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Route Maps for BMTC - Phase I Open for discussion
Written By Ritu Shrivastava - 22 August, 2011
Bangalore Design BMTC Bus Transportation public transport bus routes Maps
Inviting opinions on Phase I - for Bus route Maps project.
What could we set as the criteria for selecting the bus stops for Phase 1 : Approx number of stops as per BMTC are close to 3000, ( might be approx figure)
Few ideas which were discussed on Saturday meeting were :
- Just for reference - Phase 1 could be 10% of the total number to begin with. with Phase 2 as 50% and Phase 3 as 40%.
- Have a list of "most used" and "least used" stops within the city in terms of commuters traffic and pick top 50 or top 100 out of these.
- Or pick the top 15-20 prime areas in bangalore - like Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Banashankari, Indiranagar, Koramangla, Electronic city, Hebbal, Hennur, Yelahanka, Yeshwantpur, Whitefield, Sarjapur etc..
- any other suggestions??
Ritu
COMMENTS
idontspam - 22 August, 2011 - 15:46
the responsibilities of who is going to keep them tidy and up to date must be defined.
This is the elephant in the room
kbsyed61 - 22 August, 2011 - 18:42
First of all, great effort from you and others. Really appreciate your efforts.
On bus stop locations, I am always concered on efforts targetted only in certain localities leaving out a large number of localities whose resident are the most dependent on BMTC service. Neither BMTC nor our urban transport planners cares at address this lopsided planning. Can we unifromly span this effort all over the city?
akauppi - 23 August, 2011 - 03:27
I would suggest to make a "lean startup strategy" for this project. It means: fast initial rollout. Easy change of plans and/or map layout, technology etc. User feedback. "Fail fast".
Some ideas:
- have the map PDF available on the Internet. This way people who don't have it can still print it out and keep it in the pocket.
- heck, have it printable so that they can attach it as a "bill" (Indian for poster, I assume) on the bus stops themselves! They can laminate it etc. if they wish. Or simply place a revised version on top of the earlier one.
- have feedback form or similar for people to suggest changes to the map, on the same page where it is downloadable
This can be done parallel to the nice, neat, official (approved by BMTC) maps.
Even on the printouts, there should be an email address and/or telephone number for people to contact. That is, responsibility behind the "bill".
idontspam - 23 August, 2011 - 05:48
Can we unifromly span this effort all over the city?
Not if we dont address the elephant in the room
akauppi - 22 August, 2011 - 15:01
From the bus user's point of view (though not in Bangalore), I think certain consistency should be required in this. Like focusing initially on certain areas or bus routes of the city. Since the point is to eventually have such maps on all stops, this should be the feeling one gets also from the initial run. That it's not simply one fancy bus stop that has gotten one fancy map.
Naturally, the intention of the map project shall be clearly marked on the map itself. It is an advertisement of itself! And it could be a hook to get people into Praja - use that space wisely.
One more thing to consider - maintenance. Especially if the maps are being pushed for from a citizen point of view, the responsibilities of who is going to keep them tidy and up to date must be defined.
If this gets through, it might be the first such effort anywhere, where users are documenting bus routes for themselves (or maybe I misunderstood the concept?). That's kind of cool. Us making the city easier for ourselves.
I have some friends making electric bus route helpers for the undeveloped megacities (pilot in Lima, Peru). Maybe I could ask them to be a sponsor once this gets going.
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