[sustran] Assistance wanted - Bus Priority References

[Alan Howes]

[Reposted, with addition re. UTC - apologies for any duplication, but I
fear the previous post from a diffeent address may have bounced.]

I am looking for assistance in convincing our Roads Engineers that Bus
Priority is not such a dreadful thing after all. More specifically, I
am looking for references which show the range benefits to bus users,
and disbenefits (if any - I hope they are small) to other road users
as a result of giving buses early calls / extended greens etc. at
traffic signals.

By way of background - here in Dubai we have around 200 buses serving
a population of 800,000 plus. Significant congestion at some times of
day in some areas, heavy delays to buses. South California-style
highway layouts, with lots of 4-phase traffic signals (heavy left
[offside] turns, up to 5- or 6-lane approaches). Probably insufficient
bus volumes to justify bus lanes as yet, at least in terms of current
public opinion. There is a comprehensive UTC sytem, using SCOOT, which
is apparently capable of implementing Selective Bus Detection.

Our roads engineers, unfortunately, are also mostly West Coast
trained, and as yet don't seem to realise that however many roads you
build, they will only fill up with traffic - though some recent
consultant reports have sounded the warning, and a feasibility study
for LRT is currently under way.

-- 
Alan Howes, "Transport Expert", 
Dubai Municipality Public Transport Department
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
alaninthegulf at yahoo.co.uk

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