My commute (by car) takes me through a toll-gate every day. You can pay cash at the gate or buy a monthly pass. If you have a pass, the guy at the toll-gate has a look at the pass and waves you through. You just have to slow down to a crawl, you don’t have to stop. Paying by cash naturally takes a few seconds more than showing a pass, as the attendant takes the money, gives change if necessary and hands over a receipt.
Naturally, it is frustrating for the regular pass-holder to get stuck behind a person who is paying cash. To avoid that problem, they have marked one lane (the right lane) as “Monthly pass only”. But unfortunately they do not enforce that rule. Given what sticklers for rules we Indians are, you can guess what happens. Non pass-holders routinely ignore the rule and choose whichever lane strikes their fancy. Naturally, their fancy tends to favour the lane that has the lowest traffic.
Which lane should a pass-holder take?
This is a somewhat cryptic question and I cannot make it any clearer because that will give away the answer. So you will have to accept that I haven’t given sufficient information and make reasonable (and eminently guessable) assumptions.
All I can tell you is, if lots of non pass-holders read this post and came to know the answer, the answer would no longer be valid.
i have an answer but it does not seem to work with the hint you have given in the end… so i’ll pass…
But yes, to eliminate the problem (or atleast to reduce impact) my proposal would be that – they can charge non-pass holders an extra charge if they come into the pass-holders lane (this of course under the reasonable assumption that there are sufficient signs to indicate that it is a passholders lane)…
(but just in case you had a prize)
my answer was – just choose any lane – as a normal non-pass holder would do…
Choose the non-pass holder lane in case of a tie between pass holder lane and non-pass holder lane..
Both pass holders and non pass holders are looking for a quick way to get through over a sustained period of time. Given a normal situation where the road is reasonably well used and there are more non-pass passengers than pass holders, you should always choose the pass holders only lane unless it is significantly more crowded than a non pass lane. Reason thus:
1. At worst, with non pass holders doing as they please, every lane is equally crowded. If every pass holder took the pass holders only lane for choice, this lane would be crowded with more efficient throughput.
2. The way these toll roads function (I think), by increasing the percentage of pass travellers on the pass lane and reducing non pass holders, the gate would soon run out of change and thus become unattractive for people without a pass.
Pick the trucks and buses lane. Thats what I always do, cause though the line may look longer, there will only be 2-3 trucks as opposed to 5-6 cars.
choose the lane which has a female attendant wearing a skimpy blouse giving a sneak peak of her full bosom
sorry sir but this was a comment I left on the BBM post, I have pasted it here again lest it should miss ur eye because it was important..
After following TTG’s link here in previous post, I just found at that the guy who did the sting on the delhi Bloggers meet introduced himself as a Manipuri Student. the “manipuri Student†happen to be a journo of delhi times. As I could also confirm that he was indeed a manipuri.
OK I am also a Manipuri, and I am going to be a newbie to the MBM.
I shifted to Mumbai only 3 months back.
I started my Blog while at Pune, and continued at Kolkata where I missed the CBM twice. So it will be first time to a BM, though i can’t be called quite a newbie. I registered my first Blog in Oct 2002, http://tony_imp.blogspot.com which I only revived recently With “Postings on Manipurâ€. I had been blogging at rediffblogs for more than 2 years now and was listed in the Sizzling Blogs of rediffblogs main page as http://anthony.rediffblogs.com for sometime in 2003. I recently shifted to blogspot as http://anthonysmiror.blogspot.com …well do check out.. I am not one of the elite bloggers, my blog was just a personal diary with an opinion once ina while.. I am blogrolled at Sambharmafia and someother blogs.
I hope I won’t be misunderstood for a sting operator.. I will post pic today for identification. Thx
Anant Sudarshan, you made a reasonable but wrong assumption about the normal situation. There are a lot more pass-holders than non pass-holders. The reason being that it is a route used for commuting.
That makes no sense, Ravi. If the “normal” situation is that there are more pass holders than non pass-holders, why is there only one lane for the majority and more than one for what appears to be the minority?
If the idea is that paying money even by a lesser number of people takes more time and therefore there are multiple lanes, I would then suggest taking any given lane – but seems totally illogical planning.
No no. One lane is reserved for them. They can go to any of the car lanes. But non pass-holders aren’t supposed to go on the right lane. But this rule is ignored.
Swami, your idea about charging non pass-holders extra to go on the right lane is a good one. The reason why the “Monthly pass only” rule is not enforced is that if a non pass-holder turns up at the right lane, turning him to another lane is a big hassle and it will be more trouble for everyone.
see i should have been a town-planner for the MMABCD whatever… for giving this idea, i will get all that extra charge that is collected at the counter… + a bonus… all for the benefit of the state…
btw, time for the answers to be let out before we all chew our nails out… u know…
Something similar happened in the vadadora-halol highway as well. There was a service lane provided for the villagers who lived in the area which didn’t have a toll fee.But as it happens in India, everybody starting using the lane and the project came under a major revenue crunch. We had a case about it in an infrastructure class and I, bored to death, wrote this rhyme to while away my time
Toll to totally free
Traveling to Halol, I was told
Ain’t the same, as it was tolled
With a 2 line dual carriageway
Next to which a service line lay
With a surface like JLo’s bottom
Cruising thro’ it became the norm
But as the economy sputtered
The toll collections also petered
So the TRC went about its review
Hike the toll fee, they said on cue
Shifted to the free lane, the drivers
Yeah, we are a nation of free-riders
hiii….hope u remember me after the last blogger’s meet….first of all, i found ur blog interesting and to put in straight words, i stop by ur blog only when i want to avoid sleeping, (specially in office-post lunch session) and when i want to recoup….i have made an attempt to solve the obove problem….
keeping in mind ur cryptic question and the hint u have given….i think the best solution for ‘pass holders’ wud be to take only the lane(on the right) assigned to them….coz if they all unanimously start taking only the lane assigned to them(the right lane), and goin by the fact(stated by u) that there are more pass holders than non-pass holders, the natural aftermath wud be that the non-pass holders will start taking the other lanes, as perhaps the right lane wud become the one with the maximum traffic of all and according to ur case, the non-pass holders fancy the lane wich has the lowest traffic….so the non-pass holders would obviously avoid the right lane….
But the answer above has certain constraints to it wich is as follows….
the degree of traffic on the right lane need not always be high, as all ‘pass holders’ maynot commute at the same given time of the day, and thus the right lane maynot be always busy….under such circumstances, a non-pass holder might just fancy the right lane if it has a comparitively lower traffic rate…..in such a case the ‘extra charges’ is a fine idea….and i think it shud work….
please let out the answer soon ‘isse pehle ki main apne saare baal noch daloon’…..
cheers!!
Welcome Surya, you are completely right. Congrats! But didn’t you hear it when I gave out the answer at the MMRBM?
The degree of traffic on the right lane need not always be high, as all ‘pass holders’ maynot commute at the same given time of the day, and thus the right lane maynot be always busy….under such circumstances, a non-pass holder might just fancy the right lane if it has a comparitively lower traffic rate…..in such a case the ‘extra charges’ is a fine idea….and i think it shud work….
The pass-holders all probably travel at around the same time – the logic being that pass-holders are probably frequent users of the road, probably commuters to work and back home… and these ppl generally travel during the rush hour…
So, it might probably work out well…
Yes you are right. The logic works well during peak hours on weekdays. Off-peak hours and weekends, it breaks down. In fact, I take the right lane out of habit and invariably scream at people non-passholders who hog the lane.