A little more on public transport

[skthewimp]

There are three factors that affect the choice of mode of transport - cost, time and convenience. You usually make the decision regarding what mode to take by evaluating how much you are willing to "spend" in terms of each of these. For example, if you live in Mumbai, taking the local train would be the most effective in terms of cost and time, but

Comments

[silverreflects]

Oh, the daily pass rate has been increased to Rs.30, eh? It was Rs.25 last year.

I suppose you are talking about 201 which takes 1.0-1.5 hrs to get to Mayo Hall. I used to take the Shivajinagar route 34 - that cuts through M G Road on its way. But again frequency is a problem.

[skthewimp]

nope
i was talking about 13E etc. which go via jayanagar. and it's some once in half an hour

[anushsh]

Valid point. Even I use 34/13 series from Banashankari/Basavanagudi. But when I am really lazy I take a majestic bus, get down at Corporation and walk to MG.Its a longish walk but I love walking on that Cubbon Park stretch :D. But one can even go to Kasturba Road bus stop and take any bus to Shivajinagar for MG Road.

[skthewimp]

that'z another good idea - change at corporation
actually i have a better plan - buses from here to majestic take a long route - basavanagudi-market-corporation

so go to deve gowda petrol bunk nad then take 12B (very frequent) from there; that goes along JC Road.

[anushsh]

If getting to Bannerghatta Road is closer than going to Banashankari, then take any bus going to Majestic to reach Shantinagar Bus Terminal.. getting a Shivajinagar bus from there is very easy.

[skthewimp]

nope
bannerghatta road isquite far, at least in terms of time..

[usha123]

The last six months I have been bussing around Bangalore. I started off because I was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the (jaw clenching) driving/parking hassles and also to make some contribution to 'saving the earth

[skthewimp]

i think the uncertainty in the time taken to cover a stretch is there in a car also. I mean, car and bus go on the same road right?

i agree that bus frequency is much better now, especially on high-demand routes (i'm comparing to 1999-2000 which was the last time when i used buses extensively and regularly). but still it doesn't seem enough and buses are way too crowded.

only option when normal buses are crowded is to take volvo, but they are very infrequent.

[usha123]

'i think the uncertainty in the time taken to cover a stretch is there in a car also. I mean, car and bus go on the same road right?'

but when you link the uncertainty to waiting times, the car is available right there for you to leave while the bus cannot arrive/depart at a (pre)given time as in say, Europe.

'not for local transport. you need to make a decision quickly and on the spot..'

actually, I used the local transport website at Oslo just before I needed to go anywhere and it would give me the route, the bus/subway to take,connectivity, the times, etc. and it worked very well... you must be familiar with the London transport journey planner too.

ofcourse given the uncertain travel times here, a sms based system might work better .. might be a good idea for someone to work on it..i wonder if there is somebody alreay selling the idea to BBMP..

[anushsh]

BMTC already has a SMS based system in place for the volvos since they are equipped with GPS. The other buses don't have GPS.. It would be good if we could have some sort of Electronic Display Systems at bus terminals..

[aneeta_04]

Agree, with the Rs 30 thingie, and with the unlimited travel it turns out cheaper and faster. Bcos to take a bus to shivajinagar from kgmla, I used to break my journey and its faster rather than waiting for a direct bus. And end of the journey, its always Rs 30 whatever route you take.

[skthewimp]

sometimes you wnoder if it's wroth paying Rs. 30 for bus when auto costs Rs. 50! but then given that this Rs. 30 covers way back and all that, it's kinda worth it

[skthewimp]

not for local transport. you need to make a decision quickly and on the spot - you seldom have time to go online and check shortest route, etc.

however, I think a phone/SMS based system to predict wait times would be excellent. it can give you enough info to avoid greedy algorithm