[sustran] Re: Busway Operation

[Gmenckhoff at worldbank.org]

This has been an interesting exchange on busway operations, especially (to me)
this morning's contribution on Ottawa.

   Perhaps it is worthwhile differentiating between the systems in North
   America, Europe and Australia on one side, and those in developing countries
   on the other.  With the latter, (a) passenger volumes are much higher, (b)
   financial resources are more constrained, and (c) bus services are often
   provided by private operators without strong Government control.  At this
   stage, most developing-country experience comes from Latin America.  Here are
   some observations from that Region regarding the "open" versus "closed"
   operations.  In some cases, these complement the points already made by
   Walter Hook.

   Experience with traditional "open" busways in Brazil, Bogotá (pre-2000) and
   Lima has demonstrated that it is difficult to control trunk-line operations
   under an open system, with bunching of vehicles occurring along the busway,
   which can severely reduce commercial speeds.  In the planning of most recent
   BRTs, it was thus concluded that the transfer time penalty incurred under the
   closed system would be more than offset by the higher commercial speed along
   the busways.  Even in Santiago and São Paulo?s passa-rápido system, which
   operate under an open system, most trunk line buses terminate at outlying
   terminals where passengers can transfer to local bus services (interestingly,
   São Paulo has central busway platforms, and therefore had to install doors on
   both sides of many buses; Santiago has all platforms on the right side).

   In the Latin American context, restricting access to a limited number of bus
   companies has been as much a technical as a political issue.  Without a
   deliberate control on the number of buses, busways will congest just like
   regular streets do when there are too many cars.  Bus bunching will
   drastically affect commercial speeds and operating efficiency.  GPS-aided
   operation would be impossible if bus access were not controlled.  There is
   little doubt that the high speeds and passenger volumes observed in Latin
   American BRTs (over 40,000 pphpd on a 2+2 lane busway in Bogotá, 14,000 -
   20,000 pphpd on 1+1 lane busways in Bogotá and elsewhere) could not have been
   reached with open systems.

   I agree with Walter that some open operation makes sense, especially with
   high-level platforms in the center of the busway, and normal operation in
   regular streets.  As he and Alan say, this requires buses with high-level
   doors on the left, and normal step-down doors on the right.  Such systems are
   now being implemented in two Colombian cities, Cartagena and Bucaramanga.  In
   both cases, some of the trunk-line buses will go beyond the busway to serve
   corridors with a relatively low passenger demand.

   As somebody said:  BRT is a flexible concept, not "one size fits all".

   Gerhard







                                                                                
             "Walter Hook"                                                      
             <whook at itdp.org>                                                   
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                                         Transit-Prof at yahoogroups.com, 'Peter   
                                         Lutman' <lutman at globalnet.co.uk>       
             09/11/2006 11:35 AM                                        Subject 
                                         [sustran] Re: Busway Operation         
                                                                                
              Please respond to                                                 
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Your interpretation is correct.

Of course, it depends...

Many of the capacity constraint issues do not become problems until you are
trying to reach capacity levels that developed country cities will rarely
need to reach.  Low floor buses tend to hold fewer passengers because the
wheel wells occupy a lot of space inside the bus.  The buses also tend to be
more expensive.  These issues are not so important in first world cities
like Ottawa.  What is the capacity in Ottawa?

You can have pre-paid curb-side boarding stations like in Curitiba, and low
platforms meeting low floor buses, but that means you need two stations
instead of one for each station stop, which generally consumes more right of
way or ends up with very narrow stations, and hence more difficulties in
finding the right of way to put in a passing lane.  The lower platform
height constitutes less of a barrier to illegal entry to the station.  It is
only marginally more expensive to put doors on both sides of the bus, and
the operational advantages of having the bus stop in the central median
shared by both directions of traffic generally justify the additional bus
expense, but of course there will be exceptions, like if the buses operate
in mixed traffic only on one way streets, or conformity with ADA regs is an
issue, etc.



-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
Of Alan Howes
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 10:59 AM
To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport
Cc: Transit-Prof at yahoogroups.com; Peter Lutman
Subject: [sustran] Re: Busway Operation

Must have a look at that website, Walter -

But is your statement that "it requires a bus with doors on both sides
of the bus" based on the premise that buses captive to the system will
have high floors and platform-level loading on the off-side, while the
"intruders" will have low-level boarding on the nearside?  This is one
way of doing it, but not the only way.  All buses could have low floors
and nearside boarding - the Ottawa Transitway is not closed, and AFAIK
the buses have doors on one side only.  (Not sure it has any captive
buses though, and you may not consider it BRT.)

In general, I see what you are driving at and agree - but one of the
merits of BRT is that it is a flexible concept, not "one size fits all".
If you want max capacity then you need mega-buses that will have
problems on ordinary roads - but if you are prepared to sacrifice some
capacity then a mix of bus sizes is fine.

>From my [armchair] experience, I have concluded that the main constraint
on capacity is actually the stations, particularly in a CBD or the like
where large proportions of the pax on a bus are getting on or off.

Alan


--
Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan
4 St Colme Street
Edinburgh      EH3 6AA
Scotland
email:  alan.howes at cbuchanan.co.uk
tel:      (0)131 226 4693 (switchboard)
           (0)7952 464335  (mobile)
fax:     (0)131 220 0232
www: http:/www.cbuchanan.co.uk/


-----Original Message-----
From:
sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.
org] On Behalf Of Walter Hook
Sent: 11 September 2006 15:27
To: 'Global 'South' Sustainable Transport'
Subject: [sustran] Re: Busway Operation

Dear Jonathan,

It is quite possible to design a busway with buses entering and leaving
the busway which has as high a capacity as a closed busway.  However, it
requires a bus with doors on both sides of the bus, it requires still
having off board ticket collection along the corridor, (which implies
some duplication of ticketing systems) and platform level boarding.  It
also requires that the streets where the normal buses operate can handle
larger buses (if they are required).  The problem is that this requires
replacing a very large bus fleet, which is very expensive.  By the way,
no system like this has yet been designed, to my knowledge, but we are
working on just such
a system in Guangzhou.

However, it is important that the system is 'closed' in the sense that
not any bus can use the system, only buses conforming to a required
technical specification and under a specific management authority.  By
this definition, this is still a 'closed' system, even if the routes
involve some that operate both on trunk lines and some in mixed traffic.


If you need to see the details for calculating capacity, you can for now
go to a non-linked part of the itdp web site, and check the to
operations chapters, at www.itdp.org/brt_guide.html.  I hope to have the
fully formatted new version up in a few weeks, but this will probably
have the information you need.

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On
Behalf Of Jonathan E. D. Richmond
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 3:32 AM
To: Sustran List
Subject: [sustran] Busway Operation


If anyone is an expert in busway implementation and operation and can
help with the following question, could they please be in touch with me.
The specific question I am trying to answer is "What is the difference
in capacity and operational viability and efficiency of an open as
against a closed busway." On an open busway, buses may enter and leave
at various points. With a closed busway, buses are isolated on the
busway itself, and do not enter or leave for distribution at teh
residential or city centre end. Thanks! --Jonathan!


-----
Jonathan Richmond
Transport Adviser to the Government of Mauritius Ministry of Public
Infrastructure, Land Transport and Shipping Level 4 New Government
Centre Port Louis Mauritius

1 (617) 395-4360 (for voicemail)

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/
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