Bangalore is gearing up to celebrate Bus Day tomorrow, ie., 4th February 2010. I know it is a bit late to blog about it, but never too late spread the word since still a lot of time is left to join hands for a great cause. Not just tomorrow, feel free to opt it for everyday commute if the experience is good. I do commute by office cab to workplace on weekdays and I do enjoy the peace of mind since I don’t need to drive through the traffic! We would have had enough of work to our brains at office and let us commute peacefully through such public transport modes. This is our chance to bring in a change factor and let us make the best use of it. Help each other for better commute tomorrow and let us be the reason to decongest roads of Namma Bengaluru.
All it needs is a strong commitment from each of us to experience a new form of commuting in Bangalore. Leave your personal car/motorbike at home, instead take the BMTC/Company bus to office, business, market or any other place you want to travel within Bangalore. Make use of the public transport. I know there might be few issues since this is the first ever such experiment towards easing commutation in our garden city. Make a note and do share those with right people to make it better.
For once come out of all those routine cribs at Bangalore traffic and let us make use of public transport and report our experience/thoughts to make it better. If you need information on the available bus services in Bangalore, visit bmtcinfo.com. Please do spread the work, plan your day and join hands to make ‘Bus Day’ a grand success.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for bringing in this topic. Most Bangaloreans still do not know about Bus day. I hope this blog reaches all of them.
Well, publicity is the biggest culprit… Every month 4th is a busday!!!
So, who is participating in tomorrows Bus day? Do people remember it by any chance?
Government should implement some rules to get more people use buses are like not allowing private cars during rush hours in certain busy roads, dedicated bus lanes on the new ring roads. or they can operate more volvos for the executives and clean ordinary buses for others. Operate non-stop point to point buses can also be considered on certain routes. Peace to all.
Good suggestions! Hope some concerned person is reading this :)
Many of them yet don’t know whats bus day is all about, i think it can be made popular if each and every blogger can write about it and so that the message can reach masses…
True… publicity plays a vital role in achieving the desired results. Publicity for this event wasn’t up to the mark… hope we all can join hands to make it a big success next time :)
I like to read your post. It is telling today’s the real life in India .
Thanks Dave!
A very credible initiative indeed. Another thing which needs to be talked of is education of citizens which can be achieved by organizing promotions and publicizing the event, the way you have spoken about it is one very good way. But what about the administration? More often than not people are not really aware of such initiatives. Let me also add that if public transport of the city were to be comfortable, efficient and neat all at the same time citizens will surely come out in hordes to support such an initiative. And let us not look at the Delhi Metro only. Delhi’s metro has come about with a lot of investment and after a very long time much after traffic within Delhi had very nearly choked it’s arteries. Also, clean and efficient bus service will be required to complement any Metro system.
Notwithstanding the success of such mega projects if the bus service in our metros and cosmopolitan cities were to improve we would see lesser cars and bikes on the roads.
It is just a beginning towards a new era of bringing in awareness about the public transport. I do agree with you. Delhi has set a standard and hopefully other cities follow the foot prints to provide a good intra-city commute experience.
No doubt it is a good initiative but it’s success would depend largely on the quality of services provided by BMTC. The Delhi Metro has proved that a reliable and comfortable alternative is easily accepted.
I can’t agree more. Hope the introduction of Namma Metro in Bangalore will ease things to much larger extent.
Wish they had more of those Volvo’s for local transport.
Great idea. Will reduce petrol usage, which is so essential for the environment.
In fact they had more buses yesterday in selected routes.
Came here from Indiblogger.in! A very nice blog buddy! Keep it up.
Welcome! Thanks… look forward to see you often :)
It was avery good initiative..but I didn’t save any time although I traveled up and down during the peak hours.
Congrats on the pick ! (published in print)
Yes, may be the frequent events like this might bring in better awareness and there by knowing the status of public transport will help in the long run. Thanks! The good news is that, we won the goodies too :) watch out my next post for more details on that!
A truly great cause…we need to do our bit
Absolutely. Small efforts lead to big results!
Read it late. Oops :(
But a good article indeed.
Glad you got the message for sure! Thanks :)
very good initiative!
Yes, it is indeed a great initiative. All prayers to see this as a big hit!
I really appreciate the public transport system in Blr, esp. after seeing another place which is weaker in the section :(
Wonderful initiative there!
Hehehe… you got to comparatively appreciate the people in Bangalore too ;)
Yes, hope this brings in some breather and awareness among people.
hey Mohan…….
dude, wish i had anyother option…..Buses is the only thing for me to commute ……though regarding banglore traffic srry…Bengaluru’s traffic…..it’s not the number of vehicles running around ….which i causing the jams…..it’s the stupid road systems …….they have such narrow roads that too one ways with the RED VOLVO running on them….and when a Volvo is there…….not even a mouse can get though that road…….and the only, think it is a record, Traffic Light on a flyway….or Flyover….man that was one amazing fact…they shld show on Ripley’s Believe it or not …..or Indian version of that MANO YA NA MANO…………
anyways…i didn’t knew how especial the day is tomorrow….thanks for the info……….and and..and…..It’s never late…….
keep…..\,,,/
So nice of you Hitesh! well, Bangalore did witness an unprecedented growth for which the infrastructure and related development activities didn’t happen – thanks to IT boom. We have to solve one at a time and I am sure, this will go a long distance!
Nice initiative from the Public Transport corporation I must say. As on Feb3 10:00pm MIT had a featured course on Urban Tranportation and planning and the Bangalore bus day is their banner. Contents from the site
The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation will hold the first ever Bus Day on February 4 to encourage public transportation use. Emissions and congestion will be monitored to see the impact of fewer personal vehicles on the road for even a single day.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
note: site contents as on Feb 3, subject to change.
Bravo! that is impressive… reaching the news all corners of the world :)
This is a great effort. But I think it would be more effective if we have dedicated Bus lanes where no other traffic is allowed and baricade well so that other traffic cannot cross, and anyways there is no need for bus to overtake in these lanes. Alteast this can be implemented on broad roads, even if it causes the other traffic lanes to narrow down. This way the commute using bus would be faster than the other mode of transportation and hence better usage of the bus. Then different category of bus can be present so that people can pay higher for comfirt, and down to normal buses with lower tariff. Hope the roads improve to make this more effective. Already the roads are so poor that half the road becomes not usable and narrowing the road.
Well, the good news is that every 4th of calendar month will be celebrated as Bus Day going forward. I could feel slightly lesser traffic in the morning. Good suggestions!
I am eager to see how seriously bangaloreans take this call and the results of Bus Day…
Me too!!!
That is a wonderful initiative. Wish I was in Bangalore to be a part of it.
Yes! I am hoping it becomes a big hit.