Comments on: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Trial Run Fails Miserably in Delhi…

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:34:58 +0000

This seems to be one of the top results when you google for brt delhi! So it would be useful if people who have experienced its pros/ cons could post their experiences here to build up an informed debate.

By: Yash

Yash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:19:18 +0000

Hi,
I have gone through some of the comments & found some people who have given comments are not the daily commuters of BRT. Just to test for a day in Bus & then by car will not give the correct picture of the problems on BRT.
Another thing please do not turn this problem to Car owner & Bus commuters. Here the question is how to provide better roads without impacting anyone.

Why I can see that BRT is a failure is:

1.) If you are coming from Mulchand towards Chirag Delhi, around 800 meters before Chirag Delhi flyover, traffic authorities converted Cycle road to all vehicles road to take a left turn (towards Nehru place) & which is good step at least for people going towards GK 2, Nehru Place but shows failure of BRT plan… as now every vehicle on that stratch is on cycle road, who all wants to take left turn…

2.) Shake Sarai signal (near Authority) is usually turned off (Just blinking amber light) now a days to accommodate the traffic , which is the another sign of BRT failure. To my surprise, many time, this traffic light remains in the blinking mode (Not functioning) even in the Night (around 11 pm) when not much traffic no the road, which left this lights more vulnerable to accidents.

3.)If you are entering to the BRT from Mehrauli Badarpur road, It was a real mess. If you need to take U turn to Mehrauli, there was no lights for the U-turn. People who use to commute through Buses are standing in the middle of the road as they were not aware of if bus which they need to board will come to the bus stop or will go straight from the back. It seems at times that this is not a road rather a ground where people are in delimma on how/where to board the bus.

4.) If people who are coming from Mehrauli & need to take left turn to enter to the BRT, he has to struggle a lot as many time buses are parked there & there is no free left turn (which I believe could have been made easily) & on top of it, there is public convenience(which are locked & not functional) covering lots of space which should be demolished to make some more space.

I am not pointing fingers to anyone & firm believer that authorities must have noted all this issue & might have been working on, to provide the better driving experience on the BRT.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:12:28 +0000

I found a poll online which polled transit users AND drivers – not surprising transit users like it: http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/05/28/defying-media-spin-poll-shows-public-support-for-delhi-brt/

Isn’t that the point – to make transit a priority? If this is the case, then it appears that the Delhi BRT is doing very well indeed. Congratulations to Delhi.

By: Rakesh

Rakesh — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:16:34 +0000

BRT IS A GOOD SOLUTION FOR COMMUTERS WHO TRAVEL BY BUSES.ONLY IT NEEDS BETTER MANAGEMENT N PUBLICITY
PEOPLE HV TO BE EDUCATED ABT HOW THEY CAN USE BRT CORRIDORS,ALSO BRT MUST ENSURE THAT NO AUTOS OR TWO WHEELERS PLY ON BRT CORRIDORS>

By: the delhi metro « Our Delhi Struggle

the delhi metro « Our Delhi Struggle — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:27:12 +0000

[...] The Metro is the pride of Delhi; its managing director, Dr. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, is spoken of with universal reverence as a man who can create miracles on time and on budget in a city littered with civic projects gone horribly wrong. [...]

By: Vasudha Rajgarhia

Vasudha Rajgarhia — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:28:29 +0000

The B.R.T. bus corridor is really very helpful it even lessens danger on the road.It is very useful but it even causes a lot of traffic which is the real problem.Thats why there should not have been so many changes together.

By: Dr Joglekar

Dr Joglekar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:01:12 +0000

Unfortunately a number of factors are being over looked in these discussions. Concepts such as cost effectiveness and opportunity costs remain forgotten. Equally to run after a dream called BRT without having basic pre-requisites in place is nothing but foolish. For more details on my views with 15 embedded links please read http://better.pune.googlepages.com/WhyBRTinIndiadoesnotexciteme.htm

By: C V BALAKRISHNAN

C V BALAKRISHNAN — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:04:50 +0000

The BRT has lot of flaws right from the selection of route to design. The BRT should have been tested on the ring road instead of the present route from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate. Ring road has enough space to have a cycle track, pedestrian path and a dedicated bus lane on the left side with three lane or four lanes for the cars in the centre on each direction. Wherever necessary there are provision to widen the road. Added to this they could have constructed a sub-way / overbridge at all bus stops thereby reducing the necessity to put a manual signal at every bus stop for commuters to cross over from the centre of the road to the other side. The cross cutting of roads on the ring road is also minimum, thereby reducing further the need for any traffic signal. The present route apart from being a waste of resource for construction, is causing national wastage of fuel, due to traffic jams (especially when international fues costs are going up everyday). Government should evaluate all these vis-a-vis the false achievement of success that they are claiming. It is surprising to note that although the test run is going on, the encroachment / rouble is yet to be cleared on this route.

By: Arvind

Arvind — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:03:46 +0000

Media in India is focussed around people who drive cars including the rich and middle class. Majority of car owners in Delhi firmly belive that their right to use road space is superior to those of bus users, bicyclists and pedestrians. Thus they hate BRT because it gives dedicated road space to underpreviliged users of three hated modes of transport. The non-car-users are usually less educated, with little or no means and have no access to internet. Thus, non-car-users do not have a voice and their opinion is never reported by the media. Media in Delhi has been biased in reporting everything about BRT. I do not find that strange because all those who write for media are car users or concersely BRT haters.

By: Dario Hidalgo

Dario Hidalgo — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:14:37 +0000

Not all the media is covering just the car’s perspective. See this interesting survey:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048558
Hope the initial problems in Delhi, which have been faced by most bus improvements in developing cities worldwide, are solved soon, and the system continues its expansion. This will benefit the mayority of the people, specially the car-free low income population.