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Connecting TTMCs - A possible approach

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Written By Vasanth - 4 September, 2009

Bangalore BMTC Bus TTMC suggestion Transportation public transport

Last year, we had discussed about the various routing algorithms, we discussed about Hub-Spoke, Grid etc and came to a conslusion like this via TTMCs:

http://praja.in/en/blog/narayan82/2008/05/30/bmtc-%E2%80%93-zones-and-routes

I was thinking of other alternatives on the similar lines. This is like an RFC. I need someone to prepare diagrams to illustrate these. Last time Narayan had created wonderful diagrams.

Hops should be as less as possible to ease the passenger movement, otherwise people become reluctant to use PT since they have door-door service on Private vehicles. Aged, ladies and those who do not know driving needs PT badly and they also need minimum hops.

Approach 1.

This approach was discussed in the above said posting.
 
Every TTMC will have say 8-10 nodal bus stops (current last stop).
 
Each TTMC will be connected to all other TTMCs by Trunk Routes. We have all the nodal stops connecting to nearest TTMC with frequent buses. A commuter can goto nearest TTMC, change the bus, again go to the destination TTMC via Trunk Route, change the bus, and again change the bus in the destination TTMC and reach the final destination.
 
A passenger could travel without any hop if it is within the zone before TTMC, with 1 hop if he is getting down in the trunk route, or 2 hops if he has to reach a far of place passing through a TTMC.
 
 
Approach 2.
 
Every nodal stop in a TTMC will be connected to all the TTMC in a rotational way. It will be more clear with an example..
 
Let us have the numbering structure for nodes as 1.2.3.4
 
Let us have TTMC be named as A,B,C,D..
 
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC B at 8:00 AM.
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC C at 8:15 AM
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC D at 8:30 AM
And so on until all the TTMCs are connected by Node 1.
Again cycle will restart with say Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC B at 10:00 AM.
 
 
At the same time
 
Node 2 of TTMC A will connect to Node 2 of TTMC C at 8:00 AM
Node 2 of TTMC A will connect to Node 2 of TTMC D at 8:15 AM
 And so on.
 
Main advantage is say for example a person has to travel from Node 1 of TTMC A to Node 2 of TTMC C, he can reach TTMC A, change the bus and reach Node 2 of TTMC with only one hop.
 
Say for example if a person wants to reach Node 2 of TTMC B starting at 8:00 AM, he can reach till TTMC B in single bus, change the bus at TTMC B to reach Node 2.
 
There will be 2 hop scenarios, but probability is reduced – It happens when the passenger’s timing is not matching.
 
Example: Jayanagar 9th Block of Jayanagar  - Nagarbhavi Layout  Vijaynagar TTMC.
               Node 1                          TTMC A                                           Node 1                         TTMC B
 
Same time
 
               BTM Layout of Jayanagar TTMC will be connected to Peenya of Yeshwantpur TTMC.
                Node 2                         TTMC A                                 Node 2         TTMC C
 
 A person who wants to go to RPC Layout from Jayanagar 9th block will goto Vijayangar TTMC and change the bus to RPC Layout.       
 
A passenger willing to travel to Peenya from Jayanagar 9th block, will change the bus at Jayanagar TTMC to BMT - Peenya Bus and can go all   the way to Peenya.
 
A Passenger who wants to Nagarbhavi Layout from 9th block can get direct access.
 
 
 
Approach 3
 
Approach 3 is almost similar to Approach 2, with slight modification of every node of TTMC connecting almost to every node of TTMC.
 
I will illustrate with example
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC B at 8:00 AM.
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC C at 8:15 AM
Node 1 of TTMC A will connect to Node 1 of TTMC D at 8:30 AM
And so on until all the TTMCs are connected by Node 1.
After cycle restarts, Node 1 of TTMC A willl connect to Node 2 of TTMC B at say 10:00 AM
Again it will connect to all Node 2s of all the TTMCs.
 
On the other hand, Node 2 will be connecting to node 3s of all the TTMCs.
 
By this way every node is connected to every other node directly, but the frequency is reduced. For a person staying at home planning to goto a particular place can take that bus and reach all the way nearest to destination.
 
Bus route number as everyone can figure out easily will be Source TTMC + Node Number  Destination TTMC + Node Number.
 
Another addition should be done which I only had suggested in the previous model that each node should be connected to 4 TTMCs – North, South, East and West. Western bound TTMCs should be connected by West TTMC attached to node and so on.
 
Example is say BTM Layout. If we want to goto Electronic City, we should be connected say via Silkboard TTMC. Connectivity to Yeshwantpur TTMC should be via Jayanagar and connectivity to Vijaynagar TTMC should be via Banashankari. This adds more complexity – but reduces travel time. Little more modification needs to be done on the above said model.
 
Once we have a final picture, we can then remove the redundant routes.
 
It is better to have normal , but clean and aesthetic buses for these kind of  routing since we have so many routes to cover. All the trunk routes connecting the TTMC by a Grid / Circular / Hub Spoke model can use Volvos and any other hi-tech buses that comes in the future.
 
For example, Kengeri - Jayanagar - Koramangala - Whitefield TTMCs come in a diagonal fashion and they can have trunk routes connecting all four TTMCs.
 
Load on Majestic and KBS will reduce by this model. Changes should be done gradually, by getting people accustomed to the new movement pattern. This will offload older KBS - Nodal point buses and gradually frequency can be reduced.

COMMENTS

Plans for more parking around Jaynagar TTMC

blrsri - 12 September, 2009 - 00:57

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/bengaluru/curtains-landmark-theatre-367

Puttanna theatre and the JanataBazaar is making way for a huge parking space..600 cars I believe..that should take care of parking there..

However 'Park and Ride' might still be a dream from this TTMC. 

TTMC to metro stns

blrsri - 4 September, 2009 - 14:48

Connecting TTMC's to nearest Metro stations  will be critical too..

As in the case of Jayanagar if metro users want to travel towards BTM or JP Nagar..they get down at Metro stn and hop on to a TTMC link to go further on their journey..

TTMCs and the Metro

blrpraj - 4 September, 2009 - 17:37

@blrsri

Connecting TTMC's to nearest Metro stations  will be critical too..

The TTMCs and metro station should infact be an integrated structure. In fact all TTMCs lying along the METRO alingment should have been planned in such a way as to have integrated metro stations within them. I don't know if this is the case and whether this has been taken into account while planning.  If this is done then it eliminates the need to provide connection mechanisms to metro station that are located in structures away from the TTMCS and making the transer between bus and metro very smooth and hassle free.

Clearly, a coordinated approach to planning the metro and TTMC by single urban transportation planning body seems to be absent.

One more route can be added from every node for Metro

Vasanth - 5 September, 2009 - 11:56

Seeing the above comments, it is easy to add one more bus route from every node (dedicated to one node or shared across multiple nodes depending upon geographic distribution) to the nearest Metro station in the TTMC region.

In the case of dedicated connection, say if there are 10 nodes, we can have say 3-5 buses, say from node 1 - TTMC - Metro Station come back to node 1, travel from node 1 - say node 8 (preferrably it should be the other end border of TTMC), it will give node1 - node 8 direct connectivity, from node - 8 - TTMC - Metro Station.

If TTMC and Metro station are not aligned from a connecting node, we can have nodes directly contacting Metro station with the same algorithm as said above. Having a dedicated bus to each node may not be a viable solution.

Best scenario is having Metro station between node and TTMC. Buses plying from node to TTMC will have to pass through Metro Station and we will get better frequency.

Another way is, TTMC to nearest metro station will have shuttles plying between, we have almost a bus going every 15 minute from TTMC to each node. From TTMC, one can hop on to the shuttle. This is very much true for a remote place  at the borders (TTMC regions at the border of Bangalore).

Larger TTMCs Needed

Vasanth - 4 September, 2009 - 03:16

We need larger TTMCs atleast to accomodate 10 buses at a time. Bus stop can be multifloor something like NewYork Port Authority. Its main aim should be interchange of buses.

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