[sustran] Bus and rail

[Alan Patrick Howes]

Obviously for Busways / BRT to be successful it needs to be segregated from
general traffic downtown. Anything else indicates lack of political nerve. A
generalised, idealised busway network might have - 

- exclusive RoW in downtown, either elevated, or in subway (may need
dual-mode buses) or perhaps in Europe at the edge of a rail RoW,
- median or shoulder bus lanes on major radials
- mixed-traffic running within suburban areas.


-- 
Alan P Howes, Special Transport Advisor, 
     Dubai Municipality Public Transport Department
aphowes at dm.gov.ae
Tel:    +971 4 286 1616 ext 214
Mobile: +971 50 5989661


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brent Efford [mailto:brent.efford at techmedia.co.nz]
> Sent: Fri, March 01, 2002 2:53 AM
> To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
> Subject: [sustran] RE: sustran-discuss V1 #985
> 
> 
> A significant example of the "trojan horse" use of busways is 
> Auckland, New
> Zealand, where busways are being promoted by an anti-rail 
> coalition backing
> extensive freeway construction - i.e. as a sop to pro-public transport
> sentiment without seriously challenging the car-dependent 
> paradigm. There
> are some busways already, using the shoulders of existing 
> freeways, but they
> come to an end where there is real competition for road 
> width, like over the
> harbour bridge.
> 
> To be in any way comparable to rail systems, busways would 
> need to provide
> an unobstructed right of way end-to-end. Busways can provide 
> fast transit
> through suburban areas but seem to exacerbate congestion 
> problems downtown
> where the buses have to mix with ordinary traffic, and become 
> congestion
> agents in their own right. Compare central Melbourne, where over-all
> congestion is quite low and few bus routes enter the central 
> city (and the
> trams stick obediently to the middle of the street) with 
> Brisbane or Sydney.
> 
> Brent Efford
> Co-ordinator, Transport 2000+ NZ
> PO Box 2626, Wellington 6015
> New Zealand
>