City inches closer to special bus corridors
“Shortly, we will be implementing the BRTS in the city,” said Pasha.
According to plans, a separate bus corridor covering 17 junctions on a 35- km stretch on Hebbal-Silk Board route is under discussion.
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How shortly is yet to be
How shortly is yet to be seen. Probably waiting for the dust to settle down from the ORR signal freeing program
PS: We can use this quote as APAD slogan “Bangaloreans, just by obeying traffic rules, can contribute a lot,” Sood said.
please plan it well
After Delhi's half baked attempt at running a pilot on BRT. My only hope is that atleast in Bangalore it is tried out with a lot more thought behind it.
There is no point in running a 35km stretch when it is not properly integrated with the rest of the system. All it would result in is people concluding that BRT does not work and is a nuisance. In the case of Delhi, it probably was.
I don't have any concrete numbers but my hunch is that it was only after the noida-dwarka and later the gurgaon stretch which opened after 6 years of the beginning of the delhi metro that the ridership picked up significantly. Even now it is much below what RITES had suggested in their first report when they were making a case for the metro. Basically, I hope they give BRT in Bangalore a decent shot in terms of time and money.
BRT planning could've been better
With reference to earlier discussion about flyovers at Agara /Iblur: The flyovers along ORR were built with provision for median bus lanes, thus, bus lanes will have to be carried on at the median.
For bus stops in way of flyovers, arranging measures for pedestrian safety is no problem since surface traffic will be lesser & slow moving. However, for bus stops in between where there are running lengths on the surface (with no grade separation), traffic signals would be necessary for safe pedestrian crossings. Thus, the ORR cannot be entirely 'signal-free'.
It might have been better to have arranged kerbside bus lanes since ORR-east has service roads for most part. Where there are no service roads (around KRPuram /OMR, etc), buses could have operated in mixed traffic.
Kerbside lanes would also help in better utilization of road space & disallow idle parking at the sides.
Maybe we should get our
Maybe we should get our hands on the proposal? Or is it just up in the air we-will-wing-it types?
Unresponsive Mr Pasha, extremely disappointed
Despite a direct email to Mr Pasha, we are yet to receive either a meeting invitation, or information regarding BMTC's current plans and designs for BRTS. Needless to say, the Bus Priority enthusiasts are disappointed.
If the MD of BMTC could be so unresponsive to the group of people who are probably the largest sympathizers and supporters of BMTC in Bangalore today, one can only think about the plight of general commuters in the city.
Mr Pasha needs to be a little more responsive. At the least, he could hire a secretary to respond to emails, or set up an auto-responder to his email saying he doesn't reply to private citizens regardless of the intentions or goodwill they may carry.
Context: On behalf of BPS project group, I had written to Mr Pasha, asking for a meeting for us to explain Bus Priority so that we could know their current BRTS plans. Via a separate personal request, had also asked for current and past design docs for whatever BRTS projects BMTC is and has been involved in.