India is failing its public bus commuters

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Editor's note: For 30 years, Vidyadhar Date took a bus to work. His boss did too, as did many other colleagues. “Many of them didn’t need to,” says Date. “My boss owned a four-storey building in Bandra. He still preferred the bus.” Date worked at the Mumbai bureau of The Times of India till he retired in 2004. For him, the bus was more than a mode of commute. “It was a joyride,” he says. “I know people who’ve got married after meeting on a bus. Even Rosa Parks’s role in the civil rights movement in the US started from a bus.” At 78, he still uses the bus, but finds little joy in travel now. “The speeds have reduced; the time taken is high. If you’re standing, the city heat will make you miserable.” But when former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner Ajoy Mehta launched a campaign to “rationalize” the city’s bus services, Date and a few others formed a voluntary pressure group—Aamchi Mumbai, Aamchi BEST—in protest.  Mehta, who served as municipal commissioner from 2015 to 2019, was concerned about the “burden” …