Colour-coded and going crazy

Colour-coded and going crazy
By: Chetan R Date: 2009-10-15 Place: Bangalore




Idea of city buses sporting different colours to help people identify type of service offered is going from sublime to ridiculous, what with just too many colours to remember, feel experts

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is going from colour savvy to colour heavy, believe experts.

The recent inclusion of 'Big Blue' buses in its fleet, which has buses that come colour-coded according to the different services they offer, is a threat to the process of creating a unique 'Brand BMTC', fear the experts.

"The colour scheme is affecting BMTC adversely," said M N Shrihari, traffic and transport adviser to the chief minister. "More colours only lead to confusion. This also affects the branding exercise."

Opponents of the colour-coding idea now plan to write to the BMTC stating their objections. BMTC runs more than 5,000 public transport buses every day in the city, and has added various new colours over the years with the introduction of different types of buses.



Confused palette

More than seven colour schemes exist today. Any more, and experts fear it may affect the BMTC's recognition as a brand.

"We will write to the BMTC to have a uniform colour scheme for all services except the Volvos," said Shrihari. "Too many colours affects BMTC, as outsiders find it difficult to recognise BMTC services."
But BMTC officials do not agree that their scheme of assigning different colours to each one of the bus services is leading to confusion.

Experts call for survey to know if colour-coding is of help or a uniform colour is better

Besides, they say they are only implementing the recommendations put forward by ABIDe (Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure and Development Taskforce).
"Different colours are being assigned to help people easily choose the service
they want," said Sampangi Rame Gowda, manager, operations. "Moreover, we implement recommendations of ABIDe."
Shrihari, who is also a member of ABIDe, has decided to recommend the BMTC conduct a survey on the issue and go for a uniform colour scheme.
"We will ask them to conduct a survey initially," said Shrihari. "Then, BMTC should arrive at a conclusion on using a uniform colour."

Colour commute
>>Blue-and-White for ordinary buses
>>Biscuit Cream for the semi-luxury Pushpak buses
>>Red for the air-conditioned Volvo-make Vayu Vajra buses
>>Saffron for the Atal Sarige that are mostly used by the poor
>>Pink for the women's special buses
>>Plain Blue for the Centre's JNNURM scheme buses
>>Green for the Big 10 that ply on major arterial roads