On Feb 9, 2008 12:31 AM, Ramjee Swaminathan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Nice rant, Vinayak! :-) > > But I completely disagree with the take on the public transport.
Then we agree to disagree. I was obviously exaggerating a little :-) But public transport in Bangalore works only if you have loads of time. Still not as good as some of the other cities I have been to. But it has improved a lot over the last couple of years. Especially, the Red Volvo buses are a welcome change but Bangalore was one of the later cities to adopt them Mumbai and Hyderabad already had them more than 5 years back. > 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. I do not think that the connections are good enough. Reasonable frequencies depends on route. Like buses to Koramangala from Majestic are fairly frequent. But my experience with other routes was not very good. Especially the east and west of Bangalore. North and south seem to be very well connected to the centre. > 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. This is not exactly a pro for the public transportation. > 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) Yeah it is still possible to use the bicycle on some of the smaller roads in Bangalore. You are good if you keep off the main roads. > 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. ;-) Yeah this is a big plus, which I use frequently. > 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. You get fleeced either ways. But if you stand your ground and pay them the right fare, most of the auto drivers relent. For comparison, the Auto fare in Mumbai is still 10 bucks minimum, Bangalore is 14 bucks. Also I found that 8 out of 10 meters are rigged. Tip: Hire the auto with the digital display. I have found that most of them are accurate. > 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. Yeah This works well generally. > 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. I agree. I am a frequent user of the bus transportation but there is loads of room to improve. Another suggestion is to get the 10-20 bucks maps with all the routes listed. I found it pretty useful in navigating through the city. > 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! Well if it works, everyone would benefit :-) -- Vinayak
