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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Dear Eric,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>I was particularly interested by Dr Adhiraj
Joglekar's contribution relating to several Indian Cities posted today. Much of
what he stated is sound common sense. I have knowledge only of Mumbai and
perhaps the following comments relating to that City may have appication
elsewhere.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>1 I was in a team asked to
examine the Mumbai bus network. With many hundreds of routes spread over a huge
area and carrying 4.5 million customers daily, this was an impossible task in
the project time available. We therefore concentrated on routes feeding the CBD
peninsula.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>2 Even this had a huge route
network with bus services extending to the west coastal communities, the central
ones. the eastern ones and Nowe Mumbai.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>3 Analysis of the network route
by route showed that the nonsense promulgated 50 years ago by the Consultancy
arm of the old London Transport (add the two way journey time to the two
terminal layovers and divide the total by the number of buses one wished to
deploy on the route to determine the frequency) had resulted in various services
offering headways of 19, 23, 37 and 52 minutes and the like. Note I
have called these headways not frequencies.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>4 Clearly the people planning
this nonsense either never themselves travel on these services or possibly catch
exactly the same bus every day to and from their destination so they know what
time it is scheduled. Most people are unable to plan their days with such
precision.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>5 Bearing in mind the scorching
heat / driving monsoon rain depending upon the season, the maximum interval
between buses should be 10 minutes or less on every important route. (Dr
Joglekar mentions 5 minute intervals but there were very few individual routes
reaching this frequency - although some trips where several routes ran in common
would offer this level of service)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>6 The absolute minimum urban
headway in a metropolis like Mumbai should be 30 minutes. No bus service should
be planned unless the headway is divisible into 60 minutes - the only acceptable
ones are anything up to 6 minutes, 7.5 minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes, 15
minutes 20 minutes and 30 minutes. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>7 The times should remain as
constant as possible throughout the day (allowing for running time variations to
cope with peak congestion) so that customers can remember the times past each
hour when buses leave a terminal and have these fixed in their minds - e.g.
07,22,37 and 52 minutes past each hour. This is the basic key to successful
marketing of any public transport timetable, and is even more vital where, as in
Mumbai, the timetables are not published or advertised.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>8 The rubbish routes with
crazy, non memorable, non recurring headways should be ditched. Most of them
probably only exist due to vote-catching political pressure from someone who
doesn't understand the basics of public transport.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>9 Transfer tickets should be
available to enable customers who used the 37 / 52 minute headway routes and the
others instead to use two frequent routes and interchange between them realising
the benefit of short waiting times, staying cool and dry, getting there more
quickly etc without any financial penalty. Season tickets would offer the
same convenience but might not be affordable by those living on the financial
margin.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>10 The resources from the
rubbish routes should be used to strengthen the rest of the network, so the 19
minute headways might become 15 minutes (or 20), the 27 minutes become 20 or 30
etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>11 I could go on about the
removal of double deck high capacity buses and the need for two conductors on
these and the handful of articulated buses, the impossibility of clambering up
(and down) three steps by the elderly or handicapped (who are effectively
excluded from public transport as a result) but these are other matters not
relating to the route / timetable patterns themselves.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>12 The chief planner told me on
my second visit that he had listened to my earlier recommendations and had
implemented many of them in the last 4-monthly service review. As a result daily
boardings had risen to 4.7 million customers (of course a few thousand of these
may have been due to a minority of users having to transfer). These solutions
will work everywhere in the world and might be worth trying in the other Indian
Cities too.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Peter Lutman
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eric.britton@ecoplan.org href="mailto:eric.britton@ecoplan.org">Eric
Britton</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org
href="mailto:Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org">Sustran-discuss@list.jca.apc.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 21, 2009 6:24 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sustran] How much money should
we spend on nicer buses?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Dear Sustranes
and particularly everyone who is chipping in on this great topic, this
seashell to the ear and you hear the roar of the ocean.
.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">What I am
seeing thus far is so very good, so very germane in many ways for many paces,
that I would like to turn it into a small series of pieces for World Streets.
I have already contacted several of the authors to see how we might best
handle this.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">All thoughts on
this and further discussion here are very welcome
indeed.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">Best/Eric<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black">PS. Have you
chipped in with your thoughts on World Streets. We are getting some wonderful
commentaries and commendations, and these are going to be very valuable for us
indeed as we chart a course for the future.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="LINE-HEIGHT: 110%"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 110%">Eric Britton | <A
href="http://www.worldstreets.org/"><SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 110%">World
Streets </SPAN></A>| <A href="http://www.newmobility.org/"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 110%">The New Mobility Agenda </SPAN></A> |
Paris | +331 4326 1323 | Skype</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black">
ericbritton <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
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