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ABIDe: Transportation plan
Written By idontspam - 20 January, 2009
Its out now... ABIDe plans on their site bengaluruvedike.org. Let me know what you all think. I found Bus prioritized higher than other options. Including suggestions of doubling the bus numbers without any mention of route optimization or rail based transportation systems.
On a side note: Interesting point on page 26 of the traffic and transportation plan
"BMLTA should employ traffic and urban planners transport engineers designers software and hardware professionals and other domain experts. The agency should also have expertise in project negotiations RFP-writing contract creation and project monitoring."
If it pays enough to support EMI and food on the table I am willing quit my current job and sign up. This can be a good example of infrastructure creating jobs at multiple levels, not just blue collar ones and bringing in ideas.
We spend time lying to investors and hoarding up gazillion crores so our progeny can live in the same dumpyard we did? I feel its time to make the place livable so nobody ends up slumdog millionnaires.
Any takers? (for both the plans and the job?)
COMMENTS
Further inputs on ABIDE-Transportation blueprint
Transmogrifier - 20 January, 2009 - 23:49
- In theory, the Big 10 is a good idea. Case in point, OMR is an excellent candidate when it comes to elimination of a few junctions. The terrifying part is this, let's assume it all works out....traffic from the outer edges can now come flying in from all directions.... and go where?!! MG Road....KG Road, KR Market!! On the plus side though, this might be an excellent chance to implement a congestion charge (The car junta has great access to the CBD but you have to pay for it....heftily!). Combine it with the proposed bus-priority (although as SB suggests ideally bus-exclusive is better) lane even for a just a couple of hours in the morning and evening and that could spur the paradigm shift in use of public trans. We've done enough carrots (underpasses, overpasses, bypasses et al.) and it's not working...it's time to introduce some sticks too.
- Slide 23 talks about Namma metro providing adequate pedestrian infrastucture and (the proverbial) seamless integration with bus facilities. Great! Not so great... the clause that NM should provide sufficient parking for two wheelers, 4 wheelers etc. For end-of-the-line stations maybe, for all others not just is this hard to implement, but implies that I do end up taking my personal mode of transporation out of my house defeating the the whole premise of public transportation.
- The idea of a Public Address System on each traffic junction (Slide 25) ...umm... thanks but no thanks! There is no pressing need to create any more noise than we already have on our roads! By the way, did anyone notice that the clockwise and anti-clockwise HOHO labels were switched (Slide 22).
Having found all these flaws though, I think it's an excellent attempt at arriving at solutions and especially sound in looking for solutions at all scales (pedestrian cross walks through till STRR).
There (still is) light at the end of this tunnel.
transmogrifier
murali772 - 23 January, 2009 - 14:44
I'll for the time being comment more on bus services. It's as below:
1) HOHO services
- excellent idea
- if operating only in one direction, they should run anti-clockwise, so as to avoid right turns
- the 8 to 10 km circuits, with single uniform fare per ride is perfect
- perhaps there should be more such circuits with short overlaps (like the Olympic rings) between adjoining circuits, and the buses on each of the circuits can have different colour codings (like with the London city tourist services). This way, bus running on Kanakpura road, Mysore road, Magadi road, Tumkur road, etc need not be brought all the way to MG road, but can instead be linked to the nearest HOHO circuits. Yes, somebody coming from say Bidadi to M G road, will have to make two changes. But, since frequencies are going to far higher now, this problem will get neutralised.
2) Big 10 services
Would be better to charge single uniform fare per ride, rather than the proposed two-stage fare system, since it will help avoid having conductors and therewith more than compensate the slight loss in revenue. The total length of run can also be reduced (again to 8 to 10 km - Yelehanka to Mekhri circle) simultaneous with the operation of more HOHO circuits.
BMTC operations planning all these years has been based on a fallacy that the public will militate against changing the traditional end-to-end single ride service that they have been striving to provide, leading to having some 1800 odd routes. But, in this process, the frequency of operations is far between, and missing a bus, is leading to people having to spend heavily on autos. With short circuit operations, the frequencies can be increased considerably, more than compensating for the disadvantage of having to make one or two changes, simultaneously reducing the overall trip time also considerably.
3) There's plenty of scope for operating HOHO kind of services in the outlying areas to link the big 10 services, as also METRO stations (as and when they come up), and it will be best to farm these out to private players. The idea should be to discourage people taking out their vehicles, except for leisure and week-end activities.
4) In view of this revised outlook, the location of the earlier proposed TTMCs should be reviewed (atleast the ones where the construction work has not started).
Additional Notes:
A) There need be no fear of clash of interest between BMRC and bus services. The best part of bus services is its flexibility, and the circuiting can always be revised easily provided permanent structures like 'dedicated lanes' etc are not constructed. In that respect, the proposal for 'bus (+ taxi's) exclusive during peak hours' lanes/ roads is most welcome compared to 'dedicated lanes'.
B) The 'bus exclusive lane (during peak hours)' idea, if implemented, will simultaneously discourage use of personal vehicles, which has to be furthered by imposing congestion fees in city centres. These kinds of harsh measures are imperative if we are to handle the vehicle population growth of the order of some 1300 a day.
C) With the above measures, three-wheeler autos can be phased out from the inner city (within the outer ring road) over a period of say a year. The auto owners may be helped to switch to operating taxi's (possibly NANO).
D) Major stretches of the CBD can be totally pedestrianised, with shuttle bus services linking the METRO/ HOHO bus stops/ parking lots. There appears to have been a suggestion from a certain traffic expert that avenue trees are to be avoided, and trees limited just to parks. The suggestion possibly stems from the thinking that it will then facilitate road widening indefinitely. It is time such thinking is put a stop to totally. Yes, rain tree, etc are not suited as avenue trees. But, there are many other varieties, and they add character to the city scape, and are very much required.
E) BMTC is losing heavily on the high-end services. This again is best farmed out to reputed private players. Check -
http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/06/01/bus-services-a-different-approach
Muralidhar Rao
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