BMTC - good things announced

2 Marcopolo buses will be launched on Nov 1st. Read that Non A/C buses costs around 32 lakhs and A/C bus costs 55 lakhs. Nothing announced yet on BRT!!!.

Reading the post, I almost set out do a 'dollu kunita'. TTMC's, bus station in every locality, a depot every 5km - what more can the commuter ask for? Doesn't matter if he can't figure out which of the 1800 odd routes will take him to his destination, with or without help from the non-functioning call-centre, or the non-readable destination boards on the buses. In fact, just dump the trip, and shop till you drop at the TTMCs, availing all the grand discounts schemes on offer from BIG BAZAAR. Way to go BMTC, Yedi, Ashoka!!! Muralidhar Rao

A couple of days back i talked to a BMTC driver about GPS being fitted on buses. He told me that 3-4 buses from his depot were fitted with GPS devices. Because of this GPS device, it seams that the drivers couldnt stop at the last stops for more than the 5 mins (or may be the stipulated time). Failing which a BMTC enforcement squad use to take them to task. Also it seams that they were warned if they happened to take a different route than the actual one (sometimes these buses to avoid traffic and also passengers!!) take small detours. Obviously he was cribbing about this :) I hope someday all BMTC buses will be fitted with GPS devices.

BMTC has delivered and can deliver; but only what they want and in their own way. Not in the way you or I will want or the way that is beneficial to public. I can predict today, that they will not accept to being a feeder service and compliment the metro/CRS/mono/Tram. They, being the people who have moved people in Bangalore since the ages, will consider their prerogative to throw a few buses around the metro stations as charity and continue to make 2000 more routes and establish their kingdom. This will be the undoing of the opportunity that lies in front of us. If BMLTA cannot redefine BMTC routing we have lost the war for a better future.

TTMC fetches revenue because it is nothing more than a shopping complex. This revenue will compensate in the balance sheet for all the bloat that the organization carries on the cost front. What will a bus bay fetch? Better traffic movement and citizen comfort. Where will they show that on the balance sheet?

For some reason no one in Bangalore seams to be worried about bus bays. A few constructed on the Ring Road are rarely used. The ORR (in most stretches) has enough place to accommodate bus bays. They just need to be planned. Hopefully in the ORR re-asphalting/repair project started by BDA they will also construct the bus bays. The newly bus bays created on the stretch between Mekhri circle and Hebbal flyover are haphazardly planned and are completely useless (will take a few pictures and put them up). Above all this, BBMP wants to rebuild bus shelters (not bus bays) - when most of the previous shelters were in pretty good state. Needless to say - it will only shelter the pockets of few people. When will things change and for once people will work for the better cause of the society. Murali Sir, The GPS will atleast put some fear in to the minds of BMTC drivers. Yes i am not that optimistic to hope it will bring overnight changes. Regarding your views of abolishing BMTC "monopoly" - i am with you :) - but first comes the regulatory framework - let that be in place. Rithesh Prajasevaka

I keep reading about this demand to have bus bays. The prime reason behind it seems more to do with keeping the traffic moving (no one argues for them to be in place because they make it any easier for the bus user). But dedicated bus bays need roads with additional width. I have compiled this document to show what happens in London, a city where buses carry 6.5 million people per day - http://better.pune.google... This does not mean drivers of buses in Bangalore / Pune can stop where they like, they still need to get close and parallel to the bus stops. So I am not playing the devils advocate here. Secondly, what should an ideal bus stop be like? This compilation should put my views across - http://better.pune.google... Look at the non-sense MMRDA has come up with in Mumbai. MMRDA has all the money in the world as it seems - a modern bus stop, all jazzed up and one where the entire footpath is taken up A bit of realism will help. Not every thing has to come from Flash Gordon comics (I am sorry this is my take on some of the designs for the elevated Metro stations). ASJ

Naveen is right, car drivers and 2 wheeler drivers should respect buses and give way for them. In this hapazordal Bangalore traffic, riding a cute small car with powersteering itself is so difficult. There are many signals on the uphills where one has to maintain half clutch. Managing so many passengers with few buses without powersteering and no handbrakes like cars and cutting through the traffic with such a huge body is not an easy task. Hats off to those drivers. Car drivers and 2 wheelers should give way to the buses. At the same time, our buses needs to be advanced like the Delhi BRT green buses. Traffic should be designed for bus lanes wherever possible (not necessarily BRTS) such as KG Road and Residency Road to accomodate easy driving.

Vasanth - If they responded to you readily, why don't you lead a team to interact with them on a regular basis, and see if you can get them to implement the many suggestions thrown up by PRAJA members?

Simultaneously, I'll lead a team demanding competition.

Essentially, what we need is multi-pronged approaches towards improving the services in this most vital infrastructure sector.

Muralidhar Rao

No one has to agree with what I suggest. But if views are at odds, then please help us agree with the other view. I will continue to do my bit here - Firstly, do read the 2 liner where I state clearly that I have not intent of playing the devlis advocate. Secondly, the compilations I provided, present one practical challenge when it comes to implementing bus bays, that of road width. Thirdly, see the two images below. Both these bus stops are part of videos I request everyone to see in the context of this thread. And Now go to my video on Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre http://praja.in/blog/asj/... and pay attention to section from 1 minute 34 seconds until 2:20 seconds. But pay particular attention to what happens at 2:04 seconds when the bus driver signals / indicates right to 'move on' - note how until this happened vehicles passed the bus when safe but slowed down to let the bus move on when its driver was ready. Now the same bus stop is in action on another video titled 'courtesy aka Gandhigiri'. Go to http://praja.in/blog/asj/... and pay note to section starting at 6 minutes 48 seconds. Here I explain the unwritten rule of using courtesy to deal with bottle necks. When you reach 7:09 notice the same bus stop, with bus dropping / picking passengers. See here, because of the oncoming traffic, no car behind the bus attempted to overtake the stationary bus. If you go to my compilation on road layouts and look at the one where I use a 8 meter wide road to demonstrate different ways of using this small width, you will see one image with two bus bays - these like the images above have bus bays. Note the hatched road markings, this means cars may cross over if need be. But first in UK, no one parks near bus bays allowing buses to stop in the bus bays and as seen in the video, 90% or more follow the newly introduced rule 198 of Highway code where cars have to give way to buses. In India, from the bus drivers perspective, vehicles occupy most space around bus stops, making it impossoible to get perfectly parallel to bus stops. Secondly, if they did get close to bus stops they can't move out quickly enough as overtaking vehhicles do not have the decency to give priority to buses. Add lack of power steering to this and see what trouble the bus drivers may face (as a psychiatrist I always put myself in others shoes to understand them better). Now coming back to 20 buses and 20 minnutes argument - 20 buses would carry 20x40 (if not 60) people = 800 people against how many by cars? If we extend this logic to BRTS models and say, a bus has frequency of one bus every 5 so dedicated lanes are unused for 5 minutes then no one would buy the idea of bus priority. Now I pass the ball back to your court - take two roads one 3+3 lane and one 1+1 lane where buses ply. If the roads have similar width throughout, show exactly how you will carve out a dedicated bus bay without having the obstruct traffic - and this should be without compromise in pedestrian facilities as per IRC norms (I have posted these separately). This may help people like me get convinced more easily. Good luck. ASJ

BMTC seriously has run out of ways to number busses. Now they are just going haywire! When Volvos were launched, the numbers were V335E etc etc... Now MarcoPolo busses are MP254....etc Is BMTC going to number busses after the manafacturers? I would be surprised! I would prefer if the route no. was left as it is, without any change/abbrevation! Everyone, knows by looking at the bus that it is a Vaayu Vjra or Marco Polo, and hence they know what bus to afford. In the long run, I forsee busses of only 1 class - MC or VV types. Do away with chitty chitty bang bang busses! Maybe they should just have two lines - red line and Blue Line, and they have respective colours. Right now we Blue, Red, Silver, Pink, Green and Dark blue busses! We need some kind of cordination!

While driving on the Outer Ring Road, Hebbal to KR puram bridge , i noticed that work on the Bus Bays has started near nagawara and kalyanagar. It was good to see some action happening.