Does Bangalore need BMTC?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 | |

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation.In short, BMTC. Their Motto; to provide 'Efficient, Economic, Safe, Reliable and Punctual services' to the commuters of City and Sub-urban areas of Bangalore.

How many of us use BMTC every day to commute? How many of us travel in BMTC at least once in a month? When was the last time you have ever traveled in BMTC.Do you remember?

Yes Bangalore need BMTC because,

This is the major transportation service for people who are new to city

No Bangalore don’t not need BMTC because,

Authority?
- BMTC does not follow any time sheet. There is no particular time for any of the buses to start and stop.
- BMTC drivers are from non existing planet of solar system. They don't follow any of the traffic rules. They think they are driving not a bus but TVS scooty.
- BMTC buses travel in city as per the drivers wish. If he wants to avoid one signal, he can ignore 3-4 bus stops and take some other route to reach the destination. Is this ethical? What about people on those bus stops who are waiting for the bus?

Traffic Congestion:
- As BMTC buses do not follow any time table; from same location, minimum 5 buses will start at same time to the destinations which are hardly one stop away from each. Some times, to the same destination. One bus can take space of 2 cars and 6-7 motor bikes in traffic signal. Just imagine the traffic congestion these buses are creating
- Most of the time BMTC buses brake down at middle of the road (As they never allow anybody to overtake them), or at the traffic signal (Starting problem you know).What the hell mechanics are doing in depot.
- Most of the roads in Bangalore follow theorem related to concave. You have wide roads, which either ends up with stupid, idiotic bottleneck signals or fly-over head

Waste of resource:
- When you start 5 buses to same place at same time, how many people would you expect to be in the bus? 10? How much diesel you spend on each bus?
- BMTC found best way to mint money by using Volvos. People found this one as more comfortable and class compare to other badly maintained buses. Result? You will find huge Volvo buses all over the city. What about existing buses? Who will travel in it? Poor man? But, Ticket cost has been increased instead of going down in those buses.

Safety:
- Condition of buses are pathetic (Volvo,Vajras are exceptional, but time can only decide).I have seen people struck in between automatic doors without any warning.Do you think it’s safe? Dual buses creates problem more than it helps.
- Never follow BMTC bus. If you do, be ready to puncture your own face. Because, BMTC does not believe in putting break lights to their buses and Drivers don’t mind putting break in every damn place.
- Beware, they can ask you to get down at middle of the road in busy traffic when vehicles are ramming next to you

BBMP helps:
- Most of the BMTC bus stops are place for stray dogs and beggars as it is in such places where nobody can walk and wait for bus
- People in Bangalore hardly stand inside the bus stop. They will be on road to catch running buses which hates bus stops.
- Bus stops are used only when it rains in Bangalore
- You can find bus stops exactly at top of the hill (best example, Nayandalli bus stop near Mysore Road), Busy streets (Byatarayanapura) or Soon after the signal(city corporation).Who will wait for a bus to cross the signal to get in?

Now go back and read their motto again. Do you think it works? Only reason why people commute in their own vehicles and auto-rickshaw guys ruling Bangalore is inefficiency of BMTC. Time is very important for everybody here and who would like to go in these BMTC buses which hardly believe in something called time sense. Do you still think we need BMTC buses in Bangalore?

Last Line: I don’t think Metro Rail is going to make miracle in Bangalore.

PS:This is frustrated common man's view


8 comments:

BD said...

Well, I agree and disagree.

Authority :
-BMTC doesnt follow a time sheet. Yes. No other bus service in our country follows a time sheet.
-You should see the bus drivers in Chennai. Our people are so from earth.

Traffic congestion:
Well, if all those motorists use the BMTC service, the traffic congestion would certainly reduce. That is for sure. All motorists are NOT sane. Yes, I agree, for that to happen, BMTC should really buck up.

Safety:
Yes, it is quite unsafe..read about people being hit by the buses.

And metro rail..I think it is just a waste of money. Some digging and cutting of trees in the name of namma metro.

I would love to see my city with world class services, but for that to happen, probably an intelligent system has to replace the existing one and ofcourse, WE also have a very important part to play.

P.S. I usually don't use a BMTC :P

And, nice post. Hoping to see it in BM :)

Anonymous said...

I have used BMTC services before. They are not as bad as one would think. Given the traffic congestion any driver may tend to be rash.

There is good connectivity throughout Bangalore, just that their timings go haywire with the traffic.

It is sad that our short sighted politicos would spend all the money in metro when the need of the hour is actually sub-urban trains.

On the other hand we don't need world class services, all that we need is some discipline. Impart discipline with wider roads, lanes, speed regulations and make sure our pot-bellied traffic cops do their work.

Anonymous said...

+1 to the huge list of blah blah mails/blogs about traffic and why we don't need buses. Looking at the post i don't think u travel in BMTC buses coz finding 10 people in buses you must be dreaming.

"PS:This is frustrated common man's view"
I have been traveling in BMTC(earlier BTS) since my childhood days, so i can atleast say that i am a common man who has been using the bus services for more than 15 years now.

I am just giving my view points here from what i read in your post.

You talk of 2 cars which can occupy the space of bus and guess how many people travel in those 2 cars. Two drivers that's obvious and max of 2-3 people which comes to 4-5 passengers. Which do you think is better utilisation of road space 25-30(average) in a bus of 4-5 in cars. Which is better utilisation of fuel consumption: Fuel spent by 4 people in 2 cars or 25-30 people in buses?

You talk of bus drivers driving hapazardly. Have you ever seen the view from inside the bus. Do you think people who drive 2 wheelers, auto and 4 wheelers have good road sense. Worst of all these are the pedestrians. I would want to slap some of these so called jay walkers who don't even have common sense where, when and how to cross. Its mainly because of these people due to which drivers tend to drive in such a manner. How many times have you driven your vehicle in peak hours without cribbing at even one person. I bet thats a hard thing for even you to control during that moment. Imagine the plight of the driver who has to do the same thing atleast 4-5 times a day.

Talking about automatic doors it was mainly put in for the safety of commuters and were opened only at the bus stops. It was the same common man who fought with the bus drivers for not opening at traffic signals or at their convenience. I have even seen some of them going to extremes just because the bus driver did not open the door at some traffic junction. So who is to blame here? the bus driver who was following the rules or the so called common man who insisted on opening the door at his choice.

I do agree on some points in your post that bus drivers skip stops and bus stops are not being properly utilized and no proper planning of where to provide bus bays/shelters. Proper planning has to be done for this and its still lacking from the authorities and strict enforcement by authorities to stop buses only at bus stops might make better usage of bus shelters.

Yes, buses don't follow timesheet I agree but who can predict the traffic in city. how can you expect a bus to come on-time when its stuck in some traffic jam miles away.

I don't see anything in your post that makes me say you nailed it. I don't understand why you blame them when the problem is created by the common man himself.

Last thought: Why do you think we are having huge traffic delays and long waiting signals/junctions? Is it because of BMTC buses or because of the huge number of 2,3& 4 wheelers we use for our convenience to save travel time?

These are some views from another common man "ME". I am not talking in favour of BMTC nor against you. Its easier to target someone and blame them. Put yourself in their shoes and see their world. You may see many things you may have never encountered.

-Ravishankar

Anonymous said...

@Equi

True :)

@laidback

Thanks for your thoughts :)

@ravishankar

Hi, Thanks for dropping in. I appreciate and respect all your thoughts over here.Looked like even you are frustrated :)

I was just worried about 60+ year old company is just going nowhere and it would've been great if they think about efficiency.If they follow it, people will surely take buses and traffic problem will not be there I guess

Anonymous said...

Hi Manoj,

BMTC is one of the most efficient Public transport systems in the world.
For that matter, its only Profit making public transport system in whole of asia.

They don't have time sheets because all the buses are tracked through GPS.

I have traveled to many of the so called metros in India, and no where do they have a transport system as good as BMTC.
Ofcourse, there are some places where there has to be more improvement which the corporation has identified.

I prefer taking a BMTC bus to MG road area on weekends because it means...i don't have to worry abt traffic or parking problem.

Cheers,
Anish

Ravishankar said...

Not really frustrated but worried about the state of the educated people in here.

I don't understand why people need to be forced when they can volunteer to take some responsibility to change it.

Hope people would recognize the power to change and act or else god only can help namma bengaluru from this mess :)

Ajan said...

Those are pretty big comments from many people. I didn't have time to read 'em...
Anyways, it all comes to something that's a big circle.. "Jeevan Ka Ghol"
lets see now, the lanes of normal roads are done by only one layer of tar and 7 layers of all the stones,sand,waste material on the road including the polythene stuff.. once a BMTC or a Lorry goes there, thats the end of the road.. the roads are half to blame for the skipping drivers..
I'm not sure about the time sheet, coz sometimes some buses come in some places and some don't...
Agree about the braking part..but the good thing is that the brakes shoes are sooo old that u get lot of noise when the driver tries to brake...
and guessing of 10 people in the bus is kinda untimely for u to board a bus..(if ur boarding 1)..coz half the time i see, i see ppl crammed into the bus like hell..and the driver skips routes..i agree for that...coz one of my frnds had an argument with him and he nearly got bashed up by the driver,conductor and a couple o road side guys in the bus jus coz he was frm the northern part of india..imagine such atrocious act in a Cosmopolitan BMTC Bus..
sum1 shud b there to question these guys rey..forget abt police guys,managers in BMTC or w/e...

Anonymous said...

@Ajan

Thanks for the comments Ajan. Let me make a point here about guessing of 10 people in bus and ppl cramming into bus,is just because of irregularity of BMTC. IF they would've followed right time and if they would've been disciplined then I think we wouldn't have seen this problem

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