The Pune Road Experiment

Pune has a unique experiment on its roads. This, one notices as one enters the city from Hadpasar. The main road suddenly branches off with about 80% of the traffic squeezing itself into two small lanes by the side  that occupy about 30% of the road space. The central two lanes that occupy about 60% of the road space are empty and are reserved for RTC buses only. These bus roads are protected by huge dividers about five feet high and they have empty bus shelters designed for about 10 people to stand or sit. How anyone can get to those bus stops through all this traffic and over the dividers is anyones guess - especially for old people and school going children. The odd bus trundles along on those roads while the rest of the traffic squeezes past in the other side roads.

There are no signs of course which indicate which lane to take, just sign boards that indicate destinations. I could not  figure this system out without sign boards to help.  Someone said that this bus system had been made based on some Brazilian transport system. However it has been discarded since it did not work here. I mean after all that work, inconvenience and public money spent, they just discarded it. Wonder if any heads rolled or if things went on as usual - with just those bus lanes to show and loads of confusion for all else.