BMTC is prepping 140 buses ready for ABIDe's Big 10 proposal in addition to suggesting Volvos be used for the HOHO service. Does this mean that BMTC will remove/reduce current bus services operating on the 'Big 10' ? Although unlikely, this would the first step towards the rezoning principle talked about on praja by narayan82 and kbsyed (here and here).
Full story here: http://www.hindu.com/2009...
transmogrifier
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Different buses
Routing of HOHO
"Clock-wise services should be operated via The Oberoy, East Parade Church, Manipal Centre, Army School, BRV Junction, Anil Kumble Circle, Siddaiah Circle, Hudson Circle, Richmond Flyover, Vellara Junction, D’Souza Circle, Trinity Church and Trinity Circle, ABIDe had said. Anti-clock-wise services should run via KSPHC, Hosmat Hospital, Garuda Mall, Mayo Hall, War Memorial, St. Joseph Business College, Cash Pharmacy, Bangalore Club, Woodlands, Mallya Hospital, U.B. City, Jewels D Paragan, KSCA, Minsq Square, KSRP Ground, Parade Ground, Manipal Centre, Dickenson Road, Begum Mahal Circle and Taj Residency, it had suggested. "
Curiously, this goes against the direction of the existing one-ways. Is this a mistake or are they actually planning to run buses against the one-ways. Will be very good if they do so as the one-ways have made life quite hard for commuters.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Exactly Srivathsa
Having buses run against oneways with dedicated bus lanes, which recently Dr.ASJ had shown done in London streets is a good thing. It is also a promoter factor for public transport since the journey time cuts by using Public Transport.
We see buses as a problem
For some reason we in Bangalore see buses as a problem that come in the way of "smooth traffic flow". The mindset of the big bureaucrats has to change to the fact that buses are the solution and cars are the problem. Buses occupy probably 3 times the road space as a car but effectively transports 50-100 times as many people (people get on and off along the way). Bangalore roads are still navigable only because 25-30 lakh people still choose/forced to choose buses as their transport.
Our one-ways are designed for cars and bikes and not for buses and pedestrians. A bigger post on that soon.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Buses should be allowed to
HOHO or Local Shuttles in suburbs
Certainly HOHO is a good idea, we have discussed Local shuttles here, and have alos talked single lane BRTS like system (thought through in detail by Naveen, look for his presentation).
But, if you ask me, you need HOHO / Local shuttles in suburbs as well, hop on from your house to a nearby biggish bus stand, catch a longer route bus, get off at an entry point to CBD, and hop on to the CBD shuttle. 2 changes are okay as long as bus frequencies are good.
We are essentially talking reforms on the BMTC routing front. Very interested in seeing how this proceeds.
If HOHO gets popular at CBD (in its present form), it is likely to see day time use (office goers of the area going out for lunch etc). I wont park my car at a CBD entry point and switch to HOHO unless there is a heavy congestion tax, or nice parking area cum shuttle bus stop at CBD entry points. There probably is no space for doing such mini TTMCs at CBD entry points. And a CBD congestion surcharge would really be "un-democratic" as the city has to first provide me good alternatives for me to abandon using my car/bike.
Bottomline, need HOHO at both ends of my commute.
HOHO/Local shuttles
SB,
BMTC has to think total time and total cost from the POV of a commuter. With monthly passes available, cost is fixed regardless of number of changes. So the variable to think of is time. I think with Narayan's approach of trunk + feeder/HOHO/HAHA will give better frequencies. (A good analogy is the Jet Airways/any airline's network within India. They connect the major cities frequently rather than try to connect every city with every other city. Local hinterland can be served with an ATR). Once a bus is frequent it will draw passengers. 335E Volvo is a great example. I have rarely seen it run less than full.
Let's say we have 10 TTMCs with an average distance of 15 km (1 hr). Round trip of 2.5 hrs including rest. To get a frequency of 5 mins we need 30 buses on eaah pair. We have 45 pairs - 1350 buses. The rest of the 3000 buses can be put on local shuttles to serve the hinterland much better via feeder routes that run clockwise/anticlockwise on milk runs. This is a very rough calculation, but it does tell you what is possible. The inter TTMC buses can be the long trailer buses with 150 capacity or even double deckers (where did they all vanish?). So every hour we can move 1800 people along each pair of TTMCs. if there is a 1.5 turnover that makes it about 2700 persons/hr capacity *45 pairs * 2 directions = 2.5 lakh people/hr. 16 hrs = 40,00,000 capacity.
BMTC can utilize its assets far better.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
HOpe this takes off
Anyone used this today? I really hope this takes off in a big way and we see some sanity come back to the CBD. A bus every 5 mins in each direction will be good. Am planning to take one of these on Saturday from Richmond Road to the Museum with my boys and then back to Residency Road or take a longer route back to Richmond Road itself. Air-con bus should not be too bad.
I wish they run the buses along MG Road (Lakeview side) so that people strolling around there don't need to use their vehicles. Ban parking on that stretch of MG Road as well. For this to work, they need to organize some parking lots on the periphery of the bus route.
Can see plenty of opportunities - one very selfish one. Brigade Millennium 1 &2 + Elita have about 3000 apartments. Have a service from here as well covering JP Nagar 6th Phase, Kanakapura Road, Gandhi Bazaar, Lalbagh, Jayanagar 4th block and back. All the big "shopping" areas should be covered e.g Jayanagar 4th block, Gandhi Bazaar, Malleshwaram market side. E.g. one from Srinagar to National College to Lal Bagh to South End and to Gandhi Bazaar and back.
BMTC should keep this going. the Vayu Vajras seem to run fuller now. This will take some time to click, but it will.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Congestion charging can start
HOHO off to a slow start
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Laughing all the way to the office HOHO HOHO
BIG 10
Thanks.
www.btis.in and www.bmtcinfo.com
It can be found on www.btis.in and www.bmtcinfo.com
BIG-10 bus information
The bmtc site is not even updated with regard to the BIG-10 service.
This info needs to be added at the earliest, if authorities want people to use these services aggressively.
HOHO and chicago loop
In Chicago, the train lines form a loop in the downtown area. See http://www.rususa.com/city/trainmap.asp-region-chicago .
If Big 10 routes form such a loop around CBD, effectively not only we will not need HOHO schedules, they will reduce need for transiting for suburb to suburb travellers.
The Loop can cover the transit points which cross over different routes so that we can go from any big 10 road to any other big 10 road with just one change of bus.