Confusing bus routes of Chennai – GPS info

My friend Arun Ganesh has done a lot of work on bus routes and setting up websites to make it easier to navigate Chennai in a bus. Check out Chennai volvo routes and timings.

But does bus routes and getting around Chennai have to be this complicated ? On that page you will find the official MTC page. What is amazing is you can find out the timings if you know the route. If you know what 15G or 4E means, then you are safe. Is this how human beings think of traveling around the city. In terms of numbers and alphabets?

Compare with transport for London (tfL) site. They even made it easy for me to add widgets and tool to this post.

I have been meaning to take the A/C bus to various places, especially to Anna Nagar to visit my cousins. I love riding the A/C buses of Chennai when I can find one on time and at the right location when I want it. But I have been so lazy to go and search that I don’t usually bother. I take my car. What a waste!

For a long time my friends Daniel at Chennai City Connect has attempted to get the MTC to take his help in creating a more friendly website. Not only that. Do you know that many MTC buses have GPS in them. This means each of those buses can be tracked realtime. A simple process can display this valuable info on a map like the google transit map.

This opens up a world of possibilities. If the frequency of the buses are very high, say, every 2 to 5 minutes during peak hours, which is what advanced cities would offer, then you don’t have to worry about real time tracking. But that is not the case in Chennai. Especially if you want to ride in an A/C bus. Especially to and from work, during peak hour, so as to not get sweaty and dirty by the time you reach your workplace.

So there is a simple solution. Put the GPS info on google transit or similar mapping systems. This can be viewed on your computer or even on your mobiles. Which means that you don’t have to stand in the bus stop forever waiting for your A/C bus. You step out of the building and walk to the bus stand Just-In-Time. A strong incentive to take the A/C bus, especially during peak hour.

Why doesn’t Chennai already have this? I know the answer, but you ask MTC.