If we see the HOHO map, there is unnecessary looping around the Majestic area. A worker around  Vidhana Soudha for coming to Corporation which is done by most of the people, if they take Orange Line, they will go to Cauvery Bhavan passing KR Circle, Majestic, Maharanis and Again pass through KR Circle and  come to Corporation Circle which will take atleast 45 minutes in the Majestic Traffic.

An auto will cost 14 rupees and will hit Corporation Circle in around 10-15 minutes.

From Cauvery Bhavan on the KG Road till KR Circle in the loop, both Orange and Blue Line go side by side which is again duplication.

Basically people want to go on the fastest route in Bangalore whenever they take car or 2 wheeler. Already there is a wait time for the buses which kills time, above which unnecessary looping will kill time infinitely and will be unattractive. Usually few people working around Vidhana Soudha, area get down at the Corporation Circle and take the Auto via the Central Library Road where buses do not enter, few get down at Mysore Bank and wait for very few bus series coming from Market to traveling towards Basaveshwara Circle or take an auto.

Consider the example of a shopper who comes to Avenue road to buy books. While coming from Southern / Eastern areas, he has no problem since KG Road is one way in the direction he travels. While going back he has to go to Majestic or to Maharanis / Corporation Circle. He again has to wait  for very few bus series coming from Market to traveling towards Basaveshwara Circle or take an auto.

On the other hand, every minute there are 4 to 5 buses travelling towards Majestic from Mysore Bank. Having both Orange and Blue line take this route is wast of time and fuel.

Definitely this design should be reconsidered with only one or no route entering KBS. 

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...Vasanth,

I too feel that routing KS via KBS is a waste of time and fuel, given the horrendous traffic on that loop, and the fact that KBS is already well-connected. IMHO, the Orange Line ought to proceed from KR circle directly to Corporation instead of looping around the Majestic area. Similarly, the Blue Line can cut aross from Cauvery Bhavan directly to KR Circle via Maharani's College.

The rerouting via Shantinagar and Lalbagh is a welcome step, though. As to occupancy, I had spotted a Blue Line near Richmond Circle around 6 pm a couple of weeks ago (I was in a 335E heading in the opposite direction). To my surprise, it had about 10-15 passengers on board - instead of the usual 2-3.

Regards,

~~~~

Manish, Nagarbhavi.

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By adding  approximately 15 Parisaravahinis @ the cost of 2 volvos will increase the frequency and does the pass integration helping everyone. Let this be 5 rupees and Volvo 10 rupees. Running Volvo at 5 rupees to give publicity to the idea is taking a white elephant around town without spectators.

HOHO is a good idea but not sustainable because of the high costs involved. It was done to promote car passengers to use buses who may or may not use that when already there are so many passengers with monthly passes waiting in the bus stand without bus. Serving both class of people should be considered.

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i regularly travel from Jayamahal to Varthur Kodi( my office).  I have used the big10 buses on many occasions.  Today i thought of using  big10( tumkur road, passing through jayamahal)---> blueline@indian express junction---->trinity circle -big10(airport road).  I could easily get a tumkur road big10 and reached indian express junction.   In the next 10 min i spotted two orange lines and one blueline @indian express junction. .. But the blueline after takinga u turn at indian express junction, sped away without bothering to stop at indian express stop...
Will try in the evening if can complete the loop using  big10(airport port)-trinity circle------>orange line--shivajinagar------>big10(tumkur road)--Jayamhal.

But the important point is that for the HOHO to be a success, the bus drivers have to stop at every designated stop, else it may end up being an empty service.

Regards,
vinod

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Vinod,

       I havent noticed this problem in HOHO, but I can believe that this will happen in all low-occupancy Volvo routes. I was travelling on 500 series Volvo from Hosakerehalli to Jalahalli cross via Vijaynagar. The bus had good occupancy till Vijaynagar and I saw the driver was stopping properly. Beyond Vijaynagar, the bus was to travel on Magadi road and Ring road, where the occupancy levels are very low. At these sections, particularly near Basaveshwaranagar and Kamakshipalya, there were hordes of people waiting at the bus stop, and I could see some people who were in two-minds about getting into the 'expensive' Volvos. Here, the driver would slow down to check if anyone was waving to stop the Volvo bus, and if not, he would simply continue without stopping. I shouted to him (from the very first seat) that there were a few people 'wanting' to get in, but the driver arrogantly replied that 'such people dont travel by Volvos'.

       Maybe, if the drivers are made to stop at designated bus stops, more people will 'make their mind' to travel by Volvos. BMTC should take driver education more seriously.

-Srivatsava V
http://srivatsava-vajapeyam.blogspot.com

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Is the route changed now?  I do not see too many of them now on Kasturbha Road. 

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As promised i tried completing the loop (big10(airport port)-trinity circle------>orange line--shivajinagar------>big10(tumkur road)--Jayamhal.) in the evening, but couldn't.  I expected a few surprise to be thrown my way, but not exactly the like the ones i encounted last evening and today morning.

In the evening i easily got hold of a big10( airport port road) and bought tickets for trinity cirle, which the conductor gladly gave.  As the bus neared domlur stop, he started announcing this is the 'last stop' and most of the passenger got down without a murmor and i was the only passenger left in the bus.  Looked like he planned to take a 'U' turn at domlur junction, head back  to kadugodi    without reaching trinity. But i argued and insisted that since i had bought the tickets he can't do that and he grumblingly  obliged, whereas its is his duty.  Finally got down at trinity circle at 7.45pm and waited for 20 min for orange line to turn up, but none in sight, gave up the idea and took a stroll across M.G .Road to get peek into the metro's progress. And finally walked down to shivajinagar, with lots of difficulty in crossing the road.


Today morning still didn't want to give up on the idea of completing the loop in the other direction (big10( tumkur road, passing through jayamahal)---> blueline@indian express junction---->trinity circle -big10(airport road)).... Landed at indian express junction with ease,  spotted three orange lines bunched together.. neither a single passenger in the bus nor one willing to board.  All the three bused left  without a single passenger,  This at around 9.30am in the morning today.  The blueline surprised me, by-passing indian express junction altogether by taking right turn near visvewaraiah tower and headed straight down infantry road...... I could only see that from the indian express junction.    So far i have been failed on three ocassions by HOHO for the following reasons....
1. The driver sped away without stopping at designated bus stop
2.Reliabilty --- Couldn't get a single bus in 20 min
3. By passing designated routes

I am still willing to give HOHO a shot in the evening before i drawn any conclusions.


Regards,
vinod

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Your trip will not be any more consistent how many ever times you try. The horse was taken to the water... the rest is being demonstrated.

I dont think BMTC can inculcate the consistency and reliability into their culture. It all comes down to the fact that it is ultimately a govt org and the line workers (the drivers conductors etc) will run it as such. Take disciplinary action and you will be dealing with unions.

Does PPP sound better than privatization? But, what I do know is the current crop are not the guys you will want running the buses.

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What is probably required is feedback mechanism. Not general - specific feedback from users to the depot manager. This would most certainly solve. From my experience, I can say that BMTC drivers would be glad to shorten a route if that doesn't affect him. Maybe we need some feedback mechanism like SMS that users could use to complain.

-- navshot

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...by adding more machines?

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vinod_shankar

Great job. Thanks for posting your experience on BIG-10/HoHo ride. Hats-off to you for your courage/enthusiasm to try the ride one more time. Please do post your 2nd time experience.

Vinod, by the way I am also a resident of J C Nagar. Currently I am in US. I can almost feel the experience you gone thru. We have no option except to raise our voice and get it to the ears of civic planners.

From your experience can you post a brief summary of issues that you would think that can help people like you to ride BMTC service with confidence and ease? May be a list of issues you found during your ride and the possible fixes for that you would think can make this service more useful.

If you are interested, you can join Praja team that works on BMTC issues. Pls PM me your email address I will hook you up with the team.

Syed

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Well, I suggest lot of people going in the region where HOHO travels to use that, but they say "Yellogutte, Yelbarutte gotthilla".

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Saw a Blue HOHO Full this morning in front of Vindan souda
Was  very glad and happy that HOHO  IS getting popular with People.

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This comment has been moved here.

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       Yesterday afternoon about 2pm, I happened to see 4 blue line buses entering JC road within a span of less thn 20 minutes. Surprisingly, all the four were absolutely empty (expect the two neatly dressed souls- driver and the conductor!!). If this is the case, I dont see the need for such high frequency.

      Additionally, why cant BMTC put these Volvo in to other routes (instead of making them useless). I know some of these Blue-coloured KS Volvos have been used on 45G and P10 routes. Its time the BMTC converts the KS from a Volvo-only to a mainly-Suvarna fleet. That will reduce the cost of the tickets for commuters, bring more people into these buses and aid BMTC to reduce its losses.

     As a thumbrule, the BMTC should not introduce any new routes on a Volvo only fleet. People have a fixation about the 'high' prices of Volvos. Once people are convinced about the utility of the route, then they will start using the route, be it on a Volvo or a ordinary bus.

-Srivatsava V

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A lot of efforts have been put in to improve ridership on Hop-On/Off, but to no avail so far. Big-10s however, have generally seen better success than the Hop-On/Offs.

In my opinion, there are possibly two reasons that have made major contributions leading to their poor patronage :

1) People use Big-10s or various other services for accessing CBDs - thus, reaching CBDs is not a problem now. Once in CBDs, they complete their task & return by the same Big-10s or other suitable services. There are very few who actually stay on & travel between various points within CBDs. If so, there are many other competitive services too, in addition to cars with car owners.

2) The image for Volvos is generally perceived as expensive. Hence, there are not many takers for this, even within the CBDs.

Other reasons could be insufficient knowledge about these buses, poor & erratic frequency due to "bunching" of buses with traffic delays.

These CBD circuit buses may only prove useful later once the Metro comes into operation, if routing is changed to cover various points that are not accessible directly by Metro.

1st phase of Metro leaves voids around Richmond /Residency roads, Corporation area, JC rd-Lalbagh rd, Shantinagar & surroundings, Shivajinagar /Cunnigham road, etc.

If route/s are fixed with these in mind, linking them with Metro stations nearby, I think they might see better success.

As of now, they seem ahead of time & if the experiment is to be continued, it might be better to replace them with parisaravahinis, puhpaks or other less expensive services & utilise the volvos elsewhere where there is better utilization such as on ring road, or introduce newer routes that may have better potential.

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The issue with the way we are approaching the problem of solving the public transportation mess is that we are employing 21st century buses built by a world class company like volvo and putting it in a third world country like India with 19th century infrastructure planned and (mis)managed  by politicians&urban planners with an 18th century mindset.  If the govt wants riders to come flocking to the HOHO's and Big-10..there definitely is a way..people regardless of their attitude and mindset follow the path of least resistence and most comfort. Provide world class infrastructure dedicated to buses to enable timely and efficient service..people will flock in droves.

What matters is building infrastructure confirming to standard specifications and then have standards and specifications for operating on that infrastructure (down to the last detail of where buses should stop and how they should overtake); then leverage an IT backbone to manage the fully integrated system (sadly the IT capital of India shows neither information nor Technology nor innovativeness outside of the plush MNC offices).

If there is one single person whose experience and expertise is desperately needed in all of Indian cities it is Enrique Peñalosa . I would request all readers to read this post of mine which basically outlines what I think is the solution for sustainable integrated public transportation network which integrates buses, cycling and urban planning -

http://bangalore.praja.in/discuss/forums/2009/04/sustainable-transport-plan#comment-13287.

I really think Bangalore and other Indian cities should go a step further than what Bogota of Columbia & Curitiba, Brazil have done - we should have tree lined multilane freeways (at least 3 lanes each way) for uninturrupted signal free travel for buses and this network must be integrated with bus stops, hub terminals, cycling paths and namma metro. Once such an infrastructure is designed (in participation with private entities on a PPP model) govt as well as private parties must be allowed to ply buses. Only those parties adhereing to strict specifications and operating procedures must be allowed to ply. And drivers should be made to go through a rigorous mandatory training on how to use the infrastructure.

Sadly the current mentality of planners in bangalore is to chop every tree in sight to widen roads then lay a magic box the size of a match box such that the road narrows magically..so, of course, when hordes of indiciplined drivers(cars, 2 wheelers etc.) are mixed in with menacing BMTC beasts..it just leaves a bunch of angry frustrated citizens in an increasingly polluted city with ever disappearing greenery and gridlocked roads. Oops..I forgot to mention the hordes of unruly passengers who rush to the middle of the road even before a bus can come to a halt. The photos and videos in the post I referenced have all the knowledge there is to get a decent system up and running...the question is, is there - will, sincereity and leadership to execute it? Knowing the state of affairs I think the primary focus would be on fighting over what language should the boards of the buses use for displaying the number and the destination.

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"we should have tree lined multilane freeways (at least 3 lanes each way) for uninturrupted signal free travel for buses...."

If we have to have three-lanes each way only for buses, and another three lanes each way for all other traffic (ie. twelve lane roads !), many of the city's buildings will have to be brought down. I don't think we need to sacrifice the city's heritage so heavily to plan for transport infrastructure.

It will be wiser to plan with what we already have.

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