BMTC and its plans

Ever since BMTC introduced Volvos, the demand for these buses have been going up. Hence the corporation has been introducing more and more such air-conditioned buses on the Bangalore roads

During the last month more such routes were announced to be operated and one such was 500D. It serves the Hebbal to Silk Board up and down. I was quite happy that for the first time this bus would adorn the ring road on this side of Bangalore too

However, i have been regularly watching and have also tried catching these buses but what i notice is that they are hardly available. The timetable given on the bus operator's site looks like its yet another scheme on paper... but they don't operate those many schedules

Enthusiasm

People get carried away with enthusiasm often i guess

Volvo buses in Bangalore

During the last week, i was trying out BMTC method to commute to office, giving my Logan some rest. In the quest to ensure that i get some freedom from driving and also give the environment some reduction in carbon... made it a point that i travel by the bus. additionally i had a saving of some 80 Rs per day from the non-use of petrol

I was so enthused in doing this, that i had to walk 15 min to the bus stand from Home and another 10 from the bus stand to office. Nevertheless i made it and quite enjoyed it. One of the evenings, while returning back home i decided to wait and then travel on the BMTC Volvo.... to my dismay and disappointment it never turned up and that meant that i waited for A bus which would give me atleast a seat, it wasn't to be.

My enthusiasm to travel in a Volvo and thus reduce traffic on the roads made me to do such a pathetic wait, which otherwise i would hesitate or rather not do.

Traffic Cops

Bangalore is a hi tech city and our traffic department has implemented some excellent systems to monitor traffic and its violations. The new BTrac project has opened up a centralized traffic management center. Cameras - still and video - send in photos & video of traffic at various places in the city. Now when all this is going on our people are still loathe to understand that one has to follow the rules laid out. We are in a hurry to cross the line as earliest as possible... well what can a camera do on-site if you jump the signal nothing, except that it gives some late realization hopefully to the law breaker via other modes

Here comes our age old style of policemen policing the circles and junctions. While i was waiting at the mercy of a Volvo bus at Hennur circle, the traffic policemen were on the ground supervising and also 'catching' violators.

One amongst the lot is overtly ambitious and flying around the huge circle which has high traffic concentration and that too in the evening. Others in the gang are only working on the towards Kothanur side. My man in contention i observe to be hyper active and enthused. Blowing his whistle and running to the violators, stopping some and others run away. I was impressed, he managed to even stop a BMTC mini bus because this guy jumped the signal. Next was a stylish Toyota Innova... A BPO driver zooooming on his Chevy Tavera. All of them get Caught and our constable directs the offenders to the 'Sahebru' [ the boss ]

While all this is going.. the signal towards Banaswadi clears from Hebbal side and quickly our constable switches on & off the controls, which means this signal now is going to turn RED. He knew that and started running towards the road side from the panel. Its Red and an Auto driver jumps as usual and there is our flying constable... straight into the Auto i thought but the hooligan runs away.. our constable does not think he lost, because he spits into the vehicle and that gives his ego a boost, wipes his mush clear of more saliva and then calls the auto driver classic abuses

Well.. all this going on and our Sahebru was by the side of the road buying a pirated CD i was quite shocked to see him pay the vendor