SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
silkboard - 9 April, 2009 | Traffic | Bangalore | Whitefield | BMTC | Marathahalli | Bus | Need Help | Big10 | Airport Road | public transport
It grew out of an idea from Pradip, a public transport enthusiast. He suggested that we stand at Kundalahalli junction one weekday morning and hand out roses and BMTC route maps to all the car commuters. The thought has grown into a "Big10/Volvo to work day" for Whitefield. And since most car users will have their reasons for not considering the bus, we can add in a survey as well to record those.
We are meeting this Saturday morning at Pradip's house to plan this event. We haven't picked the exact day yet, but it will be a weekday morning. Most likely, we will pick on cars heading from Whitefield to the city. But if the response is good, and we get enough volunteers, we could hand roses and BMTC flyer to cars coming in from Marathahalli as well.
This should be a fun event. R K Misra is game, he will publicize this on changeindia, and help us in whatever way he can. We have written to Traffic Police and BMTC as well, should get their support. Now, what we need is more volunteers to either help with logistics (publicity, printing flyers, arranging for roses etc) or with action on the day (man Kundalahalli junction on the morning of the event day, say 8.15 to 9 am to hand out roses and flyers to car commuters).
Do drop me an email (silkboard at gmail) or private message if you want to join in. Best thing will be to come join our meeting this Saturday morning, 8 AM, venue is on Varthur Road, will mail directions to those who express interest.
Will keep everyone posted on this, wait for more updates on Saturday, after the meeting.
COMMENTS
Good idea, SB. But, it shouldn't happen that people who come for the planning meets all land up in cars.
Muralidhar Rao
Syed,
BMTC maps do exist. There is a rather nice yellow foldable map, covering most of the BBMP area, which is sold at major bus stands for Rs. 25. It is designed by a private company and marketed by BMTC. The map provides a reasonably good picture of the BMTC routes in the city. An enlarged wall-mounted version of this is put up at Shivajinagar, KBS and several other bus stands in Bangalore.
Regards,
~~~~
Manish, Nagarbhavi.
SB,
W.r.t your statement "... and BMTC route maps to all the car commuters.",
Do these exist either with BMTC or with a private publishers/marketer?
can just print relevant maps for whitefield area. Ashwin Mahesh said he will have some Big10 fliers ready this week.
SB - i am game for this.
A suggestion though - apart from the routes - bus timings and estimated travel times are very important, see if you can include them in the fliers.
Rithesh
This is a great idea. Please add the ring road volvos to this list. I take them regularly and it is very convenient, especially if you leave after 8:15 pm. They are quoite sparse before that.
You have tried this - commuting to office by Big 10. What was your feedback? Last mile connectivity, lack of pedestrian crossings, pavements, bus stops (or lack of them), the usual things.
Unless those get fixed to some extent this is going to be tough. Why would leave my car at home if I am going to face all these problems?
Srivathsa
Right, but there will still be people who go right along 333P or Big10 or 335E routes and take cars. Or people who can get to office in just one reliable "change" but they don't.
Actually, more interesting to me is - we could get to hear other people's reasons for not using the bus too, and pass those to BMTC.
Where they live. If you get a sample of 150-200 you can extrapolate the percentages to people working in ITPL. If there are some 20,000 people working in ITPL that will give very good data to BMTC to help plan their routes.
Do that for some bus passengers as well.
Srivathsa
I quite like this!
It would also be nice to leave a Praja link on the fliers where people can give some feedback why they did or did not switch to the bus.
I can not atted due to geographical reasons but I commit my time for flier design and commit sponsoring the printing cost for 1000 nice quality colour fliers.
-Shastri
SB - Good Idea & I am game, too.
SB_YPR,
Can you pls post a scanned copy of that BMTC map on Praja?
SB,
Very good concept/idea and also serving 2 purposes by including the ride on Volvo. That would help BMTC EMs in their Volvo feedback initiative. I am hoping that there will be representation from that team. Infact we were discussing on same lines, now we can merge our efforts with yours and make it a big. Let the BMTC EM team know if you need any help.
With regard to Fliers/BMTC Maps, if the plan is to pool monery /sponsorship, we can as well add 2 lines of Praja ( courtset y - Praja- Know, care participate, www.praja.in) on the flier. This would be good way of advertisement for Praja, BMTC, and other sponsors (if any).
Count me in for Praja Contribution. I am game for off-site work.
Shas3 - Count me in for a review of the flier design.
Syed
I was busy, couldn't post meeting notice earlier, sorry about that. Those who have responded with offer of support thus far, please check your email.
Anyway, this is only the first meeting, there should certainly be a few more. Its better for 2-3 of us to just meet and get started.
Waiting for more support, please do fwd this to your friends in Whitefield area.
Pradip, R K Misra, Nitesh, myself met this morning and listed out work items for this event.
We talked a lot about design of the fliers as well, and talked lot more things than what I have listed above. Pradip, the convener for this event has taken detailed notes, will post them here once he mails out his notes
What day to pick? A wednesday, we thought of Apr 22, but elections are on 23rd itself. Apr 29 is better from that angle.
If this goes off well, we can have more such "bus days" for other localities/sub-urbs on other Big10 routes.
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