HOT TOPICS

SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES

Dedicated bus lanes - a presentation for BBMP

355

Written By Naveen - 16 May, 2008

Traffic Bangalore BMTC BBMP BMLTA BRTS suggestion public transport

I made a presentation yesterday to Mr.Subramanya (BBMP Commisioner) at his office about the single bus lane idea. He was quite interested and said he would discuss with his committee and revert. He also agreed very well that the solution was not to build or widen more roads or flyovers. He also mentioned some problems that are being faced with the underpasses construction on Bellary road - the actual costs were much higher than anticipated because numerous problems had cropped up - conduits for sewerage, water, telephone, electricity, etc that were marked incorrectly on admittedly very old drawings that now need to be re-aligned !

[Here is the presentation, prepared with a lot of help from folks and material here on Praja]

The real issue with traffic is that these umpteen measures when implemented actually worsen things - I prefer to call flyover construction or privatization of bus services as short term or stop-gap. The numerous flyovers - have they improved things? If they have for traffic movement, then they have also induced more traffic & bred a new cult of 'trigger' happy drivers, honking away & breaking rules with impunity in their care-a-dam attitudes, increasing alarmingly in nos. as the days pass.

Will privatization of bus services solve all problems? Though it might seem more efficient initially, in the long run, it will breed a new cult of similar drivers with even larger machines since profits will be linked to quicker services, and quicker services will be dependent on the traffic situation in a vicious cycle.

What is the solution? Everybody talks of improvement in public transport, but where & how will it 'localize' traffic to manageable levels, given that their quality & efficiency is dependent on traffic conditions? Today, traffic is a nightmare as there is no 'local' traffic - vehicles ply from one end of the city to the other end, all across & use all available roads.

As I have advocated all along, I very strongly believe that unless bus (be it private or public) is prioritized with lanes - and buses combine with the Metro to offer a better option to get from one end to the other end of Bangalore in quicker time, in more comfort, and at lesser cost - nothing will change.

Only if initiatives that address this are unleashed (& addressing this is not easy) will things come to order as they would sound the death knell for the 2-wheeler, the auto, the SUVs, the mini-buses, the cars. Till then, let's buckle up & drive, & hope we arrive safe !

COMMENTS

Bus lane on Mahakavi Kuvempu Road

mcadambi - 16 May, 2008 - 05:09

The BJP candidate from Malleswaram, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, told me that nearly 4000 buses use the Malleswaram circle corridor (now an underpass) everyday. I suggested to him having a dedicated bus line starting from Malleswaram circle till Navrang circle and further, streching all the way on Mahakavi Kuvempu Road.

There is space for  a BRT corridor on either sides of the road. This will provide a huge incentive for people who use two wheelers, cars to shift to public transport. 

Good Presentation Naveen

Vasanth - 16 May, 2008 - 05:54

BRT can be easily implemented on 1 way roads which Bangalore is filled with. We have to identify these wide one way roads.

Fantastic presentation. The

orange_4444 - 16 May, 2008 - 06:57

Fantastic presentation. The concept of a smallish circular route is an interesting one and can be used elsewhere - that needs only one lane instead of two.

BRT & Metro for Delhi Comparison

Vasanth - 16 May, 2008 - 08:07

Please watch this IBN Live report-

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=9AdQLyDv2oo

Electric driven Buses for dedicated bus lane service....

tmondal45 - 4 May, 2014 - 13:05

Hi,
 
I have one suggestion which could help to replace the huge cost of building Metro Rail service in Bangalore by improving the concept of dedicate Bus lane service.
 
Recently BMTC has introduced the electric VOLVO service for ITPL route.We may utilize this electric engine of the volvo buses more effectivly with the below approach (we may take help from TATA,MAHINDRA,ASHOK LEYLAND for this approach).
 
Other than running the electric buses on charged battery, we can build dedicated lane for buses with electric overhead wire services. It's similar like train overhead electric wires from which the buses will get the electricity supply for running it's motor/engine. So, we don't have to run the buses on battery backup and can directly get the supply of elelctricity continuously from the overhead wire.
 
I think our Indian manufacturer can easily modify the engine of the buses to run directly from the supplied electricity.So, the cost is expected to be less compare to present VOLVO electric buses which needs to charge for atleast six hours for functioning.As the oil engine is no longer be used the weight of the buses could be less.
 
I have one more suggestion,if we can reduce the width of the present buses and make it double connector (like two compartment bus) to accomodate same number of passesgers then the space required for the dedicated road for this electric supplied buses will be less.We can easily biuld it on the existing road or by slightly widening the road.
 
As the width of this buses are less, we can build fly over in junction specific to this buses very easily with low cost and faster. As a current resident of Kundanhalli,I am expecting a fly over at graphite India signal and kundanhalli gate signal for this approach.
 
Could you please check and discuss it with the concern BMTC person and request them to check it with Indian manufacturer like Tata,Mahindra,Ashok Leyland for this new model of buses (this buses will have the existing robber tyre,only change is the electric engine which can run directly from the over head electric wire supply)?
 
It could be brand India for Bangalore to introduce green energy buses to the world.
I am expecting your feedback on my idea and it can be negative also. It will atleast encourage us to work with BMTC to make it much more better organization.
 
Tanking You,
Tanmoy Mondal
Phone# 9591011170

PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!