Breakthrough Ideas for Public Bus Transport

Making Public Bus Transport in the City of Pune more acceptable and yet without any Subsidy

Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) runs the public bus transport system in Pune, India. Through this e-book, the author intends to provide a creative and sustainable transportation model for PMPML to provide good service to passengers using little to no subsidy and persuade them to use public transport rather than to depend on individual means of transport like scooters, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, and cabs. The key unfamiliar ideas which make this possible are (i) Bus Hopping, i.e., the journey is in several buses in succession instead of a single bus. This helps to reduce waiting time for passengers without adverse impact on occupancy. (ii) Using the point-to-point operation of buses (that is, without halting at intermediate stops). This improves the economy. Besides, boarding a bus at the starting point is easier for the passengers than doing so at an intermediate stop where the halting time is very brief.

Table Of Contents

1
Estimate the Hidden Cost of Using Public Transportation - Case of The City of Pune
There is, of course, the fare PMPML charges. A passenger has to walk to the nearest bus stop, which often takes 5-10 minutes. Then they wait at least another 5-10 minutes to get into the bus they want to travel...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
2
Reducing the Waiting Time
A simple-minded way to reduce the waiting time would be to increase the frequency of the buses. But if this is done without thought, it can very easily and severely affect the number of passengers carried in each bus...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
3
A Simple Theoretical Model - Bus Hopping
Suppose there are 4 Starting Points A, B, C, and D and 4 Destination Points namely P, Q, R, and S. Let M be a common point to all the routes, i.e. the possible bus routes are AMP, AMQ, AMR AMS BMP, BMQ, BMR BMS...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
4
Identifying the Service Zones for Pune
Looking at a map of Pune, it is natural to identify the eight regions along with different directions. Pune has grown along the major roads leading out from Pune in different directions...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
5
The HUBs
In each region, we identify 5-10 important bus stations, 2-3 km apart. We will call them ** HUB **. We divide each region into sub-regions around the HUBs. From each HUB, two kinds of buses ply...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
6
Designing the Bus Routes
A typical bus journey will consist of three parts...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
7
HUB-to-HUB Journeys
Let us consider the case where the SH and DH are in the same region. The first thing to do is to have point-to-point bus routes between a given HUB and the HUBs relatively near that HUB...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
8
Long-Distance Routes
The SH and DH may be in the same region - North, Northwest, West, ... , Northeast or Central OR they may be in different regions.
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
9
Point-to-Point Bus Operation
We have been saying several times that the connections are by point-to-point buses. Point-to-point travel has many advantages...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
10
Stress of Driving Own Vehicle in Crowded Pune
If one is driving a personal vehicle, the journey is quite taxing and requires care and attention. Any mistaken decision can lead to an accident which can be painful and expensive...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
11
Roads Choked by Individual Transport
We must urge and encourage all who can, to use public transport. Otherwise, if more and more people use individual transport the roads will be choked with the traffic. All the people will just not be able to travel easily...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
12
Publicity for New Ideas
If these ideas are accepted, PMPML cannot just unilaterally go ahead and implement them. These ideas are different and the proposed structure of the routes is very different from that of the existing routes...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
13
Conclusion
The proposed system uses point-to-point travel by the buses. This in turn depends crucially on passengers willing to accept Bus Hopping. Certainly, passengers would prefer to use just one bus...
Last updated on: Dec 22, 2021
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