[am1m]

Originally Posted by hserus

The top management, finance, sales type people do prefer to be closer to the city centre than worker bees doing coding or testing I guess.

I've said this before, the guys making the decision to move to these horribly connected IT parks are the ones most shielded by the detrimental effects of these stupid decisions. It's an open secret that the main reason why our company moved to one of these parks on the ORR was because out of the 3 top decision makers, two had villas and apartments in the residential property attached to the park and the 3rd was leaving for the US in a few months anyway. I though this must be an isolated case but last month I was talking with the head of a small startup currently located in EGL. He told me that for some time there was a push to relocate to one of the posh IT parks in the ORR and a lot of it came from the HR head. Eventually they figured out the chap lived very close to that location. Fortunately they ditched the move because most employees threatened to quit if it happened.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by am1m

I've said this before, the guys making the decision to move to these horribly connected IT parks are the ones most shielded by the detrimental effects of these stupid decisions. It's an open secret that the main reason why our company moved to one of these parks on the ORR was because out of the 3 top decision makers, two had villas and apartments in the residential property attached to the park and the 3rd was leaving for the US in a few months anyway. I though this must be an isolated case but last month I was talking with the head of a small startup currently located in EGL. He told me that for some time there was a push to relocate to one of the posh IT parks in the ORR and a lot of it came from the HR head. Eventually they figured out the chap lived very close to that location. Fortunately they ditched the move because most employees threatened to quit if it happened.

As it is, it has become cheaper for corporations to offshore IT work to Spain than it is to do so in Tier 1 cities in India. I have a friend in a Advisory company who have been telling Western companies to instead route their work to Spain for a while now since tier 1 Indian cities have become too costly.

On top of this, if our desi companies pull this sort of a tamasha because of which retaining talent becomes difficult, it will sound the death knell for these companies. Right now the accumulated competency in knowing all about and executing the outsourced work is all that's keeping Indian IT players in the chase. (Caveat - This is assuming that the top talent leaves the outsourcing sector altogether and migrates to product companies, startups etc.)

[wildsdi5530]

Originally Posted by am1m

There's no shortage of single-passenger private vehicles. My very own company transport runs at 60% capacity at best.BTW, company cabs and Uber/Ola are not public transport, they are part of the problem.
Why should public transport be cheap? If it makes profits great!
Not about being politically correct, think about the pollution levels in cities, the very air you and your family breathe.

I would assume that the people who are using their private transport have other pressing commitments on that day which require them to use their own car rather than the comfort of company bus/ cab. Or the timings are so poor. For example I drop my kids at school on my way to work. This is because the school bus pick up is at 0645 for school at 0815. Likewise drop off from school that gets over at 1500 is at 1630. I'm worried to leave my children in a school van for that long when the trip just takes 15 mins for the 7 kms by car.
Public transport should be cheap or free for it to really benefit the public. But BMTC works for profits only and even avoids routes where bus pass users are more. Moreover drivers and conductors work on a incentive based on revenue. Incentive may be provided on vehicle maintenance or punctuality.
Pollution is a given in cities, especially in Bangalore where vegetative pollution is also very high. Option of living in towns and villages is not possible for company workers and also for parents who don't believe in rural schools. So the only option is to continue the same.
I was in Chennai for 4 years till 2014 and the public transport there was much better. Bus tickets were 5 times cheaper that in Bangalore in the same time for similar distances. And the EMU was convenient. Vendors and courier boys were happy to use public transport. I do understand that Chennai is a coastal city and a Hemicircle and Bangalore being a full circle requires double the infrastructure.
Public transport in it's current mode will never be a success.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Pollution is a given in cities, especially in Bangalore where vegetative pollution is also very high. So the only option is to continue the same. Public transport in it's current mode will never be a success.

Fair enough, if the current situation is acceptable to the majority of the population, then I guess that's the reason things will continue as they are, getting progressively worse every year.

Might come a time when the situation, in terms of pollution levels, stress or road commute times will become unacceptable to the majority. Things might start to change then. Would be nice if it could happen proactively for a change, but i guess that's against human nature.

[LonelyPlanet]

This is a query for BHPians who regularly use ORR with White Topping sections
1) Was there water-logging witnessed in the recent showers ?
2) Was there an impact on braking distance due to wet cement roads ?

[Aniket6]

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

This is a query for BHPians who regularly use ORR with White Topping sections
1) Was there water-logging witnessed in the recent showers ?
2) Was there an impact on braking distance due to wet cement roads ?

No is my answer for both. (rode in heavy downpour on April 30 from tin factory to hebbal)
The white topped sections are so high off the ground and have channels on the side of road to disperse water on to the service roads! Infact, service roads were submerged whereas white topped roads were clear. This is true for ORR but might not hold good for other white-topped roads.

Since these roads are new, there was not any degraded braking ability noticed.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by binand

Maybe this is the intention. At least a planned side effect. Cheaper and less of a PR problem than lay offs.

Originally Posted by am1m

That, in fact, is actually one of the most effective measures that we can take. It's going to be very, very hard to do of course, but if a significant number of people do quit companies or just refuse job offers from companies that are located in hard to reach areas - this is already happening to some extent with companies in the ORR - they will certainly be under some pressure to do something about it.

Sorry, provision of parking facility is one of the basic necessities of a building. If companies see people leaving due to such reasons as a positive thing, then we will have to continue the discussion on some thread related to how the industry is fairing in India. And this will be a bad idea for the company in the longrun. It will only be good if the company can fulfill the transportation needs of the employee as good as personal transport does, or if the location is very accessible for the employee by multiple means. This I agree. For example, a company which is located in the CBD where parking is indeed a premium can charge for it since the area is well connected by Metro, bus and so. In such a case, not even company transport is needed if some other benefit is given to compensate for. But thats not the case if a company like Infosys charges for parking, located away from the city and where public transport isnt very efficient. Its just a greedy way to make some extra bucks off their employees, if that has not already been happening.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by audioholic

This I agree. For example, a company which is located in the CBD where parking is indeed a premium can charge for it since the area is well connected by Metro, bus and so. In such a case, not even company transport is needed if some other benefit is given to compensate for.

Precisely. That's exactly what I was implying when I suggested that attrition due to commute hassles will end up putting pressure on companies. Companies need to relocate to areas well connected by public transport. Or put strategies in place that will allow employees to work remotely. Both of which will reduce the load on the roads. But having said that, the work done by these 10000+ employee service firms is not really cutting-edge or hi-tech. For each employee that leaves, there will be dozens of lower-cost options to replace them.

Originally Posted by audioholic

Its just a greedy way to make some extra bucks off their employees, if that has not already been happening.

Agreed, this is just cheap on the company's part. Not surprising really, given the company in question.

[TorqueyTechie]

It's funny when I see people complain about Infosys company transport. We used to always envy the people working in Infosys as they had multiple time options for pickup (I think every one hour or so starting from 6:30 until 10/11) and similar for the evening while our company had only one both ways. Also, they have/had a different fee based on the distance traveled.

As an aside, one of the suggestions I had given for my company too was to have similar transport options (plus variable charges) and to charge a fee for private vehicles. Alas, they constructed a big MLCP instead.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by locusjag

You should contrast this with Tamil Nadu's sick transport corporations. Most employees seek passive desk jobs from which they'd abscond or moonlight as real estate agents; a recent report says that the ruling party's affiliated Union will almost always assign all its members to these desk jobs. This means that in Tamil Nadu, there aren't enough drivers and conductors to meet the public's demand for transportation. There aren't enough mechanics to maintain the buses in working order. The rickety buses that do run are way below comfort levels for the paying public so they use their own vehicles, myself included. It is little wonder that Tamil Nadu's transport corporations ("kazhagams") are perpetually loss-making. So Chennai has a ticking time bomb in the form of the 3rd highest vehicle population behind NCR and Bangalore.

But Chennai has excellent suburban connectivity. During my last visit to Chennai, I had to go to Mahindra World City and my hotel was in T Nagar. Took an auto from hotel to Kodambakkam and then the suburban train to Paranur
When I got down at the station, I noticed the huge crowd using the foot over bridge. All these folks had boarded the suburban train to go to work.
Plus we also have MRTS and metro. I guess the MRTS patronage is less compared to suburban train service.
Bangalore lacks these options.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

But Chennai has excellent suburban connectivity. During my last visit to Chennai, I had to go to Mahindra World City and my hotel was in T Nagar. Took an auto from hotel to Kodambakkam and then the suburban train to Paranur
When I got down at the station, I noticed the huge crowd using the foot over bridge. All these folks had boarded the suburban train to go to work.
Plus we also have MRTS and metro. I guess the MRTS patronage is less compared to suburban train service.
Bangalore lacks these options.

I had the bus services in mind. The train services are truly a boon to Chennai, yes. I reckon they fall under a different management than the bus service by MTC.
Chennai's MTC is perpetually sick operationally, financially and experience-wise as well.

[wildsdi5530]

1 IT employee needs 4 service providers to take care of his needs. I don't think that IT employees form the bulk of the traffic in Bangalore. Maybe at the gates of IT parks, but there is a larger Bangalore beyond that. All this talk about private cars causing traffic jams is just blowing our trumpets. The population of Bangalore is 1.23 crores. The IT crowd and factory workers who travel by cars is probably 10% of that. In fact in North Bangalore, I see many more cabs than private vehicles except on Sundays. You would probably reduce traffic by walking to the nearby store or restaurant than ordering online. But driving to work, especially if your work involves multiple places is not really adding significantly to the traffic. A simple logic, if you count the next 10 private vehicles you see and the next 10 public vehicles that you see, and make a note of their odd readings, I'm sure the public vehicles will trump the private ones by a factor of 10. BMTC buses run for 6,00,000kms before being scrapped. Most private vehicles rarely cross 1,00,000kms.
I know that we have to start making a difference, but no point barking up the wrong tree. We have made the zillions of taxis and delivery vehicles possible. Not driving your car for 15 kms twice a day will make a difference, yes, but you can make a higher difference in other ways. Don't be like the govt. and give in to knee jerk reactions.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

1 IT employee needs 4 service providers to take care of his needs. I see many more cabs than private vehicles except on Sundays.

Yesssir! Already articulated that a few posts ago:

Originally Posted by am1m

BTW, company cabs and Uber/Ola are not public transport, they are part of the problem.

Just to clarify, 'public transport' means mass-transit and the whole ecosystem that supports that - walking infra, last-mile, zoning, etc. It is complex, but many cities in the world have it in place already. We can use that learning and proactively go towards such a solution/system.

Frankly, I agree, things are still not too bad (1140 pages of this rants thread notwithstanding ) when it comes to driving/riding in Bangalore because it still makes sense for most of us (me included) to use road transport (yes, including cabs). But no one will deny that it's worse than it was just 3 or 5 years ago? So maybe we need to wait till things become even worse.

Originally Posted by msdivy

I have to haggle and then pay

That's what I meant when I said the autos don't run as they are supposed to. Believe me no one dislikes them more than I do! I meant IF they ran they way they were meant to, they would make a great last mile connectivity solution combined with the metro. One solution is that BMRCL runs their own last-mile connectivity solution, or incentivizes the auto unions to do that properly.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by am1m

Agreed, no bus/metro service can have end-to-end connectivity. If the autos ran as they are supposed to do in Bangalore, that would be the perfect solution. But they don't.

I find it odd that after paying Rs 15 for bus, I have to haggle and then pay Rs 50 for an auto ride from bus-stop to home. If the footpaths were paved for walking, I would have gladly taken it.

Secondly, BMTC acquired 30-seater short buses for last mile connectivity. Alas, I find them doing the long-distance duty on ORR, Why ?!
At the same time, BMTC is running long 50-seater buses in narrow bylanes in few localities, causing traffic hold-ups to make way for long/wide buses.

On parking, BBMP has totally forgotten to build and mark parking space. If there is no designated parking, then people can park anywhere. That is what is happening and that is reason for crawling speeds in our cities.
BMTC has built their TTMCs in some main localities. Jayanagar & Shantinagr TTMCs has top floor marked for parking (which is not sufficient). Correct me, I have not seen parking facility in other TTMCs. Whitefield has one, but not used. Some of the TTMCs office few Govt departments. In fact, the Whitefield TTMC near Vydehi has a wedding hall. No surprise on where BMTC's priorities lie.

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

This is a query for BHPians who regularly use ORR with White Topping sections
1) Was there water-logging witnessed in the recent showers ?
2) Was there an impact on braking distance due to wet cement roads ?

The road in front of Vidhana Soudha is concrete one and I am not sure when it was laid. For nearly 20~30 years I see the same road holding up. The only maintenance I have seen is filling the lane gaps with tar. Not sure if this is others experience too.

What is the difference between such a concrete road and the white-topped ones?

[mazda4life]

Originally Posted by am1m

Just to clarify, 'public transport' means mass-transit and the whole ecosystem that supports that - walking infra, last-mile, zoning, etc. It is complex, but many cities in the world have it in place already. We can use that learning and proactively go towards such a solution/system.

even though I am an US employee , due to personal reasons I have been working from Bangalore for the past few months. I dont drive my car here and take the volvo ( ~ 85%) of the time and find it very convenient. This entails me walking with laptop for a distance of around 3 kms each way from bus stop to my office , but I am ok with it. There is a small path next to the flyover where I walk and dread the thought that some lunatic might jump off the flyover while I am walking on the narrow pavement. Even though the tech park where I work has made arrangement for the last mile connectivity, I find it easier to walk. I have no complaints in general on the frequency or quality of service of BMTC , but this is new territory as public transport in a developed country like USA is pretty pathetic to say the least.