Netizens shared their ordeal after a Twitter user named Srinivas Alavilli shared the image of a ₹20 bus ticket and wrote on the microblogging site, “I was willing to pay 15 times more for a cab as I was in a bit of a rush but wasn’t even available. Wasted time booking & getting the dreaded “elli saar" call & then you know what next :) In comes the lovely No. 13 @BMTC_BENGALURU & I’m off to Jayanagar for a princely sum of ₹20."
As the tweet created a buzz over the social media platform, a user predicted that Ola and Uber cabs will be ‘out within the next 3-5 years’, at least in Bengaluru.
Another user complained about having to deal with repeated cancellations, the standard ‘cash or Ola money’ question and long wait time for rides to be assigned, with another mentioning the ‘ridiculous’ attitude of drivers both in Uber and Ola. “When they are penalising customers for cancelling, why not the drivers also be penalised for cancelling trips after accepting the booking?" questioned the user.
However Srinivas' suggestion to board a bus was countered by Pallavi who said it's a rare to get a bus at the place, “Bus service from BMS college(Basavangudi) 2 Jayanagar & Jayanagar to Bannerghatta road has horrible frequency. There is almost no bus service from Bannerghatta road to Chikkakamnahalli as 369E & 369G either hardly come on time or dont come at all. But yes auto/cab service is more pathetic especially when it rains."
But cabs are no different, an instant poll suggested, for over 40% Bengalureans it takes between 6-15 minutes to get a cab, for 30% the timeframe is between 16 to 30 minutes.
Another Twitter user added that with ever-increasing traffic in Bengaluru, he decided to not use his personal vehicle and strictly avoids weekend outings, adding that the probability of getting a cab with Ola or Uber without cancellation has a 0% chance, therefore he has shifted to using cab rentals ezidrive and Savaari.
Since over half the cab drivers that worked in Bengaluru went to their hometowns in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and didn't return due to commission charges as high as 30% they have to pay the aggregators per ride, only around 30,000 cabs are on the roads today as compared to the 1 lakh-odd cabs that were in the city during the pre-COVID times, as per a report in May.
At the same time, Twitter has also been flooded with solutions to tackle the transportation hassle in the city, with a user posting statistics stating that public transport in India has a long way to go with only 63 of 458 Indian cities of more than 1 lakh population having a formal city bus system, adding that Chandigarh has the best per capita bus fleet with 4.7/1000 population, while Bengaluru has 0.54 buses/1000 population.
With delayed metro constructions, 23% of BMTC services not operational post 6 p.m. and the ongoing cab shortage in Bengaluru, public transportation is coming to a standstill with citizens running out of options.
