Non-disconnected Ring Road Routes

hi,

iam regular bus commuter from AECS layout to Manyata tech park in Hebbal, all the buses mentioned here all ply on the ring road, so in the morn..esp ..u have to take some bus which ply to marathahalli and walk up to 1 km either side of the bridge to take these buses.. it is actually tiring to carry laptops and walk 1-2 kms.. to catch a bus like 500A/500D..that is why most of my colleagues and me do not take these buses in the morn..

now BMTC has introduced 500DB volvo buses from hopefarm to Hebbal thro' AECS layout ..but the catch is frequency is low and the same issue discussed here many times.. we dont know what are the timings..BMTC website and call center have no clue on the timings..when i called up they asked me to call up the depot..

Bus services with unpredicatble timings (which sometimes means waiting more than an hour for the goddamn bus), buses which do not stop at designated spots, roads filled with construction debris (esp. for flyover/underpass construction) which make reaching to/from bus stops including crossing roads very painful/dangerous, rash drivers of public and private vehicles who make roads unsafe for pedestrians are only some problems which I can remember off-hand. Even the lure of the air-con comfort of the volvo buses (at the cost of a big hole in the pocket) does not help when you don't know when (whether) you will get a bus and if you do, whether you will find a seat (why else do we pay the volvo fares?).

I tried passionately with an open mindeset to travel only in BMTC buses for a couple of months and my experience (major part of it being on the ORR between silkborad and Hebbal) was not very promising. After losing several hours of time, getting drained physically and emotionally, and no perceptibel economic benefits (last mile more than makes up for the gains made by travelling in "cheap" buses). Forcefully, I had to start using my private transport again.

@Manjari, Srivatsava,

We should meet BMTC for further discussion soon.

K.V.Pathy

I tried passionately with an open mindeset to travel only in BMTC buses for a couple of months and my experience (major part of it being on the ORR between silkborad and Hebbal) was not very promising. After losing several hours of time, getting drained physically and emotionally, and no perceptibel economic benefits (last mile more than makes up for the gains made by travelling in "cheap" buses). Forcefully, I had to start using my private transport again

but the catch is frequency is low and the same issue discussed here many times.. we dont know what are the timings..BMTC website and call center have no clue on the timings..when i called up they asked me to call up the depot..

I myself used to take the Big-10 until a few months back. But, when I wanted to go beyond Mayo Hall, I had to engage an auto, since, strangely, after the 'Kendra Saarige' (or whatever that was called) flopped (due to poor planning as also sabotage), no replacement has been thought of yet.

Once I was waiting near 'the HOSMAT' (near the football stadium), around 7 PM, to catch a G-3 to Koramangala. After about a 10 minute wait, a bus showed up. But, with the traffic light at the junction ahead turning green, the driver just drove past leaving me and a few others stranded. Some adventurous few cut across the traffic and jumped on when the bus slowed down in the traffic. But, that of course is not for me. A whole lot of buses other than G-3 went past. But, not knowing where they were headed, given the highly 'encrypted' destination boards of the regular BMTC buses (Blackberry would be proud of the job, I should think), I was vary about boarding them. In the event, I landed up trudging all the way upto the Games village, on poorly paved and ill-lit side-walks (that is, wherever it exists), before a friend driving past noticed me and gave me a lift. After that incident, I have more or less given up on the Big-10 too.

The 'neo-pseudo-Socialists' will perhaps say that I suffer from a mind-set against travelling in public transport buses, and that's the root cause of the problem. But, then what about Prabha and Ramesh, and so many more, who have been repeatedly posting similar experiences on PRAJA?

@ Pathy Sir - Even with all of the above and more, you still believe any good will come out of talking to BMTC officials? I know you still manage all your travel using BMTC services. But, Sir, you are a rare exception. And, I am sure you also agree that the city could do with better bus services. In fact, the city owes it to people like you.

And, not just better, it has to improve multi-fold. And, very plainly, that just can't happen with a monopoly government service provider. Besides, bus services are too vital an infrastructure a sector for it (and the city) to be denied the gains from the services of professional service providers. Their entry needs to be systematically facilitated. We need to be demanding that.

Even if they may charge higher (which need not necessarily be, if the government's facilitation is properly targeted, and also because of resulting operational efficiencies), the ultimate monthly commuting bill of even a poor family can become much lower, with dependence on auto's reducing drastically. For more, check this
 

And, very plainly, that just can't happen with a monopoly government service provider.

This should extend to railways as well. 

 Well, we all know the problems of BMTC. Buses do not stop in bus stop, they will make the passengers to run behind the bus, changing of the buses costs the passengers more especially with the current fare structure, our poor junctions and poor bus stops all makes it very difficult to change the buses.

There was an argument by ss87 that nobody would travel more than a semi circle, rather they will take the straight routes / Big 10s. But, there are lots of cases which do not address this problem, such as people working in Manyata Tech Park and staying in BSK III Stage, they have to do a 2/3 changeovers. Every changeover is a pain.

Apart from this, there is lot of competition among buses, especially volvos to get the 'girakis' and in that mood, they do not ride the buses by keeping the time sense of the passengers. 'ITPL,ITPL', 'Banashankari, Banashankari' is the usual calls like private buses.

Key is to have disconnected buses running full circle with strict monitoring of the time gap between buses. This will improve the safety of passengers in our chaotic junctions like silkboard and Banashankari, anxiety of hopping onto next bus (will I get or not), effeciency of the buses if monitored strictly will improve.

Bendy / Trailer A/C buses should also be introduced to reduce overcrowding and the buses should run at a frequency which should be strictly monitored via GPS by BMTC between morning 5AM - midnight 12AM. Bangalore does not sleep till 12 and wakes up at 5 almost like Mumbai. 

Sameway S1 and S2 which had good routing was withdrawn without announcement to public.

Disconnected K1,K2,K3 runs which again leads to passengers hopping on and hopping off. Why not connected service?  

Full circle buses with frequency will not cause crowding. Otherway around we can have various starting points for the full circle buses like Silkboard to Silkboard, Banashankari to Banashankari, Hebbal to Hebbal, Kengeri to Kengeri.

Busdays should be oriented in introducing these kind of new and innovative ways to improve bus service  helping all sector of people right from coolies to techies. Except for the introduction of few shuttles to connect to trunk routes, nothing special was done. Nowadays, BMTC is having no topic for Busdays.