I hadn’t been much in the City for the past three years. I’ve had a little trouble recollecting the exact routes and corresponding bus numbers. I Googled for it, with little hope, and the results didn’t surprise me. There wasn’t much info in this regard. On the occasion of World Environment, when the focus is on promoting the use of Public Transport, this isn’t a very encouraging sign.

I was wondering if the Bus route info can somehow be integrated with Google maps or the like. This will be a good thing to do, since people who have access to internet (the higher rungs of the society) are the ones who are most aware of the threats to the Environment and also the ones who least use public transport. This could help them do some planning and encourage use of public transport. Later on, may be the Buses could have some kind of a GPS sytem that could be interlinked with the maps, giving people great power! I’m not sure if this already exists elsewhere in the world, but seemed an interesting thing to do.

On a different note, just wanted to share this different perspective my mom was giving to my 7 year old neice. We were on a bus and my niece wasn’t very happy about the crowd and the Bus journey. My mom, then said something, probably to amuse the kid and distract her for a while. But its an interesting way of looking at things.

You should be proud that you are aboard a bus that costs around 15 lacs, something we wouldn’t normally be able to buy. And that too for a small sum of Rs. 5. You are being driven around by a chauffeur employed by the State Govt. and you needn’t bother yourself with the routes and other headaches of driving you’d have if you used your personal car…

The kid wasn’t convinced or even amused by this, but I liked the interesting observation. Some food for thought, My mom travels for an hour and half by bus to reach her work and she’s been doing so since I was a kid of 5 or 6. Now I know why she’s been able to do it for so many years, everyday!