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Has anyone ever wondered why Bangalore city has so many buses plying on the roads??

Oh Yes! And you can join those people here to find out more and see how we can make it better

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Chetana,

Apart from the fact the BMTC can do a much better job of managing their fleet routing a couple of things

a. The roads cannot take more BMTC buses because they are filled with with 400,000 cars and 2,000,000 two wheelers. 

b. True that BMTC is a bit too expensive, but it is also true that traveling by car is far too cheap.  There are no parking fees, no congestion charges.  All we pay for is petrol (at least the marginal cost) as the car itself is a sunk cost. 

In fact it is cheaper for a family of 4 to drive to Mysore than to take the Shatabdi Express.  Just the cost of the taxi to the station can get you halfway to Mysore!

We have had plenty of discussions here on Praja on this.

Srivathsa

 

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Chetana, first of all, welcome to Praja!

After a lot of BMTC related discussions here, we have agreed that there is a need to analyse and track each and every decision made and every Rupee spent by BMTC. We are working on creating a team to track and engage with BMTC. The project will be to track them, understand how they decide things and operate, praise the good things we learn and criticize what we find hard to understand or explain. Do join if you are interested (link provided by idontspam in a comment above). The work involved here will be nothing more than preparing simple yet smart questions for BMTC, or analyzing their annual reports and accounts with some creative lenses.

Back to your point, yes, we have all wondered about this. How do they plan routes? Why do they still stick to the inefficient looking point to point or central hub based routing model? Why does BMTC's bus to route ratio compare poorly against the same from Mumbai's best?

Some of us think that the recent routing changes initiated via Big10 have right intentions and a viable long term strategy. So all is not that bad. Also, absence of a high throughput public transport backbone (like Mumbai's Commuter Rail, or London's tube) puts additional pressures on BMTC, esp when it comes to connecting peripheral corners of the city.

Besides, they may not have had the necessary talent inhouse to plan and design the routes. They are getting help now, we hope BMTC will quickly re-invent itself and stop basking itself in the "we make profits" glory.

BTW,  could you share your cost breakup of how the car ride is cheaper that BMTC commute? I find that a little hard to buy, unless you commute in a Reva or are costing the extra time BMTC commute may take compared to private car.

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Give a thought about removing thousands of cars and 2 wheelers and most importantly idling autorikshwas, brown and yellow everywhere,  you can find them in tens without putting extra effort, just every step you take.  One can see lot bigger roads and enough space.  Most importantly its us who need to change before we bring a change in them.  We all need to educate ourselves with traffic disciplines first, then others will follow.  Just to add, thats why we find difficulty in changing buses.  They don't seem to be on time. Least we understand, its us who are blocking the traffic again with our cars and motor bikes.

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My office to home distance (Bannerghatta Road to Kattriguppe) is 10 KMS.

Travel by bus Volvo (500N) costs 15 rupees - Travel time 45 minutes + 10 mins walk + 10 mins wait - Nearly 1 hour

Two buses (combination of 500 series till Jayadeva and 365 series on Bannerghatta Road ) costs between  20 to 30 rupees - More than hour due to bus interchange at Jayadeva. Bus takes ORR which is full of signals and long waits. Volvos although equally faster as cars, cannot be as faster as private transport because of the rigidity in route as only ORR.

My Fuel Efficient   Car with A/C on costs nearly 30-35 rupees @ 13-15 kms/ltr - Travel time 30-40 minutes, but is too tiring with lots of waits  to drive in Bannerghatta Road. Travel is through internal roads of BSK 2nd Stage and Jayanagar and not ORR.

My Gearless scoterette costs 10 rupees  @  45 kms/ltr. Travel time 20 minutes only door to door.

My friend who stays near my house 100 cc commuter bike  costs 7 ruppes @ 65 km/ltr - Same travel time of 20 minutes.

Easy option is 2 wheelers and most of my colleagues although own cars, use 2 wheelers for office commute. There are lot of folks (since it is a IT company) who say 'CAR ONLY' and use cars.

BSK 2nd Stage and Jayanagar is full of trees and travel by 2 wheeler is comfortable (road widening ist he disease which may sometime remove this tree cover forcing to go for cars). Car on the other hand, the roof heats up and without A/C it is not possible to travel. Even in signals we cannot switch off engine because of the requirement of A/C.

 

 

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