Auto's - good, bad, or ugly?

I flew a couple of times out of the new Hyderabad International.

 They allow autos to the airport and the airport provided a different pick up and drop off point for the autos. The traveller has to walk about 1-2 KM to reach the boarding area (and has to walk up on a ramp. They never thought of the old people, people with kids, with luggage..etc. I hope they will provide elevators from the ground level to the boarding level for these.)  

Having a different bay away from the pick up and drop off of the cars seem to be working fine, except for the point I mentioned above.

I recently moved back to this city and travelled by autos a few times. As I wrote some where else on this site, I can tell you that I thought of religion, God, my loved ones and my blood pressure more than a few times when travelling in autos.

I have decided not to board autos as a principle, unless it is absolutely necessary. I am much more comfortable travelling by bus.

I have had two very distinct experiences with Autowallahs.

One was at the Forum Mall, on the Big Bazar side. I was standing on the footpath just outside forum and was surprised to see that the footpath was being used by the auto wallahs as the pickup point, one auto came speeding and braked just inches from me and came to a screeching halt. Delay of a second and I would have been hit. I was angry and questioned the auto wallah. He said " did I hit you ". I picked up a fight only to realize the sheer number of auto drivers who started abusing and stopped it there and then and moved out of the place to avoid more humiliation. But it was a real bad experience.

Another time, I had a few visitors at my place and we decided to go to Iskcon from jayanagar. We took auto both ways. But there was a huge difference of around 30-40 rupees while coming. On questioning the auto wallah started telling "saar one ways.." I was aware of the one ways and difference in distance due to them. But the difference was certainly not so much to make the meter jump like that. I got suspicious and told him your meter is faulty. He seemed to be a little silent after that. Then I told him I am not paying you more than x amount. He was annoyed and started protesting. I asked him to come to the police station and get his meter checked. he thought I would not know which police station to go to. On seeing that I knew the place pretty well. He gave in and said saar pay what you want to, we are just making 10-15 rupees more.. I paid him the same amount I paid while going and he didnt utter a word.

Refusing to go to places is a common thing for autos in bangalore. Even if you ask them to come to majestic they will say pay me 20rupees more I will not get any passengers on the way back. Now if he cannot find passengers form majestic I seriously doubt if he is fit to drive an auto.

I have heard good things about autos in mumbai, not sure if all of that is true. But they dont refuse to take passengers in most cases. 

http://clean-and-green.bl...

I cannot agree to any such claims that say that we should do away with autos. They are  very much needed. Just that they need to be disciplined a bit.

As praveen (photoyogi) said they are needed for the last mile connectivity.

Even after we have good public transport mechanisms like BRTS and metro, autos will still be needed and will provide last mile connectivity. But unless they are brought to some sort of discipline it is going to be a tough survival for them. Coz they are themselves to blame for any loss in income.

I have said earlier and will say again. If they can bring some amount of discipline and courteousness added with honesty they can go a long way in gaining confidence of the passengers.

I still remember my first visit to bangalore 10 years back. Having reached at 2 am in the dead of the night with just an address slip in my hand I was able to depend on the auto driver to find me the place and drop me safely at my destination. I cannot imagine to do so now. I hope such honesty and work ethic is followed by these men who can be of great help in providing good last mile connectivity.

http://clean-and-green.bl...

In a poorly connected city like bangalore, one cannot do away with autos entirely. What we need is a strong enforcement of regulations to control their usage and behavior of the drivers. As many have written earlier, the autos are highly polluting, both noise & smoke, to which the traffic police and the authorities seem to turn a blind eye. Secondly, the behavior of the auto drivers is - in majority of cases - highly arrogant and they have a go-to-hell attitude towards the customer. They do not hesitate to cheat on any count and refusal to accept a fare is pretty common, especially during evening & late hours. They are also abusive if you question them on their fares, attitude and driving.

The answer lies firstly with better policing and enforcement of regulations. Auto unions and other bodies should accept the responsibility to train drivers in courtesy and proper behavior to clients. Today, most auto users do it because of no alternative available. A better bus service and completion of Metro should make the auto drivers a wiser lot.

Madhu

I would strongly urge to blr_editor who has been moderating this place (I guess) that there be some fairness in moderation as well. If my comment was perceived to have personal attacks, why then did the comment made by the person I mention in my comment, not edited so as to not deal with something out of locus of this discussion.

I simply dont understand this favouritism towards one person in this forum. This should not be happening in a fair place like this.

My sincere remarks.

-Nijavaada

All said and done - The law is the law.

"According to Central Motor Vehicle (CMV) Act (Rule 50, d), the letters of the registration mark shall be in English"

Accept it, its not the most practical placve to showcase a language (be it any!) 

Murali,

As I've always been saying, we need to focus on the matter that began as being the sootra for all this discussion (apparently, the one that you started!). And by reading your comment, anyone on this forum would have arrived at a fork on this thread - one continuing to head on the lines of the auto and a non-KA number plate, but still in Kannada (which is yet to be supported with sufficient evidence here) - and two, who got diverted by your mention of KRV (without much base again) and that it has not performed its duties and thats why those number plates were there!

So I had to complain and I believed your opinion was baseless when it came to alleging KRV of its underperformance in this regard!

Okay, all that aside, lets say! Now while you are trying to extrapolate this mention of KRV to the fact that a Kannada number plated Bengaluru auto, and a Kannada route-plated BMTC bus are unfriendly to the masses that flock Bengaluru everyday, you're contradicting the very intention with which we want to drive autos (or any such non-public transport) away. Do we not want to ensure there's a control over this flocking that's happening to Bengaluru? Do we not want to head towards a (developed) system where in all those who want to flock to Bengaluru, sans tourists of course, should be encouraged both by system, and by the need-to-do-so, to learn the language of Bengaluru - Kannada i.e., and then only flock here? Dont you think that should be the bit that we did for Karnataka? And to that effect, shouldn't we the Praje be thinking on such lines.. of course that's going to be a far-fetched dream, but it wont be realised if we dont put our first right step ahead today!

In saying all that I am not to be perceived as "for" this number plating in Kannada business. Right now, someone said there, its a CMV act ruling, and lo! lets have it all in English. Fortunately, there's no rule that says BMTC route info should all be in English only! But I am certainly not going to agree that given a chance we should all not wish to get that rule amended, to use the right constitutional word :)

-Nijavaada

As much as i love reading rants for time-pass value i think this thread is hijacked.
Friends, can we please stick to the original topic? I am sure there are other threads where the language issues can be discussed

Ping admin: i hope its ok for me to put up this post?

-- Praveen Sundaram AkA PhotoYogi

Guys,

I am not too depressed because this thread has turned towards something that is superficially entirely different from what it was originally intended to target. So now that we're talking straight from auto number-plates, to BMTC route-boards, and relating them all to covenience of the immigrants flocking in Bengaluru, and the linguistic aspect in this (in)conveniences caused, we have to but look at the federal setup from the angle that it happens to be the reason for all this jinx around us.

So, lets all read this interesting write-up once and let our thinking go on in the background on this matter.. sometimes taking a deviation from the mainstream helps get a refreshingly new (and may be helpful) perspective of the usual stuff.

-Nijavaada

Yup..good suggestion..going that route of closi ng this thread and opening the forci ng/seduction route sounds good.

But whta about the autos which murali frst put up and the bigger bmtc signs..!!

Now that there seems to be an opinion mushrooming to close this thread, I'd like to say that Bengaluru autos are definitely the most beautiful ones, but of course the matter is that some non-KA numbered autos are cropping up amidst us, and that is surely not a good development. The system that is meant to take care of such things must act, and act NOW!

There's no role of any other body in this, however responsible it might have been towards the Kannadiga masses in various matters. But if it ends up to be true that there is an infiltration happening in the pretext of autos, and with a disguise of a number plate in Kannada, these responsible bodies will anyway come into action to protect the interests of the Kannadigas at the receiving end in this matter. Even if that happens to be in the form of influencing a responsible govt. to react in a responsible manner, or otherwise.

-Nijavaada

Not sure why Nijavaada feels that BMTC should not be used by tourists.  Maybe he/she has reasons for thinking that way.  Even Japan now has bilingual signboards.   

In general India, Karnataka and Bangalore need to decide if tourists are welcome or not.  Is this a priority sector or not?  IMHO tourism (if managed well - as in Singapore) can give livelihood to thousands of people in undeveloped areas without the government's help.  Think Africa - Kenya and Tanzania.  Cambodia (war ravaged till recently) is using tourism to get people out of poverty.   Turkey gets 19 million tourists - India gets 4.5 million.

If tourists are indeed seen as important, it then becomes very hard to decide which walks of life need English and which don't. 

There was some discussion in the TOI a few days back on why Bangalore is not popular with tourists.  The reasons are not very hard to state - expensive hotels, tourists cannot walk around, cannot cross a road in safety, cannot use BMTC, autos take you for a ride.  Why then would a tourist spend his hard earned vacation in a city such as ours?  Things can be made tourist friendly without making them local-unfriendly.  If things are tourist friendly, it benefits a lot of us - better buses, cleaner city, safer roads. 

My two paise.

Srivathsa

To be fair, I have had more decent experiences than bad ones.  And to be honest, I have not had to try to hire them at 6:00 p.m. on MG Road on a rainy day. 

I am not sure why they don't get this - there is a lot more money to be made by running their autos in a customer friendly manner.  If people start having better experiences with autos, then they will use them more.  Is this very hard to understand? 

And as in any business, there is no guarantee that after dropping someone off they will always get a return "giraki".  That has been factored into the fare. 

Not sure if anyone has been to Calicut.  No fuss about meters, no fuss about not going here and there. 

Srivathsa

What about the tourists from different states of our own country.

And what about the huge number of floating population coming to bangalore for short spans (2-4 years).

Do not make sections out of people and do not decide on your own as to who should use public transport and who should not. Let your establishment be open and let people decide what they want to use.

http://clean-and-green.bl...

I think I've been targeted for a wrong interpretation of my word. All I said was "BMTC is not meant for tourists" and I am very sure that didn't sound like this - "Tourists are banned from BMTC"!! All I meant was that BMTC currently is not a mode of transport fit for tourists (in Bengaluru) to be using.

Thinking of it practically, do you think a tourist on the fly today, with hardly any time to spare amidst his tour plan, will be able to bear the difficulty involved in waiting/catching/hanging-inside/travelling for/by a BMTC bus? Of course I do agree that it is good to plan for BMTC to be a potential mode of tourist transport, but that, as I said, is for the tourist department to think over. But IMO, I dont think a city's public transport need to be designed keeping in mind a 2-week or a 3-week tourister in town!

All said and done, of course, my comment also talked about the possibility to explore when such an event does happen when a tourist wants to use the BMTC. I dont think putting up English boards on BMTC will attract the tourist towards it!!

My basic claim is this - the way an administration works needs to be for the better of the masses that it actually is responsible for. For anything out of this premise, the admin's job is to appoint such an auxiliary body so as to make sure those problems are addressed in isolation. I definitely wont agree if you come back saying Bengaluru is a city that will survive well only when its tourism improves. The improvement has to happen in all walks, and then tourism will follow.

And, I wish to take particular exception of your comment on the rich/poor disparity you mentioned about taking buses and taxis. I think this is the stand that is making the rich to stay away from buses today in BLR. Although agreeable, a mindset that the buses are taken only by the poor, is not expected from a mind that wants to see reform. In your sense, then, do you think a poor guy will be spending so much money on tourism and come to Bengaluru? Will he not be using his money on something more important for life? I dont think your argument is congruent here. That one was surely an unconnected string!

-Nijavaada

Nijavaada, 

Not every tourist has lots of money to spend on taxis. 

What do you mean "But IMO, I dont think a city's public transport need to be designed keeping a 2-week or a 3-week tourister in town!".  What unique design elements would be there in such a system, which will help a tourist and not help a local?  Have you seen how well the Vayu Vajra service is patronized from the airport.  And it is not just tourists who use that service. 

What exactly is the problem if buses have dual language signboards.  With Kannada being in big letters and English being in smaller letters?  Does an English letter prevent us from seeing the Kannada script?  Is it a waste of paint?  How does it hurt anybody? 

Srivathsa

1) Tourists are not only from foriegn land, we also have tourists from across the country, majority of them dont fly. They may come by train, bus etc.

2) Toursists dont go only to the airport. They also need to go around the city and vayu vajra's are not sufficient.

3) Not only the tourists but also people who come to bangalore for short durations need to use the buses. Why deny them the ability to do so. Have people on this forun not travelled to any other cities apart from bangalore for a couple of days, a week, a month or even for a year. Now if you are asking those people to learn the local language just because they are here for a few days and want to use the public transport. Sorry that is dreaming.

4) And sorry but excuse me bus boards are the last place for someone to start learning the local language. There are better ways to promote languages than to push down people's throats. I have written more on this here.

By not having signages on buses in english is definitely hurting our campaign to encourage people to use the public transport. Also, Learning Kannada or for that matter any new language, to be able to speak and understand is a lot more easier than also being able to read/write.

http://clean-and-green.bl...

This comment has been moved here.

 [Admin - let us continue the discussion here. - this thread is more specifcally about Autos. Thanks]

Srivathsa,

Let me first express my gratitude to you, 'cos you have just asked a gem of a question in your last comment -

"What exactly is the problem if buses have dual language signboards.  With Kannada being in big letters and English being in smaller letters?  Does an English letter prevent us from seeing the Kannada script?  Is it a waste of paint?  How does it hurt anybody? "

Well, to begin with, I'll safely assume that we're in the new tech era, and no paint business when it comes to plates on buses. So we're saved from going over the economics of paint!

Now comes the size difference - well to an extent it does sound strange, but in the case of Kannada, a Kannadiga would have noticed this, the font of Kannada is such that a 32-size font in Kannada matches in size with a 20-size font of the Roman character-set. So obviously we're talking about matching in size, and not font sizes. That clears another point. So I am not advocating for Kannada bigger than English or anything. I am asking for better visibility/readability of Kannada than what it is today. And if economy prohibits something, then let the size of English letters go down in size - because in the long run, we expect more people in this setup/system to be able to read Kannada.

Of course yes, I do mean to include those people that have been here for more than a year or two to be able to speak/read Kannada pretty easily. If thats not possible, one can take it for granted that this person will never make a good attempt at learning Kannada even if he spends all his life on this land. But for a person who'd learn the language within such time, there's no more thinking necessary there.

Coming back to this person who thinks he "need" not learn Kannada when living it up here.. more often than not, the reason for not learning Kannada is the perception of no apparent need to do so - because the system some people here are referring to doesnt work in Kannada, at the grassroot levels. The bus that he takes everyday, displays information in kannada; The govt. form that he fills is in English (and at some places even in Hindi) in which case he doesnt even have to flip the sheet to find a Kannada version of the form. The road signs are all in English, so he finds it easy to find his way, and drive on... but all this while one can only see that we're creating more reasons for this person (not interested case) to stay away from learning Kannada.

And for once, I would like to say that a language learnt "out there" in the field where it is used, is far better than a language learnt as a language in a classroom dedicated to teach it. So its surely a better deal we're giving these migrants, to learn the local language in a much better and more effective manner. And surely a far easier way.

So, in effect, I am not saying the opinion to have BMTC boards in Kannada only is a one-fits-all solution, but the mindset that makes one think that having it in English is the only solution to whatever problem at hand,  is going to to make things tough further down in time.

-Nijavaada

Let all the buses use a consistent standardized mechanism of displaying signboards.  Let both Kannada and English signboards be prominently displayed and clearly viewable from the farthest distance possible (as per whetever distance is deemed feasible and adopted as a standard).

I find it quite amazing that some folks turn quite a few discussions into a "promote kannada" "save kannada" thing almost as if it is on the verge of extinction spoken by only a few 100 people. Friends, Kannada as a language is best left to promote itself and it will do very well for itself if it does not have outside help. Languages are beautiful, let the language take it's own course and allow it to enrich us and not get into the "promote" act.  Have the "promote" Kannada guys thought of organizing kannada skits,plays, debates and other competitions shows etc? Something to think about if you would like to promote a language, see what response you will get (who knows, you may perhaps be amazed by the response).

Otherwise we will continue to be left behind squabbling over these silly issues while other countries deliver superior, easy to use, standardized & well designed public transport systems. I think the more important questions should be what are the standards (if any) for display of route information on public transport buses - I have seen a whole variety of them... buses without sign boards, buses with signboards precariously dangling in an obtuse angle, buses with kannada scrawled over the signboard (without any route number) similar to ants crawling all over the place, buses with english route numers but the destination names in such small letters that they would perhaps require a microscope to read. Quite a few people (including me) are sometimes left clueless in their own hometown (Bangalore) when trying to take a public transport bus, but in an alien land like London are at complete ease, I was there for 4 days and completely enjoyed the public transport there hopping on and off with family in tow; it was a testament to what a great public transport network should be like.

Likewise let the number plates be displayed as per law(the motor vehicle act), end of story. I am happy that autos not following the rules are being penalized. Somebody has mentioned that in one of the earlier posts(thanks for sharing that piece of news).

Coming back to the the original topic of  autos - good, bad or ugly? Well, the bad and ulgy parts which are my top 3 complaints -
1) they sound like rockets and can put a Saturn V rocket to shame. something needs to be done about it before many people go deaf
2) when one is  near an auto,  the individual coughs and eyes water thanks to the half burnt kerosene. they are a pollution menace (air and noise pollution wise)
3) they are mean&bad drivers coming in a close third, the honour of the top 2 spots go to 1)motor cycles/scooters & 2)taxi drivers 

Three wheelers are safer than 2 wheelers, by that logic, 2-wheelers also need to be banned.

In Delhi, Jaipur,  e-Rickshaw  are runing, they are battery operated  and can carry 6 people.  For these   e-Rickshaw,   auto permit shoud not be issue.

Already few numbers are their in Bangalore.

Look at Delhi e-Rickshaw number : already crossed One Lakh number

"The popular e-rickshaws have, in fact, edged out cycle-rickshaws. They have overtaken cycle rickshaws in popularity and are giving stiff  competition to auto-rickshaws "

A battery rickshaw costs around Rs.70,000, while a cycle rickshaw costs around Rs.10,000 in Delhi.

They are shared  travel option in Delhi that costs much less than auto-rickshaws or cycle rickshaws.

Since these began operating in many New Delhi Municipal Council areas, they offered a large population of helpers and workers living in staff quarters with possibly their only mode of reasonable public transport.

The “silent” transport revolution ushered in by these vehicles apart, there are no laws to govern them. They are motorised and so cannot be treated like cycle rickshaws under municipal laws. They also use less power and so cannot be governed under the Motor Vehicles Rules and remain out of the purview of the Traffic Police.

Though the Delhi Government tried to regulate them through an order, it was struck down by courts. These battery-run vehicles therefore continue to run without any regulation. Perhaps that is why they continue to be a cheap mode of transport

Delhiites hope that these continue to provide the last mile connectivity, remain economical, are regulated and do not fall prey to the Inspector Raj, the way cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws did

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/the-easy-mile-forward/article5829372.ece?ref=sliderNews

Few days back Delhi High court order on reguarizing them :

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/high-court-pulls-up-govt-stop-passing-the-buck-regulate-citys-e-rickshaws-2/

Last year, CiSTUP submitted a report on autorickshaw survey they did. CiSTUP spent Rs. 12 lakhs on this survey that took more than a year to complete. Who has the report and where is it? Under a pile may be with lot of dust on it.

I saw couple of e-auts run by batteres, ranging from Rs. 1.15 lakh to Rs 1.4 lakh. Less noise and no pollution. Hope more of them come out replacing the noisy and polluting 2- stroke autos that are stll running.

While I greatly prefer Ola/Uber if I have to go some distance in Bangalore and am unable to take a bus for whatever reason, the same is not the case in Mumbai where taking an auto is a hassle free experience.

Besides the fact that the minimum fare is Rs. 17/-, I have never had to haggle with an autowallah - it is expected by both parties that the meter will be adhered to. This is as true at 5am in the morning when I am taking one to the airport, or late in the night (night rate surcharge is only 25%).

And the most amazing thing for a Bangalorean would be the fact that, if the fare comes to Rs 48/- and you offer a 50 buck note, you can expect to get the 2 rupees back as change.

Bangalore autowallahs are likely to be hit hard because of the general disenchantment with them. They are the culprits, but also victims of the poor enforcement of rules - even if there is an honest autofellow out there, he will be lumped with the rest and suffer the same fate.