Removing Cars to Create Public Space

murali772 - 6-OCT-2008

Cars dominate cities, especially in America. But as many cities in other countries have found, removing cars can turn busy streets into lively public places. Now the U.S. is starting to catch on.

New underpasses/flyovers on ORR - a suggestion

silkboard - 6-OCT-2008

You may have noticed that Outer Ring Road upgrade work is picking up serious momentum. Work on service lanes is in full swing, and it seems like survey work is on for the new underpass/flyovers as well. So if all goes well, we should have a nice six lane "corridor" from Hebbal to silk board junction. Good show indeed! At the same time, it'll be good to look ahead at the impact of this ORR upgrade project.

BMTC Study Reports

silkboard - 3-OCT-2008

Some email lists have suddenly discovered BMTC study reports. We have talked about these last month in comments here and there, thought I'd post a link again. See them here.

Car pooling: how about government facilitating it?

sandeepsp - 18-SEP-2008

We always talk about how good it will be if people opt for car pooling while commuting to office. Although most of us agree that car pooling is a great idea, not many of us actually get to do it. There can be many reasons for it, which mostly relate to people either not wanting to share their car or not bothering to find someone to share it with.

Given this problem, I think it would make more sense for the government to come forward and facilitate car-pooling for the people.


The basic idea:

Rail for cargo not for people

mcadambi - 16-SEP-2008

GoK is more intent on using the railway infrastructure for Cargo purposes for the proposed Devanahalli Business Park (DBP) and does not seem to be inclined to using it for commuters.

See the "sop" of railways mentioned in the EoI for the DBP :

HAL airport reopening - Connectivity and Access first, reopen later.

kbsyed61 - 16-SEP-2008

If powers that be are determined to reopen HAL airport for commercial operations, whether for full fledged operations or limited, connectivity and access issues must be fixed first. I am voting here for a "Connectivity and Access First, Airport Later" campaign. Here are some high level items that should get addressed before the airport resumes its commercial operations.

Connectivity:

3-day experiment reveals a lot

mcadambi - 16-SEP-2008

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/16/stories/2008091659250300.htm Some positives, some negatives, IMO:

Positives:

The Cheap Volvo ride coincidence

murali772 - 15-SEP-2008

The travel in the BMTC’s prestigious Volvo air-conditioned buses for just Re 1 from one point to another point in the city for four days is seen as a gesture by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government to celebrate its completion of 100 days in office. But not many people know that it was a gimmick. It is believed that the gesture was intended to benefit the participants of the three-day national executive meet of the ruling party in the State. The Re 1 travel did help many commuters, who find the rates otherwise unaffordable.

Probing public transport stats for Bangalore

silkboard - 15-SEP-2008

Last we heard (Mr Sharif may have told TOI), BMTC said that public transport accounts for 48% of trips in the city. Another stat from Ministry of Urban Development had put public transport's share in Bangalore to about 35%. So, there we have, a range of 35% to 48%, and we know that in Bangalore, public transport virtually equals BMTC.

Urban transportation - addressable market size: how big?

silkboard - 12-SEP-2008

I had asked this question at the TransInnova/ BMLTA summit yesterday, and didn't get a good answer, most likely because nobody had a number handy. Local urban transportation is a "problem", and problem equals "opportunity". Why is it that private players are not taking enough interest in lobbying to get access to this market? Policy hurdles would be one reason, but I am curious if the size of the market is being underestimated here. Lets do some numbers, simple and basic.