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BMTC can make use of simple technologies to attract more commuters
Written By bharath_hegde - 4 February, 2010
Bangalore BMTC Bus suggestion Transportation public transport Bus Day
Whole of current week I have been choosing Bus instead of my Car for commuting to office. Here is been my experience and suggestions for BMTC.
My journey is between Arekere Gate and Dairy Circle on a typical week day. Between 9.30-10.30 am I have always been lucky enough to find a Volvo bus to office and journey is always comfortable. I even feel like reading a book in those 20-25 minutes. However when I want to go back from office to home (7.30 to 8.30 pm) I have never managed to find a Volvo bus and I have to wait for very long time(more than 20 mins) to find a reasonably crowded non Volvo bus. The experince has been not good.
In summary: I would prefer the bus, if following 2 conditions are satisfied: 1) I need to find a seat in the bus 2) The time to find a suitable bus is deterministic.
I have a suggestion for 2). BMTC can equip buses with GPS. The data can be fed to internet. At my office, I can check the current position of the bus and hence approximate the time bus will take to reach the nearest bus stand. I can decide when to leave from office or home, so that my waiting time for bus is reduced. If GPS is expensive for BMTC, they can equip buses with RFIDs and each bus stop would record the current position of the bus as soon as they arrive. Also bus stops can have LCD displays, which show the current position of the bus.
I would never take my car again to office, if BMTC can implement such a system.
COMMENTS
s_yajaman - 5 February, 2010 - 06:06
Syed,
Just emphasising the point that bus-stops should be numbered uniquely and put into the system so that journey and trip planning can be done.
Once all the routes are put in BMTC can visually display them on some map to see which roads, areas are neglected.
Srivathsa
Naveen - 4 February, 2010 - 10:07
Bharath_Hegde - interesting post, & welcome.
We had a discussion recently at BMTC & the general consensus had been that countdown signs at bus stops might be somewhat of an overkill & might not really be necessary, given the high costs & complications for installing RFID networks & maintaining them. Also, since each bus stop usually has multiple buses passing through it, either multiple display signs or many signs would be necessary at each stop for the various routes. Defacing or damage by vandals was also an issue. The utility value for users is somewhat limited since information will be available only upon reaching bus stops.
A cost efficient & easy option would of course be to have a time table posted at each stop with arrival times for all buses throughout the day - this is what is in practice at most bus stops around the world. Additionally, for those that need real-time information, GPRS sets could be installed on buses in a phased manner & information can be made available through internet freely & also through mobile phones with SMS facility, chargeable to users. Thus, users would have the option of reaching a bus stop just before bus arrival.
GPRS is preferable since it would also enable monitoring & congestion - this is already being done on buses installed with such sets.
Time Tables Won't be effective due to traffic.
bharath_hegde - 4 February, 2010 - 11:12
Good to know such options are already discussed with BMTC. I hope you meant GPS ( not GPRS) in the above post.
I think that installing time tables will only work well in the starting place. Due to huge jams and chaotic nature of traffic, buses will not be able to comply with the time mentioned in the time table and I think we have to accept that. So GPS will surely be a hit. By the way I agree that having time tables is even more a basic necessity.
What is the status of GPS on Volvo Buses
rkrishnan - 4 February, 2010 - 13:31
Was it tried and abandoned ?
Are these Volvo buses pre-equipped with GPS sets or are these separately installed and what is the cost of one GPS+Cellular modem module ?
Ram
Route and bus stop data base also necessary
s_yajaman - 5 February, 2010 - 05:39
I have seen some limited use of GPS data on btis.in/bus. The big problem I have is that I don't know which direction the bus is going in! That needs to be sorted out somehow.
The other important thing that BMTC needs to do given that they now have ownership of bus-stops is to number each one of them in some methodical manner and maintain a data base of that as well. Each bus route will then become a sequence of bus stops. A journey plan then becomes easy. I can e.g. find alternate routes from say Jayanagar to ITPL (one maybe via Bangalore Club and the other via BTM Layout.).
The bus stop database itself can have a number of fields pertaining to maintenance data, advertising data if applicable, etc.
Srivathsa
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