How is a share auto service different from a bus service except for form factor? Wouldnt share autos then be considered public transport and hence require a contract carriage license? If they have to offer non point to point service wouldnt they need a stage carrier license to operate?

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 Further car based last mile erodes cost advantage of PT, reducing the incentive to PT move and the move towards pedestrian friendly city. This may also make BMTC complacent to making the much needed route rationalization happen. Of course if it is a regular point to point taxi service it raises the question of the governments move into this area when they are being pushed to get out of airlines business and they do PPP for city/suburban trains anyway.

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 answer is Nano is not selling well  and nor is the reslae price good if noticed

After the Gujarat govt is alleged to have given a long term subsidy + land = Rs.30,000 crs then maybe the job of a profiteer monopoly to bail out both the Govt of Gujart  and also the Tatas thru sales

so lets look beyond to the politics and the LINK is BJP govt in both states, and Nano factpry at Sanand rolling out 10-20,000 cars / year.

So what happens if they are not sold Does the Govt bail it out big time

TVS, Bajaj etc will nto be happy but 10,000 more cars on the road in the next 5-7 years just becoz no one else will buy? Pathetic,,,,, 

State sector bailing out the private why? because the state is a PARTNER in growth?

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 because the state is a PARTNER in growth

If they go ahead, they could discuss offsets for this purchase. 

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Cities need to play an increasing role so what about the worldwide heatwave. The Global is very close to the local. so shd big buisness continue this at all? cut down on auto car production, away from dependence on big oil

Lets change tack to non powered cycle rickshaws not like those in Oxford, England but maybe in Malaya, neighbourhood may give safer travel.

Climate change offsets? shd we not change lifestyles to a restructured future in a city.

not Carbon prcing and trading ? but Urban food production

Because just as much as mobility, we will need to feed the popln of an urbanised future?

Carbon footprints of cities will have to reduce the NUTP points to that but are the car owning citizens ready to do that

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 Climate change offsets?

No I actually meant business offsets, like in defense offsets.

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Global warming, politcs, conspiracy etc are always interesting to add to any discussion, global or local.

But, let us get to the real subject - last mile problem.

Nano, auto or whatever, let us put things on table first

• There is a big latent demand for last mile solutions
• BMTC is not interested in providing last mile solution. It is NOT.
• Auto solution is suffering from over-regulation (supply and pricing is controlled)
• People expect cheaper and reliable (go any time, go any where) options.
• Walking is the most used last mile solution today, this too needs investments (pavements)

Talking more ...

• BMTC could be the biggest beneficiary. Will bring more consumers to it.
• Cost effective solution would require pooling. Auto is used as a private vehicle today.
• Cycles have never been explored as serious last-mile solution. Place to lock them up near stands, or ability to carry cycle in the bus/metro - need a thought.

To talk even more ...

• BMTC should treat last mile guys as "channel partners" in the sense that they should be able to "re-sell" BMTC tickes and passes. Why not incentivize last mile guys on how many tickets and passes they sell for BMTC?
• I want to buy a single ticket, good for first/last mile as well as bus/metro, and expect BMTC to settle with the last mile solution separately.

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Hand in hand with last mile connectivity, other issues need to be tackled too -

- physical separation of PT buses from non PT traffic.

- intermeshing of PT buses and metro in an integrated network with easy interchangeability

- most importantly unrban planning

I had penned my thoughts in an article - http://praja.in/en/blog/blrpraj/2009/09/18/draft-document-detailing-requirements-efficient-public-transport-system   For anybody who is interested please read that.

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Pranav,

BMTC is not interested in providing last mile solution. It is NOT.

Last month, I had travelled in a taxi run by CelCabs, one of the several radio taxi operators in Bangalore. On the back of the front seat was a panel displaying their fares, and a special mention of "BMTC HOME CONNECT SERVICES", which claimed to be feeder services to BMTC bus stops.

I checked out their website (www.celcabs.com/blr-fares.html - scroll to the middle of the page) and found the same information. At present, it seems to be restricted to VV stops, but if the concept is exterpolated to other services, (perhaps with Nanos and at a cheaper rate), I don't see why it shouldn't be viable. Any thoughts?

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 Not a bad idea though!! They ahve displayed fares from bMTC BIAS stop to home in their website. Probably their services can be better utilized.

Nowadays soem autos prefer sharing system an do so people. at Marenhalli stop in the evening times you find many auto drivers shouting out the names like Puttnhalli,Brigade etc and board about 4 people in them. dont know what they charge. Otherwise these are mainly restricted to the Hosur road Kudlu and Eelctronic city junctions-Hope we can have bigger vehicles like those in Chennai auto system for these short distances

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Like in other Cities, Bangalore should intoduce Share Autos officially. This will also help in partly reducing the hardship of increased auto fares.

K.V.Pathy

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Bangalore should intoduce Share Autos officially

To my knowledge, no city has "officially" introduced share autos or taxis. It's just that in places like Mumbai, one has a train system that results in a lot of commuters emerging from stations all at the same time, ready for shared taxis in locations such as Churchgate with many people that want to get to Nariman point in peak hours. So, we have taxis that charge some 5rs per head that get you there sharing with 4 others (The taxi wallah makes 25rs instead of the minimum 14rs, so he has an incentive to take many people together who also prefer to share taxi to cut individual costs).

In Chennai, there are these auto "wagons" that take upto 10-12 or more people, & in Kolkata, we have the cycle rickshaws but again, they are driven by demand & operate due to the large percentage of PT users - not because they have been introduced "officially" - they probably applied for licenses & were given them, nothing more official than this.

If there is sufficient demand for such "sharing", autos or taxis or autowagons or any such contraption, it will find it's way into the arena automatically & find a license.

City transport operators such as BMTC cannot be expected to undertake the responsibility for last mile - their charter is only to operate PT services upto wherever roads permit.

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BMTC is least bothered about last mile as we know.

But Transport Dept. has to encourage Share autos by issuing licences, which is presently not allowed in Bangalore.

K.V.Pathy

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till about 5-6 years ago share autos did exist in bangalore. I'm not sure whether that was legal or not.

I have used the shared auto from Banashankari bus stop to Uttarahalli. Those days there was no BMTC service to Uttarahalli and the shared auto was a popular choice.

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As far as I know, shared taxis or autos do not exist in any city - they probably hold normal taxi or auto or contract carriage licenses but since operation as shared taxis or autos is more profitable, they engage in such trade at certain times during the day such as peak hours.

During my last visit (Apr-10), I noticed that this was also happening in Navi Mumbai where autos take upto five or even six people to seawood or juinagar train stations from surrounding areas & charge a flat 4rs each, even for distances of 3-4km, but these were ordinary rickshaws - nothing different about them, similar to the shared taxis in south mumbai (ie. those that operate between churchgate train terminus & Nariman point during peak hrs).

For bangalore, until a mass train service becomes operational, I don't think shared vehicles will appear on the scene in a big way since there are very few destinations such as train stations that can attract large number of commuters continuously.

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