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Bengaluru’s first Bus Day gives filip to public transport
Written By vaishvittal - 5 February, 2010
Bangalore Whitefield BMTC Praja Bus Media Reports Praveen Sood Transportation public transport Bus Day
The idea was proposed by a citizens’ community and became a reality through BMTC. An additional 10,000 Bangaloreans hopped on and off buses on ‘Bus Day’, according to one estimate.
Read more on Citizen Matters
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/1761-bus-day-a-moderate-success
In part due to the efforts of these citizens, that the BMTC added about 300 buses to the Electronic city and ITPL (Whitefield) routes for Bus Day. These include AC and non-AC buses (Vajra/Volvo, Tata Marcopolo, Suvarna and others). The buses in these routes went through an additional 1500 trips on February 4th, says Garg. On regular days, 269 ordinary buses ply to and from Electronic city making 2262 trips. 143 Vajra buses run on 1044 trips. To ITPL, on regular days, 140 ordinary buses make 1018 trips and 100 Vajra buses make 784 trips.
P K Garg, Director (Projects), BMTC, says that these buses were taken from their additional fleet of about 600 buses. He says that about 600 crew were on these 300 buses, some working on two shifts and others forgoing their leave. He adds that according to an estimate by the Electronic City Companies Association and Outer Ring Road Companies Association, an additional 10,000 people took the bus on these routes on Bus Day.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Praveen Sood says that the BMTC requested the Bangalore Traffic Police to increase its field staff across three routes. An additional 50 to 60 traffic policemen were deployed from other areas, along Trinity circle to ITPL, Marathahalli to Central Silk Board and Central Silk Board to Electronic City. These policemen ensured movement of buses on the left lane, he adds.
Sood says that along these corridors the number of private vehicles "were a shade less". Though he does not have exact figures, Sood says that there was less congestion with 10 to 15 per cent less private vehicles. He also says that bus registration numbers were noted down, if they were seen not stopping at bus stops. "We have passed on these numbers to the BMTC MD".
COMMENTS
silkboard - 5 February, 2010 - 11:47
I am not asking that, but a lot of folks did? Whats up, and why missing in action!?
Back to the topic, interesting to see that "10 to 15% less" estimate from traffic polce. We really need to make this a monthly thing, and use the day to market BMTC as well as make them aware of all the things they need to improve on.
cheers,
SB aka Pranav
idontspam - 5 February, 2010 - 13:03
as well as make them aware of all the things they need to improve on.
My question would be, have we proven anything on bus day we didnt know already? There is no point of these one day wonders if BMTC dont implement learnings.
People may put up with things if they know its only for a day. They will be less forgiving if they have to live through it day in & day out.
So the action plan to the lessons learnt is important.
Naveen - 5 February, 2010 - 14:28
The bus day event, besides being a publicity campaign for BMTC, must also result in useful lessons for improvement. At the very least, the following need urgent consideration :
1) Route planners need to think hard & come up with solutions for economically covering all parts to spare commuters from long waits as also multiple transfers - a single ticket from any point of origin to any destination demands attention as some have reported excessive costs with transfers.
2) Distribution of information about bus routes & timings is scanty & grossly insufficient.
3) Punctuality & reliability is often suspect - a system must quickly be put in place to ensure transparency on availability of buses at all bus stops with timings & this must be subject to a scrutiny mechanism by users. Thus, a complaint /grievence cell must also be in operation, similar to telephones, etc.
4) The call centre helpline has been a farce so far & needs to be beefed up with resources to attend queries properly. This can only happen if route & timing information is made readily available on PCs.
There is no point in conducting bus days month after month if BMTC does not make serious efforts to address these issues.
On the positive side, there is better awareness amongst the car using public about bus commute options & hopefully, they start demanding better services & push BMTC to improve.
s_yajaman - 6 February, 2010 - 07:11
Just a wild thought. Should there be a Bus Week? It takes time for ridership to build up and maybe by Day 5 people actually get to see some benefits? If they could not for some reason take a bus on Day 1 now they have to wait for a month.
IDS - yes "we" "knew" all this. But I think BMTC honestly does not see many things as problems. They think they are doing an excellent job because they make profits. This might help think a bit differently. Rome was not built in a day.
No hard data yet on ticket sales increase on those two routes.
Srivathsa
idontspam - 6 February, 2010 - 07:54
Even if BMTC fixes 1 item from the todo list before each bus day this Rome will get built before the Roman civilization gets wiped out. So what is their todo list looking like? What is the most important in that list that is easy to do and will give most returns? Does route information and timetable sound doable before next month?
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