On 2/8/08, Vinayak Hegde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >On 2/8/08, Linda L. Julien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> >> How's the public transportation in Bangalore? <snip> > <snip> > Public transportation is pretty much non-existent in Bangalore. (unless your > starting point or destination is Majestic). The traffic problem is > horrendous as > everyone wants to drive their own vehicle. Driving in Bangalore is > algorithmic. > <snip>
Nice rant, Vinayak! :-) But I completely disagree with the take on the public transport. But my opinion is that (there have been a few legit exceptions) the 'public' transport system as defined ONLY by the bus system itself is very good in Bangalore. I am not comparing it to chennai or Mumbai. IMO, Coimbatore has the BEST bus system that I know of - with surprisingly polite and friendly staff, apart from coverage, punctuality and stuff. Bangalore bus system has good connections, reasonable frequencies, laid back population, chatty passngers etc etc. I am very happy with this as a constant user of the system. I was 'working' in the s/w arena till about an year back and for most of the last year of my career, I used busses extensively. I did not miss even ONE meeting (how could one ever miss one), nor did I waste too much time on commute. I realized that, with not having to drive to work or wherever, the mind is free of the 'where do I get to park' and 'what if that horrendous sedan bumps into my honda civic while pulling out' kind of traumatic ;-) problems, the moment you outsource your worries to some other III party. It merely requires some planning - which could be painful to start with but becomes easy in a week or so. Also, the bus journeys have the following advantages operating at various levels: 1. In the heart of the city, as there is no byepass or pacemaker, the traffic crawls and a bus is better or equal to any other vehicle. 2. The level of the bus is higher - therefore there is less pollution (to you, that is). 3. You can take a paperback and stat reading it, while listening to popular and attrotious film music 4. You can hallucinate that you are polluting less. 5 You can also selfrighteously assume that you are experiencing the *real* india. 6. <scroll down to the postscript> Suggestions: 1. Take up your acco very near the office (in Bangalore there are residential tenements or the new fangled 'serviced apartments' available in practially all loations) in which case you may not need to commute much by vehicles at all. 2. The smaller roads in Bangalore are fun to walk. If you dont stick to the main roads, then the life is easy. Arm yourself with an Eicher roadmap which is nicely updated and usefully granular. Even a bicycle is not a bad idea at all.(and while leaving India, donate it to me) 3. If you want to use the bus system - always buy a Rs. 30/- (around 75 cents) wholeday pass - you can hop in and out of as many buses and as many times as possible. In this case you dont have to haggle for coin change. If you know your destination, you can very easily packet switch. Please note that it is okay to hop in and out of buses at traffic signals, wherever. I think probably this could be some solution like an unconcscious ant colony optimization problem. :-) Doing a constant trace routing during travel by asking the fellow travellers is an useful idea. While hopping etc, don't be too bothered by your TTL. ;-) 4. Even with the Autos - if one does the groundwork (a couple of enquiries with your office colleagues, Eicher map, Rs. 7/- per kilometre, etc) this is not a problem at all. One piece of suggestion is that, it is better to approach a lone auto or wave it down rather to go an auto stand with n autos. 5. If you want to anyway use the cars etc - you can go to the office at 5/6 AM or so and get back home/hole by 2/3 PM - nicely avoiding or rather outbeating the traffic - and having the rest of the day to yourself, silk, whatever. I have used this technique when a client (from US) was visiting us a few years back; forced both the client and the team to come in early - no long and useless lunch sessions at distant hotels etc. Actually this tactic was very useful and productive. I always feel that, if all the guys who whine incessantly about bad traffic conditions (of course the roads are congested, but why? It is because of all those other big and bigger cars, all those other jokers who drive with one or two occupants at best per car, other clowns who dont do their town planning, other nincompoops who want to bend all the rules because they have to atttend some goddam meetings, other gluttons who want to drive to the other part of the ciry for extended lunch sessions at the expense of productivity etc etc) started using the bangalore bus services, then this city would be a far better place. Note: And after all these whiney folks switch to buses, I plan to royally drive my rickety jeep all over the city congratulating myself on the consummate devilishness of my plan. buwahahahaha! Linda, welcome to India and to the silk list. :-) __r. PS: It also gives you a smug right to whine about the whiners, such as the tone and content of this post. :-) <now scroll up and read the rest of the post dammit>
