BMTC (Dis)connective route

Well, that is also a point to ponder. Volvo buses are extremely rare in Yelahanka, and those operating there are meant only for Aircraft Passengers, not for General Public. If Volvo buses are introduced in Yelahanka for non-airport public, then people who can afford it can buy daily Volvo passes, and utilize the same for more than one Volvo buses as well; since daily Volvo bus passes are available only inside Volvo buses.

Perhaps Mumbai type sky-walks like the ones suggested here for Silk-Board jn, and here for Domlur-IRR jn, could provide the answer.

@ Srinivas - I am on the Traffic Advisory Committee, convened by the Addl Commr, Traffic, which meets every 3rd Saturday of alternate months, and I am already taking up these matters there. You and other bus users could, in addition, pursue these matters through ORRCA, ELCIA, etc.

And, what do you think of the sky-walk solutions (check again, in the post above)? If you more people think they make sense, we can perhaps push the powers that be into providing them, may be at all fly-over junctions, across the city.

Murali Sir,

Skywalk makes lot of sense. Under pass is also OK, but looking at our underpasses constructed, skywalks makes lot of sense.

We need them in these places where people change buses:

1. Hudson / Corporation Circle

2. Jayadeva

3. Around Hebbal Flyover

4. Silkboard

5. Marathalli Bridge

6. Nayandahalli ORR - Mysore Road Junction

7. In front of Mysore Satellite Bus Stand, various places on the so far identified as Big 10 Roads and ORR which are eventually going to be signal free.

8. A single skywalk connecting Majestic bus stand skywalk to Railway station skywalk to avoid multiple step down and step up as well as the dirty underpass in City Railway Station.

@ Srinivas - I am a founder member of PRAJA, and currently the President of PRAJA-RAAG (Research, Analysis, Advocacy Group - furthering on the discussions at ‘praja.in’) - for more on what we are, compared to other sies, civil society groups, etc, check here).

It's partly because of my PRAJA activities that I was invited onto the TAC. I have now attended some four of the TAC's bi-monthly (once in two months) meetings, and most of the happenings there I have posted on PRAJA. The TAC is convened by Dr Saleem, the Addl Commissioner, Traffic, and generally chaired by the Police Commissioner himself. Now, since smooth flow of traffic requires support from all the other major 'stake-holders' (in my opinion, very few of the representatives of these organisations act in ways becoming of a person who has a stake in the city, and consequently, I don't quite agree with the term being applied to the organisations; citizens are the real stake-holders) in the city also, Dr Saleem has managed to get all of them to send their representatives for the meetings too. But, it is rarely even the second rung officials attending, and consequently, implementations are slow in delivery, the biggest culprit here being the BBMP. But, for all its limitations, this is the only city-wide platform, constituting of all the stake-holders, that is making an attempt at citizen consultations, for which the credit should obviously go to Dr Saleem.

BESCOM, MD, Mr Manivannan (who blogs openly on PRAJA) perhaps took the lead; but, that is limited to power matters alone. Also, Dr Saleem's predecessor, Mr Praveen Sood was the first to bring a government organisation onto 'facebook'.

Now, while I can make suggestions at the TAC meetings, there are no guarantees they will be accepted.

My suggestions for bus services are as per the schematic accessible here, and a typical commute using public transport is detailed here. While this could entail an extra trip (switch from one bus to another) for the commuter, it will ensure a much faster commute overall. The switch-over needs to be facilitated, like by having the Mumbai type sky-walks, apart from good bus shelters (diverting the bus off a route, for the convenience of a few, will invariably be at the cost of the majority, and as such, avoidable). This was more or less what Dr Ashwin Mahesh had in mind when he facilitated the Big-10 concept. He was eventually hoping to get all parallel routings merged with the Big-10 routings in order to increase the frequency of operations. And, for high frequency feeder services, the inevitable answer, according to me, is private participation. If you see reason behind that argument, perhaps you would like to sign this petition?

The same problem is present for people traveling from the section of Bellary road, south of Hebbal junction, to offices on ORR. This section is made worse by the need to walk across a railway line, without foot overbridge, the market and open toilets.

Because of the railway line I dont think there can be bus service like in the northern section of Hebbal. Not sure what might be a good solution.

Mr Srinivas Rao & others,

Indeed this is a real problem for bus commuters & I don't think skywalks can solve problems in a majority of cases - what if the distances are large (over 500m or close to 1 km or more) ? What about the inconvenience of ascending & descending for older people & women /children ?

Skywalks may have been built in Mumbai since there really is no other choice when you have millions upon millions of commuters filling in like sardines into hundreds of trains - there is bound to be severe hardships for all commuters, but I don't believe Bangalore must be similar.

In my opinion, the answer to this is to push BDA /BBMP into creating slip lanes for use by buses to access the intersection points on ground level & have bus stops there. Pedestrian crossings with traffic calming measures will also be necessary to ensure safety at street /lane crossings - if vehicles are slowed down due to pedestrian crossings, so be it.

Clearly, not enough thought or planning has gone into commuter conveniences when designing these monstrous structures since they seem to have planned it purely with the objective of speedy vehicle movements only.

The new flyovers being built at Agara, Iblur, Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, Kadubeesanahalli, Hennur rd jn, etc are better in that there are surface lanes & buses can stop at the intersection on ground level whilst other vehicles use the jump ramps a level above.

See this new gargantuan structure coming up at Nayandahalli - pedestrian amenities seem completely absent whilst there are multiple tiers of ramps for vehicles. There is also an elevated Metro station coming up at this junction. How are people to change over without risks or undue inconveniences ?

I don't think TAC or BMTC can do much to address these deficiencies. It might be best to write a letter to Commissioner, Dept of Urban Land Transport (DULT) with copy to BBMP /BDA, etc. & follow it up - I think we need to make a start somewhere & push for this. I'm willing to join you in this, along with any others that may support the effort.

IDS /Vasanth /Pranav - can we move on this thro' DULT ?

Deepak has already stated (on 6th Sept - check above) that 'I feel, having mumbai kinds of skywalks makes a lot of sense, in current situation, but that doesn't mean, authorities can do away with footpath on either sides of the road, that has to be the first priority while doing any road work', and I agree with him totally, there.

The Mumbai type sky-walk has been offered as a solution, where the fly-overs have already been built without taking into consideration the needs of pedestrians and bus users.

There is absolutely no gainsaying the fact that proper facilities for pedestrians and bus users need to be planned as part of the fly-over design itself. If anyone can come up with suitable designs, I expect CiSTUP will be happy to take it forward with the government agencies executing the job.

And, as for crowds, if you go to K R puram, Madiwala, or Domlur, between 9 & 10 AM on any working day, you'll notice that we are fast catching up with Mumbai.

Perhaps, it is time people gave up complaining, particularly to the types who just can't bother with responding to them, and started demanding that they step aside and allowed others to do the job they just can't get around to doing properly, while enjoying a monopoly on top of it all. Check this.

@Srinivas

Have sent out a twitter message reading as below:

AddlCPTraffic @CPBlr request go thro' the debate on BMTC commuter issues at Hebbal, and try ameliorating them - http://praja.in/hi/node/4909#comment-37171

May be you could re-tweet my tweet. Bangalore Police has now earned a reputation for communicating through social media (particularly twitter), and there's a good chance they will read the tweets (and the linked posts). And, more the number of re-tweets, the better the chances of a read, as well as a response/ action.

Likewise, you could post on Traffic Police facebook wall/ timeline too (Only problem here is they may remove them).

I am more and more using this route to reach out to the powers that be - ie have the debate on PRAJA (which undoubtedly has its merits), and tweet the link to the concerned officials.

Leave alone being on twitter, facebook, etc, BMTC's web-site does not even provide the contact particulars of the MD. Either that's all they care, or the incumbent has decided that there's no changing the ways of the (dis)organisation.

Once again, clearly brings out the need to open up the sector for effective competition from private players (check here), which alone can change its ways.

I had personnaly discussed and sent email to MD Ekrup Kaur  about the BMTC buses going belwo flyover while coming from Yelahanka at Hebbal.

She had asked their operation Manager to look into that and  I got mail that it has  been implemented.

Few months back,  they had put  up board to divert all  BMTC buses below flyover at Hebbal bit after one month, its back to normal.

Now also,  when flyover  is jammed with traffic,  many BMTC drivers go below flyover  and climb the Hebbal flyover.  This is much better for drivers as  they get  easy climb so that they can drive smoothly.

I dont know why BMTC is not enforcing this going below flyover.