BMTC Diaries: Burning sensation

These days I have reduced my frequency of travel in bus and rely on company transport. But I had and still keep having many experiences and thoughts on which I probably will write. I have this bad habit (one of the many I have) of postponing things with an intention of fine-tuning it a bit. This applies to my updating the blog also. So you may see very less updates of the blog. Somehow have to get over that. Any suggestions/tips/tricks?
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Honk! I was woken up in my bus on the way to office. The bus was at a junction and I had dozed off peacefully after boarding as the bus was almost empty and I had got a comfortable seat. Cool and fresh Bangalore breeze had made me slip off into the ‘nirvana’ state soon.

This honk came from a car driver who, I think, wanted to move ahead without waiting for the signal to turn Green. I was looking around and it was a big junction on Residency road. There were about 10-12 two-wheelers, 4-5 cars, 3 buses, 4-5 auto-rickshaws at the junction. Some of them were honking impatiently as if those honking will make the signal change quickly. Two things stuck me.

All this impatience is of no use. You leave this signal at the speed of a rocket, just to reach the next signal first. You will reach the next signal to only greet all those slow starters from the previous signal who will slowly come and stand beside you in this signal or junction. So no point racing ahead when you see ‘Green’.

Second point was a bit statistical which will require some data backing to it. I could see around 25 vehicles at a signal to one-side, so around 75 still vehicles at any given point (25 x 3, assuming one signal is green and vehicles at that side is moving.) My wild guesstimate tells me there would be minimum 100 such signals in Bangalore. So total 100 x 75 = 7500 vehicles at a peak hour which are still but the engine are ‘On’.

Later on I did a simple calculation as below based on the following assumptions:
10 cars and 30 2-wheelers at a junction, including 3 roads.
100 junctions in Bangalore alone
10 hours per day when signal is active
Car gets a 12 km per liter and 2-wheeler gets 60 km.

Going by the above, an amount between 30 to 40 Lakhs PER DAY is burnt together by people in Bangalore waiting a signal. This is just the story of Bangalore. Assume there are 10 other cities in India with same 100 or more signals and above assumptions. A clean 3 to 4 Crores per day? And add other cities in India with tweaking the assumptions a bit. I am sure not less than 5 Crores PER DAY (around 1500 Crores PER YEAR) is spent at traffic signals by burning fuel. So imagine the savings if you just switch off the engine for 1 minute at a signal.

This thought was alarming to me. How much money & fuel (a non-renewable source of energy) can be saved by just a small twist of our hand. Amazing as well as alarming. I always used to switch off the engine of my car or bike at a junction due to selfish reason, to save my money. But now realizing the bigger picture, I urge each one of you to practice this to save Earth.

BMTC Diaries: Cool Conductors

It was yet another day when I hurriedly walked to the bus stop at around 6.30 am. I quickly checked my pockets to see if any change is there. Lucky, I have got some change for the tickets. Conductors are an integral part of the BMTC journey, and for any bus journey for that matter. And I think Bangalore is one place where you find a lot of feminine crowd also doing this job.
These conductors in BMTC are very smart. They adopt certain techniques to make more unaccounted moolah!

Technique 1
If you require a ticket for Rs. 3 or 4, and you give a denomination of coins 2 + 1 or 2 + 2, then they will try to strike a ‘deal’ with you if possible. They will return the 1 Re. coin or the 2 Rs. coin to you. The deal is that for a Rs. 3 or 4 tickets you need to pay only Rs.2 and no ticket. He will just return the ‘excess’ amount and walk away as if nothing has happened.

Now, its up to you to feel joyful about the deal that saved Rs. 1 or 2 for you, or worry on if any ticket inspector is on his way from the next stop. Either ways, Mr. Conductor is happy. He has got some (unaccounted) money, and assuming he does it with around 75-100 people per day, he has a decent ‘earning’. Also he is not responsible for people travelling without ticket.

Technique 2
In case you give a currency of 20 or 50 or 100 for a ticket of, say, Rs. 8, and unfortunately you don’t have change to exact amount. The gentleman conductor will scribble the balance in the reverse of the ticket (you get a ticket in case he doesn’t apply the Technique 1 above). Most of the cases he will do it even if he can pay the balance then and there. After all we cannot dig into his purse and check for the balance, right?

Now it is up to your presence of mind that you ask for the balance while you get down. If you missed it, you missed it, that’s it. I think the conductors adopt this because most often people forget (unless one is very much aware and vigilant about the balance that is due, unfortunately I am not one among that gang). So if a balance of 2 or 5 or 10 or whatever is due and you get down, and forget to ask for that, bus would have left by the time you recollect this. If a conductor manages to owe big amounts like this to about 30-40 people per day, and people like me travel in his bus, he can make around 200-300 bucks per day easily. Smart! Isn’t it?

Both these techniques are used widely by conductors, both male and female, and unless we customers are vigilant and smart, they will really take us for a ride in their gigantic bus. By the way, my bus has come and I am careful to hand over the exact change or get the balance promptly even though the conductor is a pretty lady. Oh no, the bus is moving, let me get in..

BMTC Diaries: Vroom…..

BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation), for those who are wondering what it is, is the government owned city & suburban bus service. Find more about BMTC in BMTC website, and in Wikipedia.

I am using the service of BMTC to commute to work. I have company transport, but since the timings are not convenient to me, I use BMTC to go to office and to return I use office transport. I’ve been using BMTC’s service for the past 3-4 years, except for about an year.

In this series I share my experiences in the daily BMTC travel that I do to office. The morning Bangalore, people, BMTC experiences, that I get during my 1 hour journey to office. The sequence of my travel is of 3 types; Bus-Bus-Bus-Walk (90% of times), Bus-Bus-Walk (8% of times), Bus-Walk (2%); which means, in the first case I have to change 3 buses and walk about a kilometer to my office, as my office is at the end of a business park, and so are the other types.

I set out at around 6 AM in the morning, or at times 6.30, or 7 to the nearby bus stop. I stay in Jayanagar 4-T Block (South Bangalore), and my office is in a place called Nagawara (North Bangalore), so has to cut-across the city.

The route: In the Bus-Bus-Bus-Walk scheme, I take my first bus to Jayanagar 4th Blcok, and from 4th Block another bus which pass through Jayanagar 3rd Block, Lalbagh gardens, Shanthi Nagar BMTC Bus Stand, Residency Road, M.G Road and reach Shivaji Nagar. From Shivaji Nagar I take another bus which goes to Yelahanka, which pass through Cunningham road, Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station, Tannery Road, and finally Nagawara. The entire trip takes about 1 hour in the morning hours before 8.

During the first few days of my travel, I used to go to the bus stop, carrying my bag, somewhat neatly dressed. There used to be very few people at the bus-stop, like some flower or vegetable sellers, a few students who are going for their early morning tuitions and very few early office goers like me. Initial days, I used to get these who-is-this-guy kind of looks from the vendors, and a few other people since they used to see office goers only little late.

More any my daily experiences are on the way. Do let me know what you feel on this article.

Love
Gopu