Thursday, October 19, 2006

The Bangalore bus tragedy

The bus accident in Bangalore yesterday was a major one, but I am sure not very surprising for many Bangaloreans like me. The driving skills of the bus drivers in Bangalore is something which is not appreciated by anyone sharing the road space with these buses. You can never be sure when they will decide to change lanes all of a sudden without any indication(as it is, lane discipline is something which Bangalore traffic seems to ignore blissfully). Their stops at the designated bus stops is quite often at an angle of of 45 degrees to the bus stop, causing huge inconvenience to the traffic behind. On narrow roads, these buses, driving in the centre of the road, ensure that no vehicle can pass from either side.

The bus drivers are no less than the rulers of the road(since on the road, your power is decided by the size of the vehicle you own). Do they realise how much inconvenience a bad bus driving can cause, because of the sheer size of the vehicle? Do they realise that a small mistake by them can claim several lives?

Maybe the government should consider printing complaint phone numbers behind each bus, similiar to the cabs. And pay heed to the complaints. Maybe then, there is some hope !!!

6 comments:

Venkat said...

I agree! i hate to justify mob fury, but I think bus drivers need some sense driven into them.

I think privatisation would help..

the reasons cabs have those messages are because they belong to private agencies competing with each other for a market share and hence have to take care of quality and stuff like that..
but something needs to be done soon..

Anonymous said...

Rajni,

YOu bring some interesting observations on your blog. This sub-culture is worrying to me, frankly.

I have often criticized the inherent hegemony involved in government monopoly in any facet of our lives. Our "public" transport system is certainly one of those instances. We have to get out of this Nehruvian mindset -- look at the competition that KSRTC got from private operators, esp to N. Karnataka. NOt only did were quality of buses much better, so was the flexibility and the timings, etc. in short, you perform well, you survive. Else, you perish.

We need to get the same type of competition in our local buses too. Get out of this unionization bullcrap and let us allow competition and teh free markets to determine who survives and who doesn't. Otherwise, we're left with a situation wherein employess of BMTC, protected by their unions, have no remorse for us the customers -- WHO PAY THEIR GODDAMN SALRIES!! We're customers, damn it, not their servants. When we introduce free markets on them, tehir sick attitudes will automatically change. more power toc ompetition. Let us hope for a more libertarian structire. Enough of this damn monopoly, that is killing us )literally and figuratively). How many more people in Blore should be dead before we wake up, people?

Sriraj

Anonymous said...

best site

Anonymous said...

I googled for "Bangalore buses need to change" and I ran into your blog.
Its time Bangalore public transport improved. I don't understand what kindo of people they hire as drivers and conductors!
Today, the driver refused to stop at the designated bus stop just because I din't get off at the signal preceding it. I din't pay to get off in the middle of traffic..which is dangerous!
To add to it he forced me to get off at a turning and I almost got run over by another BTS ! After all this morning scare I had to walk a long distance to get to my destination. The worst part is that even when I asked him to stop he refused! Even arguing was of no avail! Obviously there are more private vehicles on the road! I also feel vehicle numbers of buses should be in English, so that if we want to register a complaint, we can!
We are asked to vote....but for what?? I seriously don't care if the politician was my uncle. If he can't change Bangalore, I wouldn't want to make him my CM.

Rajni said...

Anonymous,

My blog has not been very active lately, so I was pleasantly surprised to see someone read an article here and leave his comment.

I truly relate to your experience with the BMTC. It was only last week that one bus ran over a 3 year old and killed him. This and many such incidents have still not been able to make the concerned authorities sit up and take notice. We really haven't seen any drastic change in the way the buses operate or the attitude of the drivers.

After I read your comment, I googled for a place where we can lodge complaints against BMTC and came across this site :

http://www.rajajinagara.kar.nic.in/JSP/complaints.jsp

Not sure how effective the complaint management system is, but if we don't try, we will never know. Better to scream than to let issues slip by. Media is growing stronger by the day and the public should not shy away from talking any more.

Hope that we are able to bring about a change soon !!!

- Rajni

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I registered my complaint. Thanks for the link. Hope everyone does the same.