Using GPS to catch tampered rickshaw meters (Updated)

tejvan - 20-MAY-2010

I always carry my trusty GPS whenever I head to places I haven't been to. It helps me to quickly locate a place and I don't have to ask for directions. I dont have a vehicle and so I invariably take rickshaws for trips within the city. The infuriating thing about rickshaws is that their meters are frequently tampered with. Yes, even the digital ones.

Yesterday I was heading out to Vasant Nagar in an autorickshaw and carried my GPS with me. The GPS has an odometer which measures distance covered to a very high accuracy. The rickshaw had a "PERFECT" digital meter (model A-786). I quickly realized that it had been tampered since it indicated 2 kms when the actual distance covered was only 1.5 km. I watched as the gap between the GPS reading and the rickshaw meter reading gradually widened. Towards the end of the trip, the rickshaw meter was off by more than 2 kms and still growing.  

Free service from Traffic police

manjari - 17-MAY-2010

Do not know if it is true but got a message today saying:

Send 'Join BTP' to 567678 to receive traffic alerts at 8am, 9am, 5pm, 7pm and 8pm... free service from traffic police.

It is a good initiative if enough people start utilizing this service.
Though I still think this service should be area specific but I do understand that can be hard.

We get such information on radio as well but most of the times everyone is listening to it while on road, stuck in traffic :)

Autorickshaw,taxi malpractices damage Bengaluru image irrevocably

mbnataraj - 16-MAY-2010

About Autorickshaw/taxi  coolie malpractises that damage the city's image, we the citizens were very pleased to hear of transport minister's initiative to control Auto Rajas ruling the city roads  and tarnishing the city image by their rude

About Public Complaint Management Systems

Bheema.Upadhyaya - 6-MAY-2010

I just happened to create a single link for  online complaint systems for Bangalore utilities. Just to make it at one place for me to start with. Even though it is not user friendly, it brings all complaint forms together. 

Request prajas to use if found suitable. I may put some more effort if someone wants improvements.With my trial complaints with BBMP I learned following: (I have indicated this in earlier posts somewhere, but I repeat)

NICE comparison!

srinidhi - 3-MAY-2010

 There was a recent comparison of the UP state Yamuna expressway and BMIC by the editor of Vijaya Karnataka news paper..

This by-far looks a neutral review/comparison of the projects. The salient points are as below:

BMIC

Yamuna Expressway

Location

Bangalore-Mysore

Noida-Agra

Minutes of a SCEP Meeting on “Global warming”

psaram42 - 28-APR-2010

 We have a weekly SCEP (Senior Citizen Enrichment Program) meeting on every Wednesday at 4:30 PM at Mother Tree a beautiful place provided by one of our SCEP members We were about 20 senior citizens at this meeting to day. It was a very hot evening and the welcome rain was the saving grace. 

The speaker of the day was Ms Arun Shivasaran a young and upcoming Architect of repute. 

The speaker started the talk on a poignant note of alluding to the commonly used greeting when we meet viz “how are you” meaning how is your health. Now it is high time we talk about global warming instead. For Architects it is now common to grade Silver gold and platinum standards based on Global warming compliance. 

BBMP's Good work

Bheema.Upadhyaya - 21-APR-2010

This is regarding one of the complaint I tried with BBMP. The idea was to both address my problem and to observe for the complaint management.

Here is the timeline : 

19-Apr-2010 Monday @14:20:02: Filed Complaint via Spandana , BBMP's complaint portal.

19-Apr-2010 @14.20.20 Received Complaint Number and Acknowledgement via SMS

19-Apr-2010 @16.34 I enquired status via SMS

19-Apr-2010 @16.34 Received status via SMS stating complaint has been forwarded to local staff and the ticket was assigned to specific department (Health) and it said "Informed to S.H.I phine number ending with 83956"

20-Apr-2010 @ 10.14  received a call from actual contract worker (Number ending with 87356) for part-1 of complaint. He could not not locate address.

20-Apr-2010 @ 11.00 contract worker arrives

20-Apr-2010 @12.15 part 1 complete. As I was away, he got "completed" signature from neighboring lady and informed me.

IPL Matches at Night - Who cares for ENERGY conservation?

kbsyed61 - 18-APR-2010

This photo's source is TravelPod page:

Thanks to current IPL controversies, now many questions are being raised including ethical, moral and social aspects. In all of these, I am trying to ask myself a question, even though I am also a cricket lover as millions others. The question I am asking myself is should the sports be played in night which compels to use flood lights?

Given the IPL context in which most of the matches are played at night, It is no secret that these matches need lighting arrangements consuming hundreds of kilowatts of power.

This in turn has many issues that we all need to look into. First issue is a social question. Should the matches be played at Night? When the cities are struggling with power shortages, is it right for sports managements to conduct matches at night which make use of large amount of energy resources?

Malathahalli Lake - Flushed out - Now a dry lake

Neeyathi_hemmige - 14-APR-2010

Hi Prajas,

I stay in Malathahalli , especially close to Malathahalli Lake  When we moved in to this location, we really liked it as it was very calm, a perfect place to live amid nature, a lake close by and lot of trees. The lake was streching upto 7 acres ..

Unfortunately this was a short lived paradise, as i see that the authoriities have forcibly removed the water from the lake and now its a dry land. Upon enquiry, I was told that the BDA has taken-up this project and that would re-create a mini lalbagh and that they would introduce boating etc etc..

What I am worried about is that the water condition in the state is pathetic and if they forcibly dry out a natural lake then what.. Recently there was an artilce in Deccan Herald about the city bore-wells are drying up...

I am not sure if this information is true, however some activity is being conducted. Can you please if anyone who is reading this post have insight to this piece of activity. Thank you in anticipation.

Kind Regards,

Neeyathi

BMTC - S1 Route (Vijayanagar to Vijayanagar)

Ravi_D - 9-APR-2010

Saw these buses plying on outer ring road near BTM layout yesterday & today.

Looks like an extension of Big10 concept, Big10 to Circle Routes to S (not sure what it stands for) routes?

Surprisingly, while the BMTC call center did not have any detail to offer, the buses seemed to quite fully loaded!. I got bumped from the call center guy to the control room to Vijayanagar Bus Stand (22952362). All were cordial, willing to help, but had no info to offer.