A few Indian cities once had a decent fleet of articulated buses, but they disappeared almost overnight.

I'll walk you through their design, history, current status, and why it's time we bring them back to our city roads.

🧵.. The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) was one of the early adopters of this design, naming them ‘Janti Vahana’ – a non-AC vestibule buses in blue and white livery that navigated the city’s narrow roads for many years.

Image: Sunil Clikz

I spent the last 5 hours reading China's EV growth through technical journals, news reports, and even sketchy Chinese websites(starting from year 2000).

I then read and learned about FAME 1, 2 policies of Indian govt.

How do I sleep now? To summarize:

1. China started research in battery tech back in year 2000 with universities, scientists and private companies.
2. In 2008, deployed electric buses in Olympics village.
3. In 2012, BYD was leader in electric city/long distance buses and opened a factory in US.
4. 2016, Chinese cities were mostly running electric city buses.
5. 2020, Most vehicles in China are EV.

Indian cities create a feeling of being trapped and isolated.

Back in the year 1947, while India was celebrating its independence, Denmark was quietly working on its "Finger plan" to solve this very problem.

🧵.. India is rapidly urbanizing.

We have added 4% of the population to the cities in last decade. Rural population keeps declining every year.

Urban population now stands at around 37% of the total population.

North Indians migrating to Bengaluru is often reported in news with both locals and the migrants taking potshots at each other.

And while this debate rages on, there is a silent and rising migration happening right under your nose.

🧵.. As the state rapidly urbanizes(led by Bengaluru), people from northern districts of Karnataka are moving to the city to fulfill their dreams.

It is not just the poor but people from all economic & social backgrounds are waving goodbye to their home towns.

The upper middle class & the rich in India are surrounding themselves with walls & barriers.

Gated communities are growing in popularity and as wealth disparity in the country grows, several private developers are rushing in to fill this demand.

Let's look at this closely 🧵.. Here is what defines it:

"A gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences."

My colleague from Europe traveled to India and stayed in Bengaluru for a week.

Upon returning I asked him what stood out and what was the most surprising thing about the city and India in general.

Here's what he said 🧵.. Just to give more background, this was his first time traveling to our country.

He usually travels within Europe and to US. So keep that in mind.

One of the most misunderstood aspects of urban planning in India is that planners believe creating a couple of community spaces is good enough to improve livability of a city.

Take for example the Church street redesign(Bengaluru) or Sabarmati river front(Ahmedabad).. While these are essential needs of a city, they are just one of the pieces of a larger puzzle of urban infrastructure.

Govt spend hundreds of crores on such projects without showing similar interests on problems that people face on a day-to-day basis.

Such grand projects..

I was having a conversation with a friend's school going kid. She spends more than an hour in school bus every morning and evening. That is 2 productive hours gone out of the day.

The distance to school from her home is just 3 km. She want to commute on a cycle but ... parents won't let her because of traffic and how unsafe it is for young kids to cycle in the Kalaburagi city.

School buses have to pick and drop about 40 kids which is time consuming especially during peak hours.

She said that the last kid in the bus ....