Ramp up capacity

Ramp up capacity
A High-Capacity Bus System could be the answer to our public transport woes
Ashwini Y S | TNN

Bangalore: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation has been asking for this for a long time, but little has been done. It’s all set to check out the Bus Rapid System (BRT) or the High Capacity Bus System (HCBS), which could ease traffic congestion.
Between 1998 and 2005, BMTC added more than 1,000 buses and now has around 5,000 buses and transports around 32 lakh passengers per day in about 55,000 trips per day with 3,800 schedules.
Co-founder, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Swati Ramanathan says there is a lot of scope for high capacity buses in the city, provided they are designed in a manner to suit existing road conditions.
“The London bus network is one of the largest and most comprehensive urban systems in the world. Each weekday, 7,500 London buses carry 5.4 million passengers over 700 different routes. The bus services are operated by private operators, which work under contract to London Buses.’’
She said it was important for BMTC to allow market forces to operate, like in Indore, where buses are run on a PPP model.
Citing the system in Curitiba, Brazil, she said special buses and bus-stop designs had been developed for easy access to buses. “This is combined with provision of segregated bus lanes where necessary, traffic light priority for buses and moving buses in platoons. Such a specially designed system can carry up to 25,000-30,000 passengers in one hour in each direction,’’ she said.
Almost 80% of all trips in Kolkata are via some form of public transport, compared to about 60% in Mumbai, and 42% in both Chennai and Delhi. More than 41% of Bangalore’s population uses bus as a means of transport, she said. “There are seven critical parameters that need to be examined in evaluating the mass transport choice of each city — comprehensive connectivity, convenience; financial affordability, frequency, reliability, safety & environment standards, and urban planning and aesthetics. All modes of travel need to planned together to provide this.’’
Chair Associate, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), IIT, Delhi, Geetam Tiwari says that HCBSs combine most qualities of light rail transit with the flexibility and lower operating, maintenance, and capital cost of buses. “HCBS vehicles can operate on exclusive travel ways, high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, expressways, or ordinary roadways in almost any dense urban environment. Also, HCBSs can combine intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technology, traffic signal priority, rapid, limited
stop service, clean, quiet, and aesthetically pleasing vehicles, enhanced shelters and stops, rapid and convenient fare collection, and facilitated integration with existing and future land-use policy.’’
Modern High Capacity Bus Systems (HCBS) integrated with information and communication technologies provide such an option for decongesting and improving urban transport situations.
“In most cities, buses are still the most widely used mode of conveyance and will continue to remain so. Therefore, it is crucial that urban planners start looking at innovative ways by which the efficiency of bus transport can be improved to cater to the growing urban population,’’ she said.