Read this in DH today.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/28436/tight-schedule-leads-mishap.html
Quite a damning report on BMTC's irresponsible practices. I think quite a bit of discussion has taken place around this.
"Drivers from several of the busiest routes say that these mishaps occur mainly due to the unscientific and unattainable time-schedules."
“The time-schedule on many of the routes are the same as 20 years ago. With today’s traffic, we are under pressure to reach our destinations.”
I don't want to copy paste anymore. The link sheds more light on more such nonsense.
The whole profit motive seems to be the root cause of this malady.
a. BMTC in itself should not bleed. But this whole profit at any cost mentality needs a break.
b. BMTC is a public service. If it does its job well and provides good connectivity, the man-hours saved on traffic jams, etc will more than offset any minor loss the BMTC makes and taxpayers will not be unhappy that their money goes to subsidising an important public utility.
c. People behave depending on how they are rewarded and punished. Drivers and conductors should only be measured whether they started the first trip on time. After that traffic conditions take over. Imagine if pilots are measured on whether they complete a trip on time. Our airports will look like a battlefield.
d. Safety should come above all else.
e. They can give more time for trips to get completed and still get good frequencies and coverage. They have 5000 buses which is more than most corporations. This needs some work on routing and not pushing their employees like this.
Srivathsa
Forward this Blog entry
Comments
BMTC - tight schedules leading to accidents
I agree totally.
Gps will solve most of difficulties faced by Bmtc in monitoring driver.Drivers will not have to drive racklessly to reach.
Users will also benefit as Driver will be monitored. While waiting at bus stop users will be knowing when is the next service reaching. User complaints of bus route change, not stopping at stop will also reduce.
When proven technology is available at competative price, it is high time Bmtc uses technology and improve its service & user satisfaction.
I think it will not take more than 6months to completly retrofit existing vehicles, bus stops. Return on Investment will also be very fast.
Salecha
one of the toughest job in Bangalore - BMTC driver
I think one of the toughest jobs in Bangalore is being a BMTC driver. I think they are doing a thankless and highly demanding job. I am not denying that some of them are reckless but most of them are operating under exremely demanding constraints -
1) they share roadspace among other maniacs (drivers) like motorcyclists, taxis, call center cabs, cars. Plus, they also share space with pedestrians going all over the road thinking that they can beat a BMTC bus hands down while trying to outrun it when crossing the road.
2) BMTC drivers have to deal with overloaded buses with people overflowing and clinging onto the footboard.
3) The BMTC drivers dare not stop to the side near the bus stop because they could mow down the people who do not have the sense to stick to the bus stop on the footpath(if there is one). If the bus knocks down one of the waiting passengers in the event of attempting to stop correctly then the bus driver is the only one held accountable.
People don't realize that a big bus has a number of blind spots and that all acccidents are not the fault of the BMTC drivers. A lot of contributing factors need to be examined as a whole if any solution needs to be found and GPS alone is not going to solve it.