[sustran] Re: bus lanes

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

At 23:59 5/01/00 +0530, you wrote:
>Chennai (Madras), India, has had a bus lane on a small stretch of its major
>roadway, Mount Road (Anna Salai) for over five years now, but this system
>stretching over about 3 km now faces threat.
...

I have no knowledge of this particular stretch of Chennai bus lane and how
effective it is.  But the trend all over Asia is to extend and improve
on-road priority for buses. In almost every Asian case that I know of these
are lanes that used to be mixed traffic lanes. It is precisely when there
is intense competition for road space that it becomes most important to
give public transport priority. 

Some Asian examples of bus lanes (that were taken from mixed-traffic lanes)
include: 

Seoul + other Korean cities (massive expansion of bus-lane networks since
1990 with further expansion and improvements planned);
 
Taipei (fantastic network opened in 1995 has helped reverse trend of
declining bus ridership. I will email you (off-list) a  scanned photo
(jpeg) of one of their bus lanes which, like most of them in Taipei, runs
down the centre of the street);

Nagoya, Japan also has some centre-street bus lanes;

Singapore (extensive network - rigorously enforced); 

Hong Kong (extensive bus and tram priorities); 

Bangkok (extensive network since early 1980s including some "contra-flow
lanes". Enforcement slackened by the end of 1980s so only the contra-flow
lanes were working. But I hear that there is now a renewed determination to
enforce the bus lanes in Bangkok.);  

Kuala Lumpur (several bus lanes since 1996 - apparently done a little
hastily but in some cases are working quite well);

Jakarta (several lanes - to be expanded);

There are many many other successful examples from all over the world,
including especially Brazil (including but not only Curitiba) and Western
Europe (eg London has been improving bus priority in the 1990s). 

My comment on the Chennai situation:  I believe that buses now carry a
higher percentage of passengers in Chennai compared with cars. But I would
bet that cars already occupy more road space than buses. I would guess that
the bus speeds have already been dropping recently as the number of cars
rises rapidly. So, in order to protect the bus system from congestion,
there is probably a strong case for a massive expansion of the bus priority
system in Chennai, not a reduction!

Hope this helps.

Paul.
PLEASE NOTE NEW 8 DIGIT TELEPHONE/FAX NUMBER

A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN)
P.O. Box 11501,  Kuala Lumpur 50748, Malaysia.
TEL/FAX: +60 3 2274 2590
E-mail: sustran at po.jaring.my
SUSTRAN:  http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853/
SUSTRAN-DISCUSS: http://www.egroups.com/group/sustran-discuss/

The SUSTRAN network promotes and popularises 
people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport 
with a focus on Asia and the Pacific.