BMTC( Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) previously known as BTS( Bangalore Transport Service) underwent a name change to try and rid it of its reputation for accidents. Whenever an accident occurred on the roads it was a bus one would see in the papers the next day standing among the ruins of the wall of someone’s home.
Its inability to keep buses running on time also causes a lot of hardships for commuters as one cannot be sure of whether one can reach a destination on time or not. This is the reason for the increasing tribe of black and yellow autorickshaws.
On the city outskirts where it once ruled, the hardships it caused commuters gave rise to maxi-cabs. There are protests that overloaded maxi-cabs cause accidents but what caused the use of maxi-cabs is the insensitivity of the BMTC to commuter needs.
The BMTC bus all over city if it arrives on time( which is extremely doubtful) will either stop a distance before the bus stop or long after the bus stop forcing commuters to alight far away from the stop or force commuters to chase the bus they want to board. If there is only one person waiting the bus to disembark at a particular stop he has to risk life and limb as he will be sometimes forced to take a running leap and land among heavy traffic as the driver cannot be bothered to stop at the bus stop and as a concession to the commuter may slow down. A similar situation prevails for those wishing to embark.
In such a situation one is forced to look for alternative means of transport leading to rise in pollution and accidents. How useful would a Metro Bus operating on similar lines will remain to be seen.
I would like to suggest this plan to you so that it can be ensured BMTC buses stop at bus stops for passengers.
Buses and bustops can be fitted with small radio transceivers operating at very low and weak frequencies, which can communicate with each other only if they are very close and opposite the corresponding transceiver.
Buses will activate the bus stop transceiver after coming to a halt next to it by its own transceiver sending a beep. The bus stop transceiver after receiving the beep will transmit the bus stop name or number at the same frequency followed by three to five beeps spaced at one second or two second intervals. The bus transceiver will receive the bus stop transmission and record it along with its own bus number for downloading it later at the bus terminus by the controller or transmit it immediately on reception at another frequency to the controller at the bus terminus along with its own bus number.
This information can be used along with a digitised map of Bangalore at the controller station at the terminus to obtain in real-time the bus position in the streets of Bangalore.
There can also be an interactive radio hookup between the drivers and the controller.
The bus drivers can be given small bonuses for each bus stop’s set of beeps so that the bus drivers will wait only at bus stops for passengers for a minimum time of three to five seconds and so he won’t stop before a bus-stop or long after a bus stop and wait for passengers forcing them to run to catch the bus and he also won’t force passengers to jump off or jump onto moving buses at bus-stops. This will help the young and the old as well as students. Also bus drivers won’t all arrive at a bus stop at the same time but leave a small time gap between the arrivals and departures of the buses as they otherwise won’t get their bonuses thereby streamlining the flow of buses at bus stops.