BangaloreBus

didn't know what would be a good place to put this one...its not really an idea, its more of a demand for improvement, so this blog is not. Could have put it as a note on FB, which it mostly will end up to be...

anyways, so this is about the bus system in Bangalore, and i'll try to be as constructive as possible (but might just end up being really critical because it pisses me off)

so first the good things...

1. the Red city Volvo's - first city to start it i guess, with a fleet of 50 Volvos, they are comfortable and cheap, fast and the routes are good as well.
2. The routes - they have feeder routes, circular routes, track routes and what all...the idea is that instead of having a point to point service have two different types of service. One which takes you from outskirts to the center of the city, and then circular routes through out the city. It would work perfectly in a well planned city (circular city, business district in the center kinds) but Bangalore is not, there is a business district in each area, and so its not possible just to have a spokes with concentric circles kind of a route map and cater to all...still going somewhere.
3. The Bus day's - This started about an year ago, where on every 4th (now i think its first Wednesday of the month), the number of buses increase dramatically. To start off with i think this was more of a pilot to test demand, congestion et al, but now that it has been in Pilot mode for an year, not sure where its going. Anyways what i really liked about the Bus Day was the campaigning, it was on the Radio, there were posters behind every bus in Bangalore (and thus very very hard to miss), not even that, the posters were quiet attractive. A lot of the big IT firms were contacted about it, so that they can tell their employees, my firms environmental committee sent a mailer to all. I liked the fact because government agencies don't really do a great job of advertising the good work they do. 

Now the bad and my suggestions on how to make it good:

1. 1. Remove the brown buses please - the Brown bus, well thats the cheapest bus in Bangalore, where prices are about 50% of the actual costs...how do they keep the prices low, well, one, by running it in loss, secondly, but not having a conductor and thirdly, not maintaining the buses till they break down (this is a guess, because if u have taken a travelled in the bus, once you get down your body still keeps on vibrating).
   Anyways so, the idea behind the brown buses is very noble and govt like, give the poor a cheap means of transport, but that cheap mode of transport give bigger problems. I don't mind the 'buses not maintained' part, what i do mind is the absence of the conductor, because in his / her absence, the driver collects the money. So every time the bus stops and people get on it, the driver starts driving, issuing tickets, collecting money and giving change at the same time...you can imagine his concentration on the road. They drive slow, blocking the entire road, and recklessly, every time he has a tiff with someone who doesn't have change, the bus moves violently, scaring the hell out of everyone else outside the bus. So my suggestion, remote the brown buses or at least put a conductor in them. You are anyways in loss, a little more won't hurt.
2. Change the attitude of the drivers - Now don't take me wrong, i appreciate the drivers and conductors, they are all friendly, they mostly don't have any prejudices, and they do a hell of a job driving in that traffic all day long, with people shouting at them all the time. but its this good attitude that i have a problem with, the buses will stop anywhere if they see passengers, and this is because they want to help people, this is the old Bangalore attitude. All good, but what about the traffic which comes to a stand still behind. Or simply gets squeezed and has to brake violently, when the bus swerves suddenly from the right most lane towards the footpath because they see someone waving. Yes they do that...The stops should on be scheduled, at bus stops. Not for anyone and everyone, and surely not at bus stops where there are none, domlur flyover, jeevanbheema nagar, middle of intermediate ring road...What will that do, people will to walk a bit more...well if you don't like that, you are gonna hate my next suggestion.
3. Reduce the number of bus stops...on Airport road there are at least 6 bus stops in that 2 km stretch...and every bus makes a stop at every stop...thats just idiotic. How do you expect the buses to gain any speed if all it does is stop at a bus stop, get passengers, move to the right lane and immediate move to the footpath for the next stop?? and why have so many stops, i don't think in Bangalore weather walking 500 mts is a big deal. I know you'd say old people can do it, there are no footpaths and stuff, but people do it everywhere else, and there are footpaths, just full of hawkers and garbage, but thats another topic. My point is that sometimes you need to force people to adopt somethings. Why can't people walk, its not that big a deal, its good for health and its good for the environment. 
4. A solution to most of above problems, something which as worked really well in parts fo the world, including aapnu amdavad, is dedicated bus lanes. On Long straight roads like Old Airport Road, Intermediate ring road, Mysore road et al, why not just have the left most lane dedicated for buses. The buses have to stick to that lane, and no other vehicle can come on that road. That ways they don't interfere with other buses. It also takes care of the buses competing within themselves, there no where to go, they have to follow each other. In addition, have fixed stop over times, bus will stop only for 1 minute. Well this is a classic problem of bus movement, even if buses start from the first stop at fixed intervals, within a few subsequent stops, they all are together. This is because when the first bus reached the second stop, all passengers try to get on to it, and so it has to make a longer stop, by which time second bus has already reached, but there are no passengers left. So first bus is bursting and late, second is empty and slowed down. Two ways out, one have fixed stop overs, or have a very good information system, which tells waiting passengers location of buses, time of arrival et al. First is a forceful method, second is more sophisticated and thats exactly why i think we are not ready for it. First is simple to achieve, just have automatic doors (already there on all buses) and well trained drivers. Dedicated bus lanes might seems like a waste of space, but with the number of buses in Bangalore, am sure even a dedicated bus lane will have buses bumper to bumper. It needs a lot of planning, but if Ahmedabad is taken as an example, after a lot of opposition, it has sorted out the traffic on roads quiet a bit. And that is in a city with no traffic rules, Bangalore is far better in those terms. Try it i say. 

so thats it, have been thinking of doing this for some time, because it pisses me off when buses cut me off, and drive rashly, but tried to be as objective as possible.