No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Not even close to one.
BEST has announced that beginning 17 April 2017, operations of all AC buses will be suspended. This information was announced via a Press Note dated 13 April 2017.
BEST Press Note suspending AC services
This is a really sad thing. Mumbai is a huge city with a large number of vehicles. Cancelling AC buses would mean people will opt for cars/bikes/taxis.
BEST was among the first to introduce AC buses, way back in 1998. Things began going downhill when in 2007, then General Manager Uttam Khobragade (named in the Adarsh Scam along with his daughter Devyani Khobragade of the US Underpaid Maid infamy) procured Cerita buses by fakely claiming that they were Chinese Kinglong buses.
This is really a sad day for Mumbai. BEST had done all that it could in the last few months, from slashing fares, to introducing Happy Hours, to reintroducing cancelled AC bus routes. This is indeed a bad moment for us.
Featured Image: AS-524. (Photo Credit: Sameer More)
Vehicle manufacturers across the world have come together to launch a ‘deradicalisation program’ to prevent trucks from ramming into people.
Given the alarming rate at which occurrences of trucks ramming into crowds have been happening off late, major manufacturers across the globe have come together to form the Association For Super-prevention Of Self-radicalised-trucks (AFSOS). AFSOS will have units across the world, to cater to local markets areas in order to prevent such incidents in future.
The Indian branch, AFSOS India (AFSOS-I), comprising of members from Indian auto majors such as Volvo, Scania, BharatBenz, Ashok Leyland, Tata, Eicher and Mahindra is launching a five-step program towards countering such problems in the future. Named the Deradicalisation in Indian Road Trucks (DIRT), the program aims to do the following:
Train the trucks to not ram into living objects. Life is life. Live and let live. Do not ram yourself into living objects.
Train the trucks in non-discriminatory practices. Do not discriminate people on the road as holiday-revellers or people who are not in-sync with your beliefs.
Train the trucks to serve their purpose. A truck is mainly used to carry goods. Do that. Don’t go ramming into people. Who’ll carry the good then?
Train the trucks to meditate, or even do yoga. Given that we have finally come to terms that meditation is calming (something Yogis have been saying for years), let the trucks do Yoga.
Train the trucks to love one another. Love is paramount. Love is peace.
AFSOS-I has decided to refrain from asking Liberal voices to pipe down. They have decided to speak up, after AFSOS-US blamed immigrant trucks as the problem. AFSOS-I has decided to promote ‘Multivehicleism’ to fight ‘Racist Vehiclephobia’, after following a poll by noted Editor and Commentator of ABP News, Kanchan Gupta.
The ghastly terrorist attack in Sweden has been described as “Vehicle Terrorism” by #LeftLib prigs. How to deal with “Vehicle Terrorism”?
P.S: Find this insensitive? Think this is a mad post in a case of terrorism and people losing lives? Let’s not blame trucks or guns then; they’re just tools. As they said in the olden days, Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People. Trucks don’t kill people, people kill people.
P.P.S: Afsos is a Hindi/Urdu term for Regret or Tragic, mostly the former.
Hi Folks, it is with great pleasure that we announce a new magazine: Transit!
Transit! will be a web-magazine (using the best Content Management System available – WordPress). It will be based on a Subscription model, however, BESTpedia readers and fellow bus or transport bloggers are entitled to a free subscription for one year using the code BEST100.
Our editor-in-chief will be Ravi Marathe, a retired bus conductor from Maharashtra while our columnists will include several famed transit bloggers from India. We have also invited a few from outside the country to join us.
Unlike other so called transit magazines, we will exclusively focus on transit from the transit point of view. No fake articles talking about luxurious trips only to show you land up at some exotic beach in a foreign country, because for us, luxury is when we get into a bus that doesn’t bounce, although a bouncy bus sometimes becomes a luxury.
A tentative, and badly designed logo was prepared by our inexperienced graphics team last night, and we hope a better one will come out soon.
Transit!
We hope you are as excited about this as we are. Till then….
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PS: Skeptical about this new magazine? Well you should be because this report was a part of our April Fool prank. The Transit world has few takers for its own magazine. Unfortunate, but true.
Now, I have tried my level best to be as apolitical as possible, but I have had zero success, because transport, especially buses is that one sector that is abused by all types of politics for personal benefits and what not.
Bus transport has been used for vote-bank politics (Delhi, Blueline buses under the AAP government), propaganda (Telangana, Tamil Nadu under all governments), and is therefore caught in a heavy onslaught.
Below is a standard template of the leftist views on transport, which I had originally posted on Medium.
Leftists: No more cars on the roads, force people in to public transport.
Government: We are building a metro, sanctioning …
Leftists: NO! That is too much. We don’t need any metro or bullet train. You will chop down trees. Get more buses.
Government: We are procuring 250 diesel buses.
Leftists: Hawww. Diesel, you are polluting the environment!
Government: We are laying a CNG pipeline.
Leftists: You will give everyone access to cheaper fuel, people will take out their cars now!
Government: We we procure electric buses at ₹2.7 crore each!
Leftists: What a exorbitant waste of money! It can be better used to educate some poor children with help from a foreign-funded missionary NGO!
Now this is not a typical rant. It is exactly what happens in the real world.
For starters, the Namma Metro project in Bengaluru was to displace 1,000 odd trees between Byapanahalli. The image created by leftists: The BMRCL is ‘lying’ and ‘misleading’ the public. When MMRCL decided to build its depot in the fringes of the Aarey Forest, they went to the extent of saying it’s akin to ‘Cutting down trees for a project nobody will ever use’. Some of these NGOs, namely Vanashakti (or something similar) and Save Aarey went to the level of harassing Metro supporters like TheMetroRailGuy, who runs a brilliant website that tracks the progress of Metro Rail projects in the country. The level of abuse and unparliamentary language hurled at TMRG and several of us on Twitter was standard of the left: Abuse, scamper, and then play the victim card.
The simplest explanation of the left in terms of forcing people to get into public transport and blaming Diesel vehicles have been posted before: Tax the car and free the bus; Delhi’s Odd-Even plan.
Now, while it is known that the left openly shouts against cars, taxi services (including ride-sharing), and demands better transport, they have two agendas: 1. No private participation, the government does it. 2. The government just does it, no scope for innovation. The left also supports unionisation, which as I have written about on The Quint, is a bad idea.
The right, too supports, public transport, particularly buses, for it is simple: Buses can accommodate more people and reduce congestion. As Swarajya‘s R Jagannathan explained, The Future of Public Transport is the Bus, as simple as that. I agree. Metro and BRTS projects are long-term solutions. Buses are short, medium and long term solutions. They’re a flexible mode of transport, can be implemented anywhere and everywhere. Long distance route? Get a Double Decker or a Vestibule Bus. Narrow streets? Get a mini-bus. Affluent people on the route? Run an AC bus. The bus ecosystem is extremely flexible. New and upcoming locality? Extend a route. Run a new route. It’s not complicated at all.
The left doesn’t support this theory. They want buses. Cheap buses. Buses that may or may not even serve a purpose. Buses that just exist. For the sake of existing. They are in most cases, against luxury services, premium services, air-conditioned buses as well. Regular dabbas with cheap fares. They believe that bus services must run at a loss. They want complete nationalisation of all routes, something that I have explained earlier (on Swarajya) is a fatal move because the government cannot handle the load.
The Right on the other hand is far more practical. Although I am a quasi-libertarian, I do support some form of regulation. Extreme regulation, as well as extreme deregulation, both will create problems.
A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transport
A quote by Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of the city of Bogotá, Colombia, this quote is again, slightly leftist. Of course, ignoring that fact that Peñalosa allegedly fabricated his PhD and Masters in Public Administration, this quote is wrong on several levels.
For starters, a developed nation is not where someone, no matter how poor or rich would have to use public transport. A developed nation, in an ideal, libertarian scenario would be one where anyone, again, no matter how rich or poor, would have the choice to use whatever form of transport they wished to use, be it buses, cabs, cars, trains, or even walk wherever they want to. However, the quote would hold true in terms of infrastructure, if one were to consider that a developed nation is where the infrastructure is good enough for a rich person to consider taking public transport. Going by this logic, I would safely ascertain that Mumbai is the most developed part of India, since even rich (or atleast well off) business-class people, take either a train (First Class of course) or a bus (Purple Faeries, ahem) to work.
Anyway, getting back to the left. The left does not want progress. All it wants is stagnation and forced coercion of people to use whatever form of transport is thrown at them.
Transport affects everyone equally, for everybody needs to get to someplace or the other, on a daily basis. Forcing such a crucial sector to stagnate, is the worst sin on society imaginable. If it weren’t for transport, every sector would come Crashing like a Canary (I invented this quote, don’t ask what it means).
To end a long story short, I quote myself.
Transport is nobody’s charity, and everybody’s business.
-Srikanth Ramakrishnan, 3 March 2017
Do let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section.
Most people say buses are dangerous and hence people won’t take them. However, there is a contrary view to it. Some economists are of the opinion that a more dangerous bus would mean more passengers. Do they board for the thrill of it?
Let’s ask Alex Tabarrok shall we?
Let’s Make Buses More Dangerous so People Will Ride Them
Buses are much safer than cars, by about a factor of 67, but they’re not very popular. If you look at situations where people who can afford private transit take mass transit instead, speed is the main factor (ex: airplanes, subways).
So we should look at ways to make buses faster so more people will ride them, even if this means making them somewhat more dangerous.
Here are some ideas, roughly in order from “we should definitely do this” to “this is crazy, but it would probably still reduce deaths overall when you take into account that more people would ride the bus”:
Don’t require buses to stop and open their doors at railroad crossings.
Allow the driver to start while someone is still at the front paying.
Allow buses to drive 25mph on the shoulder of the highway in traffic jams where the main lanes are averaging below 10mph.
Higher speed limits for buses. Lets say 15mph over.
Leave (city) bus doors open, allow people to get on and off any time at their own risk.
Excellent recognition of tradeoffs. Pharmaceuticals should also be more dangerous.
I think it’s pretty clear now that I have come to love blogging, the ecosystem and my own blog. Why else would I be blogging if it weren’t for the fact that I love it? I’m not being compelled to blog or forced to blog, but rather, I do it because it’s something that comes from within.
I started blogging back in 2005 as a 13-year old student who had no clue about what to do in life. By that, I mean I wanted to be an engineer or a scientist but I still had no clue about what I wanted to do in order to achieve this. My blog back then was a very random blog, full of nonsense, some bits of “This-content-is-too-old-for-me” stuff, and what not. I sort of went into hibernation when I realised that I had to work hard and study.
In the midst of this working hard(ly) and studying, I ended up co-writing a humour post with my best friend Janvi titled Phases Of Study. It did what it had to do. Remind me of the time I used to write, and that I had a lot of opinions on practically everything around me.
Fast forward to two years ago. I needed a place to voice my opinions. Although I had been on Twitter since 2007, it didn’t seem to make the cut. Interning with a magazine that used WordPress made me think. I loved WordPress. I loved what it could do. It struck me: It’s now or never. Once I finish studies, a job in the media industry would never give me the time or freedom to write the way I wanted to. Thus, I started thinking, what should I blog about? I travel a lot, get bored, and then travel even more, I take the bus everywhere, even if I fly, I spend more time looking at buses at the airport than anything else. That’s it. My Eureka moment was on 3 July 2015 at around 7pm.
Blogging got me places, got me to BNLF, then an internship, then a chance to cover the CII Partnership as well as Make In India Week, and then my job. Today my boss asks me to write an article based on my experiences in transport, something that has expanded to other stuff, resulting in me writing on various topics from cashless transactions to even milk. For those who knew me in 2013; Who would have thought that a 21-year old guy who describe Toll Plazas in great detail would someday write about cows and milk? I didn’t. I certainly didn’t. I’m sure none of you reading this would have thought of it either.
But that’s how it is. Today, my blog, has turned me in a sort of expert on urban affairs, has got me published on a prestigious magazine that was mentored by none other than Rajaji who was one of India’s greatest thinkers, and has also resulted in several other economics based portals accepting my work. I’m just as surprised as you are, believe me.
But enough of me. My blog wouldn’t be my blog if it weren’t for the ecosystem. Not just readers, but other bloggers as well. I’ve been part of two BlogBuddy groups: Inking Pages and Write On, and believe me, while I may not say it, reading others’ opinions does wonders. It reminds me that there is a life beyond these four walls that I sometimes am confined to, or in case of a bus, four sides of the bus.
I love my blog. I love the ecosystem. I love everyone who has helped me become what I am today. Thank you all.
P.S: Thank you Richa. Atleast someone who understands my fascination with buses.
P.P.S: If you like what I write, please ping Janvi, and thank her. I owe a lot to her.
Move over Uber and Ola. There is a new, Open Source platform! LibreTaxi!
According to it’s homepage, LibreTaxi is a free platform that eliminates the third party in the middle. Among the features are:
Fares are decided prior to the ride being confirmed. Drivers can set their fares and passengers can negotiate.
Payment is made in cash. While this could be a not-so-great scenario, the app developers are working on BitCoin integration.
The app runs atop the Telegram messenger platform, and is built using the MIT licence. It can be be easily modified to serve multiple purposes, which is a good move. Additionally, it uses Javascript (ES6) which can be used to enable region-specific features.
The confusing part of it is that the App claims to be Battery-Friendly as it doesn’t use the phones GPS. Are fares predetermined for the distance?
The founder of LibreTaxi, Roman Pushkin has the following to say about LibreTaxi:
“LibreTaxi gives flexibility to passengers and self-employment to drivers. People, not corporations, should have control over how a taxi service works!”
I agree. Having a taxi service where individual drivers and passengers get to decide is ideal. It is probably the best example of Freedom of Enterprise.
I had earlier written about how Uber and Ola drivers were better off classified as Self-Employed. A platform like LibreTaxi ensures that the driver is self-employed, thus giving them the flexibility and decision making power that they should ideally have.
A lot of people have asked this rather fundamental question. While driving, what is the difference between a yellow and a white line on the road? Why are some of them broken lines and some of them continuous?
Well, it’s not that difficult to understand. So here they are. With pictures.
Note: This post only aims to highlight lane markings that are along the length of the road and not the width of the road. Those along the width are easy to understand: They are basically Rumble Strips, or Pedestrian (Zebra) Crossings.
Yellow vs White
There is no concrete standard for Yellow vs White, but Yellow is used in some countries such as Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada, the yellow line is used to separate two carriageways in an undivided dual-carriageway road. In simple terms it is used to separate traffic in different directions. In Sri Lanka, it is used for pedestrian crossings and related markings. However, they are slowly being replaced by white due to increased visibility.
A road with Yellow and White markers in Madrid. Photo Credit: Amigos Madrid
Now, for the lines themselves.
Broken Lines
A two laned road in the Rann of Kutchh with a broken white line in the centre. Image copyright Mohammed Shafiyullah, CC-BY-SA 4.0 International, Wikimedia Commons.
A single broken line indicates that traffic can move normally on its own lane, but can cross over to the other side to overtake. In the case of dual carriageway roads, this would mean you can drive on either side of the road, and can change lanes, but with caution. On single carriageway roads, it would mean stick to your lane, the other side is for vehicles travelling in the opposite direction, but if it is empty for a significant distance, you can cross over to overtake a vehicle in front of you.
Single Solid Line
A solid white line at Šafárikovo námestie square in Bratislava near Starý most bridge. Image copyright Aktron/Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
A single solid line has different meanings in different countries. In India, it would mean no overtaking, or no crossing the line, except in case of a dire emergency. Turning, however is allowed, in to a lane or a gate. On single carriageway roads, it is usually found in areas where there is a sharp curve or a steep gradient, like in ghat sections. On dual carriageway roads, it is commonly found around intersections and traffic signals, thereby implying that vehicles maintain lane discipline and stay in their respective lanes while waiting at a signal.
Double Solid Line
Double Solid Lines on the Colin Knott Drive/Olympic Highway looking south bound on the Boorooma Street overpass. Image copyright Bidgee, CC-BY-SA-3.0 Unported/Wikimedia Commons.
Double Solid Lines are a more stringent version of single solid lines. In India, they are used where the road isn’t a proper dual carriageway road, but each carriageway is more than one lane (But less than two) wide. In simple terms, it is used on roads that are three-ish lanes wide. In Sri Lanka, it is considered on par with a solid median and attracts a heavy penalty if crossed. Vehicles cannot take a turn when a double line is there.
Single Solid + Single Broken Line
Single Solid Line and Single Broken Line on US 84 in Wayne County, MS near Tokio Frost Bridge Rd. Image copyright Xnatedawgx, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported/Wikimedia Commons.
A rather interesting combination, the Single Solid and Solid Broken line combination does exactly what the two are supposed to do as described earlier. For vehicles travelling on the side of the solid line, crossing it is not allowed, while those travelling on the side of the broken line can. It is normally found in rare stretches, mostly in areas with both a steed gradient and a sharp curve that makes maneuvering difficult in one direction but not the other.
Zig-Zag Lines
Wavy Zig Zag Lines Used Near a Pedestrian Crossing near St. Pauls Cathedral in England. Image copyright Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0 Unported.
The Wavy or Zig Zag Line, is another fascinating lane marking. Seldom seen in India, it seen across other Commonwealth Nations such as the United Kingdom or Sri Lanka. Its main purpose is to inform the motorist or driver that a Zebra Crossing or Pedestrian Crossing is coming ahead. Vehicles are generally not supposed to stop in the region with the zig-zag lines, but slow down and stop in front of the crossing itself.
The last and another interesting one is the diamond lane marker. Possibly never seen in India, it is commonly seen in the United States, Sri Lanka, Canada etc. Depending on where you are they have different meanings. In Sri Lanka, it is to inform the motorist of a pedestrian crossing, much ahead of the aforementioned wavy lines. In the US and Canada, it may be, among others:
Uber recently debuted its new Platform, Uber Movement (http://movement.uber.com) which will offer users access to its traffic data.
According to Uber’s blogpost on the same, Movement is meant to be a website that uses Uber’s data to help urban planners make informed decisions about our cities.
Now this might actually work out to be the best thing to happen to us!
Let us take Mumbai and Bengaluru as an example.
Both BEST and BMTC and an eTicketing system and an ITS with a vehicle tracker in place. With these two systems, the transco is able to:
Place the bus on a map.
Compute the number of tickets sold on different stages of different bus routes.
Superimpose the two onto a single dataset to identify where maximum passengers are and and what time. Using this data, one can come to the conclusion of time taken between two stops, and what time people are more or most likely to catch the bus.
Now, what can Uber’s data add to this dateset:
Average traffic conditions. While this can be ascertained using the Vehicle Tracking in Buses as well, Uber’s data is bound to be a little more accurate.
Alternative routes between two points. Since Uber relies on Google Maps for its navigation, it normally is able to plot multiple routes from Point A to Point B. This data can be used to launch additional bus routes.
The purpose of a Public Transport Undertaking like BEST or BMTC using Uber Movement’s data is to provide streamlined traffic flow.
Now let us take a real-world example:
Bengaluru
Building up on a previous post (Stuck in Traffic: How I Might Have Averted a Major Jam), let us assume that one would have to travel between Arekere Gate on Bannerghatta Road and the junction of 5th Main and 17th Cross in HSR Layout. As discussed earlier, there are two main routes. Traffic data from Google, Uber and BMTC’s ticket sales would be able to place things on a map. Since BMTC does not have a smart card system in place, it would be difficult to ascertain if the passengers disembarking at Jayadeva are taking a bus towards HSR Layout. If it did have a Smart Card system, or load passes onto an RFID card, this could be ascertained easily.
BMTC can then, based on traffic movements and passenger loads, introduce minibuses between Arekere and HSR Layout via Bomanahalli during peak hours.
Mumbai
Here, let us assume that one has to travel from Cadbury Junction, Thane to SEEPZ, Andheri.
Buses have two routes. Some of them like AS-422 take the Cadbury Junction-Marathon Chowk, Mulund Check Naka, Bhandup, Powai Route. Some, take the direct route by continuing on the Easter Express Highway and taking a right turn onto the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road and then proceeding on to SEEPZ. Uber Movement can help BEST figure out when there is maximum congestion, and using its dataset on how many passengers and where they travel from and to, plan a more optimal route.
At the end of the day, Uber Movement is nothing revolutionary, it is merely Google Maps with a little more data, but more data is good for all of us.
What Uber Movement will certainly help us with is planning of land acquisition for newer transit projects, wider roads, metro lines, et al. But those are capital intensive projects. Newer bus routes would be the first step to implementing a full-scale transformation project. It will help make the city’s people smart, irrespective of whether city itself is smart or not.
Mumbai: BEST has devised a new three-pronged strategy to curb accidents with its fleet.
A BEST bus that was involved in an accident. Photo: News18
Among them are:
CCTVs
Smaller Tyres
Larger Mirrors
Survey report by BEST in March 2015 . Image credits: Mid-Day
CCTVs
BEST has written to the state government to set up more CCTV cameras on streets. BEST wants to be able to monitor its drivers en route, monitor their driving skills and safety, and identify corridors where accidents are common. This should be extended to the buses too. One would wish that the requested CCTVs are for the exterior of the bus too, something which currently only the Volvo fleet has: A CCTV camera on the top of the rear window panel that can be monitored by a display next to the steering wheel.All BEST buses, barring the Volvo fleet have two CCTV cameras in them, as part of the agreement with Verve Compusoft for the PIS and Advertising system. However, BEST themselves are unsure as to how many of them are functional, and like the PIS, it is also in bad shape and nothing can be done due to a badly enforced contract. While more CCTVs is one thing, whether they will be properly utilised, is another thing.
Smaller Tyres
BEST has decided to get smaller tyres for its buses, as a alternative to installing a speed governor. While this might be great for certain routes, care must be taken and larger tyres must be present on buses that ply on Express or Long Distance routes such as A74Express or A8Express which ply on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and the Eastern Freeway as well as go on top of almost every flyover on the Western and Easter Express Highways respectively.
6,500 new tyres will be fitted in 775 Tata buses (out of the total 3,800 buses that BEST has) and will be procured at a cost of ₹4.72 crore. The older nylon tyres are 9.00 x 20-14PR while the newer nylon tyres will be 9.00 x20-16PR.
Speed Governors are mandatory on heavy vehicles like buses, trucks and trailers under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989.
Mirrors
The Undertaking will also install newer mirrors. The new mirrors, with a dimension of 380mm x 190 mm is being tested. The existing mirrors are 40% smaller. If they are found to be useful, it will be retrofitted into 303 new buses and then gradually into the rest of the fleet as well.
Overall, BEST seems to have done a great deal of study to reduce accidents. We wish them all the BEST (pun intended) and hope they succeed.
