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Road Based Public Transport System for De-Congestion
Written By kbsyed61 - 25 January, 2009
Bangalore BMTC BMLTA Reforms Analysis monopoly public transport
As we have seen, read and heard about ABIDE, BCIC, BMLTA and various government and non-government agency's plans and efforts to decongest Bengaluru's roads. There is one thing common in all their plans - Public Transport to be the lead entity to de-congestion. In that Public transport system, road based public transport system would be a major share holder. There are no 2 opinions on this. In past various discussions on Praja has demonstrated that with minimum changes/investment in Road Based Public Transport Infrastructure, a lot can be achieved in the pursuit of de-congestion. In that endeavor, our friend Naryan Gopalan's post on BMTC Zones and Routes is an important attempt to suggest a doable fix for existing pathetic public bus transport facility.
In past few weeks the ABIDE published their "Plan BENGALURU2020", BCIC working frantically to get CRS started ASAP, and Praja members made their presentation to BCIC on "Congestion". And many more efforts are being going on in this direction. In the follow up to Praja's presentation on congestion, I have worked on a power presentation to illustrate some simple and doable solutions to fix the public bus transport. It is my firm belief and conviction that, the suggested solutions are the best possible fixes that neatly fits all the plans that are in pipeline for de-congestion on roads of Bengaluru.
The highlights of my presentation are:
- End BMTC Monopoly
- An Independent Authority/Regulatory - Working under over all transport authority like BMLTA
- Infrastructure
- MMTC - Integrating with other Mass Transport & PT
- Bus Stops, Parking, Maintenance Sheds at right locations for all PT vehicles
- Customer Service at finger Tips / Call away
- Redesign the Routes & Schedules
- Re-jig the current BMTC routes & schedules
- Divide the city and adjacent areas into zones - CBD, ORR, Satellite zones
- Routing and frequency based on need and requirement
- Trunk/ Main Road Service Providers
- Leverage BMTC Fleet and operations
- Private Players to fill the gap, expansion and charter needs
- Feeder/Last Mile Service
- Leverage Min-Van, Shuttle, Cabs and Auto
Looking forward to some interesting review feedback.
Syed
COMMENTS
trimurthi - 29 January, 2009 - 16:16
I beg to differ with some sections of the pdf that say "no evidence". I remember a sms service that would let us know where our bus (route numbers) are located. There is an intent in BMTC to make more collection, but lack of efficient direction.
Regarding changes in BMTC:
1. Is there a working interface between BMTC and praja.in members that will help at least try the "zone" and "spoke" concept in a small way? We need a trial/experiment for the ideas. Helps a great deal.
2. I think the bus route numbering system does need to change. The transition system will be painfull for old, regular customers though. This justs needs both old and new route numbers to be displayed for while.
3. Marketing by BMTC: How many people travelling by single person driven cars know about a BMTC bus plying in the same direction? We need some mega marketing, so people are aware of bus options.
4. Frequency: BMTC is aware of this aspect. They do want increase in collections. All non-AC buses I think are monitored by a control room on location and timings. Ofcourse, this system has to be strict though. I think the commuter complaint processing system should get stronger, with actions taken daily on irregular buses.
5. Peak hour bus frequency management: Small study with conductors, about peak hours. Find out ways to add additional buses/re-route, I think this will be zone specific strategy. This has to tried in practice.
6. Alerting system at main bus stops regarding buses arriving next, so people wont wait in vain. This has to work around thefts.
7. Transit factor: Long term goal, and requires additional infrastructure. I have little hope on this with BMTC commercialising most of its terminuses.
I think most important factor is peak hour bus traffic management. We should be looking to address that first, as it solves other related problems.
What do you say Syed?
idontspam - 29 January, 2009 - 17:33
"We need some mega marketing, so people are aware of bus options"
I knpw about it, but I cant rely on it. I dont know when it will come, how often it will come and also if the one I am waiting for will come at all. Put simply I cant depend on BMTC as I could miss appointments and be late for critical stuff. Of course it also has to be frequent enough to be useful.
I want to see published timetables and puctuality before I put my faith in the system.
"published timetables and puctuality"
trimurthi - 30 January, 2009 - 04:08
Timetables:BMTC has published details. Click on the route number for more details:
- Regular buses (this needs to be updated and improved though. search results are not correct/relevant most of the times. I'm damn sure there are lot more buses that what is displayed)
- Grid system buses (list needs to be more reader friendly, and time at each stop mentioned - not just start and end)
- Volvo services (list needs to be updated with new buses, and time at each stop mentioned - not just start and end)
- Suvarna buses are not here. Wonder wheter it was meant to be a "surprise, surprise" service.
Side note: This list should somehow be dynamic, and linked to BMTC's traffic control room data. Just an idea.
Punctuality:
We all know the traffic situation in Bangalore. It can never be punctual, but I agree it should have acceptable tolerance time, say + or - 10 mins. It will difficult to predict traffic and declare strict time, but this is where I think GPS tracking followed up by SMS service will help.
GPS based SMS service:
BMTC has GPS installed on most of its buses. I have enquired with conductors and they say buses are tracked. Maybe the source is not reliable, but there is no reason in not having SMS service till ALL buses are GPS enabled.
We (atleast 5% of existing commuters) should put pressure on BMTC to re-start its suspended SMS based query service. I called CL infotech and they said they in talks with BMTC to re-start this service, which
We need to understand why this service was stopped, how does it work ,and why is it not extended to every bus route when it started.
I think you will appreciate if you get a SMS saying the next buses are on its way may arrive in 5 mins.
At a later stage, this may also need improvement as this SMS service requires assumes commuters know their route number(s) and not missing out on a easier transit route option.
Last but not the least, we need Bangaloreans to be aware of this information. It just takes 5 mins of web browsing to know that they have public transport option available.
idontspam - 30 January, 2009 - 07:35
We all know the traffic situation in Bangalore. It can never be punctual
It can be if the routing was designed appropriately. Short haul feeder which dont leave the zones can be more timely than across the city bus service. You can then provide multiple options on the trunk route to reach your destination so even if the exact one you need is not on time you can chose another one that will get you where you want to go even if it means an extra changeover. Zonal routing with feeder and trunk services will help manage puctuality.
I think you will appreciate if you get a SMS saying the next buses are on its way may arrive in 5 mins.
Instead of SMS just feed that information to a display board in the bus stand.
A cheaper option will be to use some of the scrolling LCD panels from the buses and show the next 5 bus route numbers and their expected arrival time scrolling across like this *** Time 16:30 *** 276A in 5mins *** 276C in 8mins *** 276F in 10 mins *** 276N in 12mins *** 276H in 15mins
Bangalore in the Pangs of Development!
gopalsivas - 28 January, 2009 - 12:15
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