Using Bangalore Public transport, a personal experience.

I am of the strong opinion that the solution to Bangalore or Bengaluru's traffic problem is public transport which is primarily Metro rail and BMTC buses. Whenever I can, I try to follow through with that for my travel. Usually, it has been mostly on Metro when the point-to-point connection is perfect. But, on 25th May 2022, for an evening tryst at Bangalore club, I did the Metro + Bus which is the ideal last-mile connectivity instaed of an Auto if you keep cost also in mind. This blog is my experience from that trip and later my observations and comments. Bear wth me as its a bit long but I thought detailing it would help someone somewhere sometime to improve this critical means of transportation for our beloved city.

At 7pm on a weekday, Google was estimating a drive as well as public transport (mix of metro + bus, metro + walk, or metro + auto) to be about an hour give or take a few mins. Since I was alone, the public transport cost was very much in my favor as by car meant I would use about 2.5 liters of petrol for the 30 km total distance which would cost approximately 250 rs.

6.30pm: Outward journey, Home to Bangalore Club:

6.30 - 5mins - Walk 500 meters to Silk Institute metro station.

6.45 - 20mins - Metro to RV Road station  (25 rs)

7.10 -  1min   - Walk 50 meters  to Jayanagar 38th cross Bus stop

7.15 - 30mins - BMTC bus to Bishop Cottons stop on Residency road. (20 rs)

7.45 - 5 mins  - Walk 150 meters to Bangalore club

7.50pm Reached. Total time: 1hr 20mins. Cost 45 rs. Total Walk: 700 meters

10.30pm: Homeward journey, Bangalore club to Home:

10.30 - 15mins - Walk 1km to Townhall Bus stop (because of missing Bus stop, details below)

10.45 - 10mins - BMTC Bus ride to KR market after waiting 5 mins (5 rs)

10.55 - 5mins   - Walk 500 meters to KR Market Metro station

11.10 - 25mins - Metro to Silk Institute (35rs)

11.35 - 5mins   - Walk 500 meters home

11.40pm reached. Total time: 1hr 5 mins. Cost 40 Rs. Total Walk: 2kms

Total cost: Rs. 85.  Total travel time: 2hr 25 mins. Total distance walked 2.7kms

Now my comments. The outward journey was perfect and very pleasant. It was a short walk to the Bus Stop from Jayanagar Metro station. The place was clean and I could sit comfortably for a few mins until the half-empty bus #13 came. Interestingly this bus is not listed by Google and I had to confirm with the conductor before boarding. The bus filled up at Shantinagar TTMC but did not become over crowded. All in all, a perfect commute.

The Homeward journey was not as smooth. For starters, no busses back to Jayanagar appeared on

Google options. Because start was after 10pm? The best option was a bus to Majestic and then Metro. However, the location shown as the Bus stop at Richmond circle had no stop sign or structure! One bus going towards Majestic did not stop there even as I waved. I asked someone at a small shop who waved his hand casually to indicate there was a stop further toward Kanteerva. I walked about 500 meters to it, only to find the stop in the dark and cars parked in front of it! Clearly not functional at that time. 

Knowing the area a bit, I made a spot decision and walked further quickly to the Corporation Circle Bus stop hoping to catch a bus to KR Market. After 5 mins or so one came by which I got on. It stopped near Kalasipalya. The area around was quite scary but I made it to the metro station after a brisk walk with another commuter who knew a shortcut but with non existant lighting and worse conditions than the longer main road. I hurried in as I didn't want to miss the train if it was arriving shortly because a wait would be 20mins. Checking the sign for the track towards Silk Institute was confusing due to poor graphic design, as explained below. Thankfully more signs and the guard helped to ensure I took the right one. Rest of the trip was smooth.

I do feel, METRO + BMTC or just BMTC is a winning combination for any commute if everything goes well with time, location, quality and rush of the bus. 

Things that can be improved:

1) Bus timings and options. I relied on Google for this. Clearly it was not perfect.

2) Bus stops. All bus stops need sign and structure for seating. Buses need to stop properly there. NO PARKING of vehicles should be allowed in front of it at ALL times.

3) Pathways/roads from closest bus stops to Metro station and viceversa should be clearly marked and lighted.

4) Proper and secure bicycle stands at the suburban stations, ex Silk Institute, would help commuters especially now with schools starting, to bike up also.

On my trip, if I had family with me or seniors, the homeward journey was not possible or would have been extremely unpleasant. I either had to take an auto or cab to a nearby Metro station or all the way home.

I took a photo of the Metro sign  above the escalator (later) as I was hurrying down to the side where the train to Silk Institute would arrive. I made a mistake. Check and decide for yourself if others in a hurry like me would make the same mistake and even board a train if it has just arrived without checking further?

I think so. I feel a better more clearer sign is needed or just split it to 2 for either side of the escalator so that NO ONE can be confused.

Final points. My pet peeves on the current goverment policies regarding public transportation. No amount of widening the roads, underpasses, flyovers, smart signals, etc will alleviate the congestion. They are all bandaid fixes which within few weeks or months will become bottlenecks. Need of the hour is lesser vehicles on the road and MUCH MUCH MORE investment and use of PUBLIC TRANSPORT. It should become so good, that I can take my family, even toddlers, and seniors without a second thought!

Modi phenomenon

 WORK IN PROGRESS

Need to pen something on why so many of my good friends seem to be under the spell of Modi and his divisive agenda. Am I wrong and they are right that he is a strong leader and good for India? or Am I right and they are under some cult like spell which is going to lead India into darker paths ahead?

Hard physical work vs intellectual superiority

WORK IN PROGRESS

Lately, I have become philosophical with absolutely no academic background in it. Usually these thoughts occur as I run or drive or just laze around watching umpteen tv shows in these lockdown times. Much of these just dissipates within hours or days and I can hardly recall what it was that I was thinking so deeply about.

Today, I decided to put down one such weird thoughts before it too fades out of my memory.

I was blessed with strong stable parents and above average intellect. That combination gave me good education, opportunity to go abroad and excel in a limited way and get a good paying job. Luck played out with good perks and options at the company allowing me to semi retire after just 15 yrs of working. This after we realized that we had enough assets to take care of our parental responsibitlies (education/wedding) and enough left over for indulgences and retirement. Of course, this also meant no more ambitions to aspire for societal higher standard of living and luxuries, which was perfectly fine with me.

Which brings me to the question I pose here. Is it fair that I should be rewarded in life so much more just because of god-given superior intellect over a similar person born at the same time, all other things same, and only able to leverage their body and worked multi times harder than myself but not rewarded anywhere close to myself. Why is intellectual superiority rewarded so much more than physical hard work?

Trump phenomenon

I challenged myself to describe the Trump phenomenon in USA, on how and next what scenarios as succinctly as possible. All are my opinion after reading and watching reporting on the events surrounding the elections last year.

How

Trump nomination itself was a surprise to most of the conservatives. Everyone waited for him to quit right up until the very end. But as he has shown increasingly a penchant for, he survived many setbacks which would have floored any other politician. His approach was not to be apologetic but to accept and be brash about it or just outright deny and lie. This characterized him as a bold strong man to his supporters and not weak due to his indiscretions that he refused to apologize for, to his haters. The pundits missed a very important factor in his strength. There was and still is in my opinion about 20% of Americans who truly feel the same was he does where racism is concerned which was his most important  campaign agenda. Immigrants are all criminals and African Americans are better off as slaves. A part of that percentage (25%?) the Nazis advocate that view openly, the rest in private. This was his solid base. To this his campaign cleverly tagged on pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro-christian, anti-LGBTQ, pro-coal to attract conservatives for which this was important. I doubt he himself cared about any of these but was clever enough to dog whistle these issues to show he was for them. None of his conservative challengers could advocate all these as openly as he was doing which eroded their support letting him clinch the nomination. Next up the presidential elections. I feel he won this because of a perfect storm in American politics. Over confident Hillary, Russian hacking and interference, middle class white america feeling marginalized and ignored, 8 years of a black president who a lot of white conservative America hated, Hillary's email and Bengazi issues and a misogynistic streak in American which does not like strong and smart women. All favored Trump. Remove any one of the above, chances are he would have lost.

Next what

Trump will shortly complete a year as president. For most of this haters it has been a disaster. For his supporters he has delivered on all the bluster they wanted from him against things they hated or liked. The fact that there is nothing concrete that he has achieved wont matter to them. So, he is a success for the 20% and some 10 odd % hanging on because of their favorite issues. All indications are he will not complete another year given the pace of Robert Mueller investigation of this presidency. In all likely hood he will resign before he gets indicted and impeached and go back to making his brand more lucrative using the infamous publicity he generated. My prediction by the end of 2018.


To conclude, my pet theory  is Trump ran for presidency solely to increase his brand value and hence his net worth and most likely expected to lose the nomination after making noise in the campaign. I doubt he ever thought he had a good chance of winning the presidency itself. After surprisingly himself, I feel he is just looking for a way out before things get too hot and all this shady business deals come to light as has happened for Paul Manafort. Note that he is yet to release his promised Tax returns.

All said and done, Trump is nothing but a crooked (much more appropriate here) business man and the only thing he really truly cares about is Money!