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The 'Last Mile' myth
Written By Naveen - 26 June, 2011
Bangalore Bus Bus Stops Analysis Last Mile Transportation public transport public transport Bus metro footpaths
I think the many repeated questions raised about 'Last Mile Connectivity' is more of a creation by the very large affluent private vehicle loving public in this city that loathes walking even short distances to & from bus stops, rather than reality.
For example, in places like Mumbai, Mangalore & Chennai, there are people that easily walk upto 1.5km for PTs & sometimes even 2km, wheras in Bangalore, even distances of less than 1.0km is viewed as a serious "last mile" problem since it compares poorly with private vehicles for mobility that everyone has gotten used to.
In Mumbai, ascending & descending stairs at train stations & walking to bus stops can be more strainous than the exertion of walking over a km, but most people do it as a matter of course & without any fuss everyday amidst crowded & very uncomfortable conditions - & these include many well-off office executives, too, who prefer trains to avoid the time delay & strain of driving long distances through crowded roads. For many residents in suburbs such as Chandivli, Powai & Marol, bus access is well over a km but they walk anyway to take a bus to get to the train station, stand & travel within packed trains & walk more at the stations (both ends).
In Mangalore, buses ply only on well patronised main thorougfares. On NH-17, between Kadri & Pumpwell (2km), there are no buses decades on due to lack of sufficient number of patrons. The story is the same at Ullal, Hoige bazaar, Marnamikatte, etc. Thus, people living in or around these areas are forced to walk well over a km to the nearest bus stop.
Even abroad, the walk component on a trip can be considerable, even in cities that have good PT systems. In fact, real estate prices are dependent on how close or far the home is from the nearest train station or bus stop. There are residential buildings in New York that are far removed from the subway in Queens & Brooklyn, but people walk anyways, but pay lower rentals due to the inconvenience of the location. This does not necessarily mean that buses must be run there, despite the poor patronage.
I don't believe that it's possible to run buses in narrow roads within residential or interior areas with insufficient loads to address the so-called 'last mile' problem for all - any form of PT has this deficiency & this must be accepted as a reality with PT.
Given these examples, why do we find it so hard to accept the fact that buses can only be run where roads are wide enough & where there are sufficient number of users ?
This aside, no large city can manage with only buses for PT - Bangalore is perhaps the only large city of 8 million people that is still trying to do it. All large cities have train systems or Metros on exclusive tracks to move people faster. Buses in mixed traffic can never match the efficiencies of such train systems over long distances.
COMMENTS
ashok_n,
Opposite to Meenakshi Temple, 200 meters after Meenakshi mall, there is a road called the Kammanahalli road.... There is definitely a BMTC bus service on this road, but since with the infinite wisdom of BMTC that all buses have to start from Majestic or Market, the frequencey is say once in 45 mins- 1hr.
Same is the case with any of the left or right turns on Bannerghatta road or Hosur road or Kanakapura road. Vijaya Bank colony, Arakere, JP Nagar 7,8,9 th phases, Hulimavu, Begur everywhere you go in the outskirts, the issue is the same - Big buses negotiating small lanes (hats off to the patience of BMTC drivers), less frequency because the buses have to go all the way to Majestic, and therefore non-optimal usage.
Unfortunately, this is true for all cities - only the main thoroughfares in cities have very frequent services, not the side streets since frequent services will have much fewer users & would be unviable, even in Finland (Helsinki) as mentioned above by akauppi.
Start mini-buses/vans which do not have to travel more than 5 kms. There is no other way
See this thread - it might be unviable & lot of subsidy would be needed if frequent minibus /van services have to be operated.
dvsquare,
In mumbai, many a times, people take an auto, reach the nearer railway station, take the train to their office stations, get down there, take another auto (sometimes its a shared auto or taxi, because many people going to same area for work), and all convenient and comfortable.
Contrary to what you state, travel by trains in Mumbai is highly uncomfortable, particularly during peak hours - people travel on rooftops, hang from window rails & even crowd spaces between coaches. Mumbai has 60% people living in slums whereas bangalore has less than 10% (lowest for all metro cities in India). Hence, it's probably because of the relative affluence of the population in bangalore that there are more number of auto & car users & this might be why the rickshaws tend to ask for more than the meter fare - & people encourage them by paying up every time. Autos demanding higher fares are even more rampant in Chennai.
Raja Rao,
Last mile connectivity is so well taken care of around Vidhana Soudha / GPO areas by providing buses to and from that place to different parts of Bangalore during peak/office hours.
This is true for all cities - PT services are extremely good in & around Sachiwalaya in Mumbai compared to suburbs, Parliament house in Delhi, City hall in Singapore, etc.
Autos are given more preference over BMTC buses, that is why we have prepaid auto counters at railway station instead of Bus Shelters
I don't think this is correct - the main bus station is nearby & hence, there is little justification to have another re-routing & stops within the station premises. In any case, space might also be a constraint & I think BMTC has started a shuttle service between station & the city bus terminus.
Conductors are to be blamed more than the commuters in case of underpaying/ accepting the fare because conductors only know to accept underpaying fare and do not tolerate non payment of fare by the commuters.
Sorry to differ, but I think it requires two hands to clap. If one of those hands refuse to do so, there will be no clapping.
The complaint about the long distance from City Railway Station to SBS Bus Station appears to be genuine. Here the commuters combine long distance travel with local travel, invariable carry baggage, arrived or depart at odd hours of the day. Our roads are not clean and the route to the bus stop is not flat to move the luggage on wheels.
Though I generally agree that transfers between different modes must be as convenient as possible for users, this is true for almost all cities in India. For example, Mumbai central station & bus stop is separated by a similar distance as it is at Nizamuddin in Delhi.
R V Raja Rao - 26 June, 2011 - 12:16
Last mile connectivity is certainly not a creation by large affluent private vehicle loving public. The cleanness of the area, age factor, availability of time at their disposal, timing and safety of the area, convenience, weight of the luggage one need to carry, all these factor will determine the walking even short distances.
In Chennai people may walk up to 1.5 km to 2.00 km to reach some system of public transport because people chose to live on the outskirts. Once they reach any system of transport, no one needs to walk much because the Public Transport System is well connected. They do not depend on prepaid Auto Counters like we do in Bangalore.
If the Public transport system is convenient no one wants to drive their private vehicles on busy and congested roads. Even in Bangalore many office goers engage and share a private vehicle to commute to their office.
Walking conditions in Bangalore are not comparable to walking conditions prevailing in other countries. With the amount of pollution one cannot walk with clean dress and come back home clean let alone wearing suits and formal dresses.
Our public transport system is covering even the interior areas also. Most of commuters who travel in those routes co operate with the conductor and do not buy tickets. Number of passenger actually travels will be more than the no: of passengers shown in the trip sheet, hence the route becomes uneconomical. Here the problem is the timings, frequency, efficiency, honesty and integrity of the drivers and the conductors.
Last mile connectivity is not about connectivity from the residence to the public transport system but it is about the connectivity within the system.
idontspam - 26 June, 2011 - 10:01
Incentive to use pvt transport is continually being created in parallel, so the comparision is against point to point service they are getting now.
Bangalore City Rly. Stn. and Majestic bus stn.
pathykv - 27 June, 2011 - 17:17
The misery suffered by the train/bus commuters in negotiating the subway between the two is being discussed repeatedly.
Even the Transport minister felt the need for a shuttle service.
In most cities the bus stops are provided close to the entry/exit of rly.stn. so that the transfer of commuters can be seamless
The earlier the feeder service buses are provided to the rly.stns, the better.
K.V.Pathy
akauppi - 26 June, 2011 - 18:22
Coming from Helsinki, Finland I try to put these figures in perspective. What is an acceptable distance to walk?
Our closest bus stop is 150m from the door - that's pretty much "just there" and I thought it was actually closer. It's runnable in 1 min, I guess. But often I end up walking to a nearby junction (800m away) to get more connections and more frequent service. That's pretty much the farthest I'd be willing to walk, in this city. I think, the goal for Helsinki city transport was to have stops every 300 m or so. At least our street seems to have that.
Now, it's not only the distance. As Mr. Raja Rao points out:
Walking conditions in Bangalore are not comparable to walking conditions prevailing in other countries. With the amount of pollution one cannot walk with clean dress and come back home clean let alone wearing suits and formal dresses.
Exactly. I've walked in Bangalore, Mangalore and Delhi. So what can we do?
I'd like to bring up two ways further, here.
One is a startup I discussed with last week, here in Helsinki. They're planning a "route finder" application for developing economies, and are currently focusing on Latin America as a service. Now, what we have going on here is "mobile phone assisted public transport". Meaning when I want to go places, I let my phone figure out the timings, exchanges etc. Most of the time, it does it fine.
http://sites.google.com/site/reittigps/
That is the (free) application I use but there are others. Now, the challenge for the startup is, how to replicate this experience in areas s.a. Bangalore. I think it can be done, but there are challenges.
The routes themselves might not be optimal (if they are that even here?). Buses most likely don't run on schedule (well, same here). There's no reliable and cheap 3G Internet coverage. There's probably no real-time tracking of the bus fleet. The capabilities of the average Indian phone are less than what we have.
But what if? I've got this startup *wanting* to bring a solution and natively aware of the Latin American market. Can you give advice and support for bringing them to serve Bangalore as well, in a few years time?
As an individual using public transport, the Reittiopas app has become my #1 helper in being able to navigate the public transport interconnects (not only buses). I do think the model is usable in India as well - in some (slightly different) form.
Actually, this also answers Mr Rao's second concern:
Last mile connectivity is not about connectivity from the residence to the public transport system but it is about the connectivity within the system.
Then, as a step a few more years into the future is my own "bubblemotion" startup. We're into automated electrical transport, essentially filling the exact gap that is being discussed here.
I am coming to India for August, both Mangalore and Bangalore. Most likely arranging a short visit to CiSTUP in BLR. If any of you wants to have a meet-up, I'd be glad.
Asko Kauppi
BM Design Ltd.
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