it out first - In the late 80's, I used to drive an auto during the weekends to suppliment my family income, and understand their plight to some degree (but there is still no excuse to doing anything wrong). And now, I'm fortunate enough to have climbed up the ladder to reach a different economic strata.

Autos are a menace, no doubt. Bad driving, non-existant silencers, pollution, occassional bad manners... But so are most private buses I see daily on Mysore Road (and some BMTC ones too). Tiny goods vehicles and lorries are equally polluting and obstructive to smooth traffic flow. Cabs, TTs, cars, scorpios, two wheelers can beat or match autos any day in bad driving.

So, let us try and holistically approach issues with true Praja spirit. As far as possible, fact / data based,  constructive and gentle worded discussion please.

Ravi

Hi,

I am not only blaming only autos, but yes the BMTC buses and other private buses, as well as the cabs, and moreover the heavy-vehicles, I am talking about every other vehicle.  And yes the private cars also come under this category but the difference is that they might be relatively better driver considering their car's safety :-), yes that's true,

But for buses, specially BMTC buse drivers, they have no care for buses they drive as well as the other vehicles on the road.

I always see heavy vehicles running on the rightmost side of the road on the ORR, when there is a notice written in BOLD that heavy vehicles prohibited on the rightmost lane.

So, the figer is pointing at everybody, the thing is that we have to take some practical and logical action so as how to improve upon it instead of fighting ourselves about ones' mistake and other's mistake.

In todays scenario, every vehicle owner pays the initial road tax and assumes that he has the right to drive for eternity without giving so much as a thought about the damage he's causing to others and the environment.  Congestion charges will keep the vehichle owner/drivers that they have to cough up money every time they pollute the city and cause damage to others by unnecessary usage of private transport, when a good public transport is available.   In case of bangalore we can have congestion limits and impose congestion tax on

1. Private Cars/taxis

2.Private transport/carrier vehicles

3.Autos

Considering that in our country, its mostly the rich and upper middle class which own  cars, congestion charge  will not affect the poorer class of the society.  A well designed congestion tax system ,with implementation/ operations  outsourced to private players can make bangalore and other cities a better place to live in.

vinod

hi sri,

"Somehow you are trying to restrict me not to use my vehicle or less use my vehicle and not giving me any good alternative"

The idea of a congestion charge is to increase the usage of public transportation at the cost of private transport.  As observed number of person/private vehicle to person/public vehicle will result in lesser congestion. But i agree with you that and effective public transportaion system has to be in place, if  we have congestion charges.  I believe BMTC provides a good public transporation system for bangalore.  Atleast in the CBD a BMTC bus stop will be available  within 0.5-1.0km .with additon of metro the overall situation for public transport will improve to a great extent.   

some results from london congestion charging.  Keep mind that london has largest metro in the world,

In early 2003 congestion was introduced in london charging 5 pounds to drive into the city.  After one year these are the resuls

1. Car trips fell by a third

2. 15 % more bus journeys,20% more motorcycle journeys,30% more bicyle trips

And drivers who choose not to enter the congestion limits used the following.

1. 25% drove around it

2. 55% switched to public transport

3. 20% choose other alternative like bicycle, walks,work from home etc

sri with these many benefits,   we can afford to accept a little restriction on using private transport.

vinod

Hi Vinod,

I know that might work, and the poeple who are most impacted are the ones who just afford to drive small cars, not the one who roams around in luxurious cars.

Instead of congestion charges, if we make this public transport attractive, I am very much sure that people are going to use public transport.

Take the example of BIAL connectivity, that really a very good example of it, today I say the BIAS buses are the most reliable way of travelling to/from airport to any area, and people are using them voluntarily. We need to implement the same to the normal BMTC buses, bus-stops, driver's driving habits, people will definitely come back to public transport themselves.

 Hi Vasanth,

The poll title can be misleading while voting and may not result in the intended feedback

as your comments indicate you want them to be replaced.

"Will banning of Autos from CBD ease traffic chaos ?"

Would it make more sense if it were to read  "Will replacing Autos with Its successor  ease traffic chaos ?"

If I were to go strictly by the poll, i would have chosen NO which I did not.

Has anybody interacted with the Govt and is there any proposal or any thought process going on in that direction.Is this is a step in that direction. If YES, we need more participation.