[sustran] bus lanes

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

Dear Ananthakrishnan, Paul, Colleagues,

Let me try to add usefully to this thread if I may. Since time is awfully
short this morning, I am afraid that this must take the form of several
hasty bullets. But perhaps others can come in and fill out the underlying
issues, arguments and positions that one must take. After all the object is,
simple though it is to write or say it, no more, no less than sustainable
transportation.

* The trick with bus lanes is that they just cannot be isolated from the
greater whole of which they are inevitably part.  They are difficult,
delicate creatures that can make it only in a broader supportive, more or
less coherent environment of policy and behavior.

* There have been lots of cases in the past , lots of places, in which bus
lanes have not worked out.

* Also, the truth is that there are many more ways of getting them right
than getting them wrong.

* And further, even most of those that are there and "working
satisfactorily" today are not nearly as powerful or useful as sustainability
tools as they might be.  (Bearing in mind that sustainability does NOT
preclude throughput efficiency.)

* In my years of observation and work in this sector, I note that the police
out there on the street and trying to cope every day tend to know a great
deal more about the realties of life out there than most transport planners
sitting at their desks with their fine Western training, analytic tools and
points of view.  (Object lesson: If you can't get the cops on your side,
then you are probably making a big mistake.  That does not mean, however,
that they are going to come up with the answers themselves.  But they must
be part of the analytic and remedial process.)

* One short term response that has worked pretty well in some places where
lanes have not been respected is of curse to run them AGAINST the other
traffic flow.

* Another is to ensure that there is enough bus traffic to "justify" the
exclusive lane in the eyes of the observers (i.e., all those drivers who are
competitors for the scarce road space).

* Another (but only once the above is ensured) is to figure out both "street
architecture" enforcement routines and a certain minimum of enforcement
(traffic police? drivers enabled to issue tickets? hmmm.) to keep the whole
thing reasonable clean and working.

* Paul Barter's recommendation for a massive expansion of the Chennai bus
lanes is no doubt the right way to go, but the problem always of course is
how to get from here to there.  The only way to do this is to CONVINCE!!!


A final point on this.  It strikes me that at present we, i.e., all those of
us who care about these matters, do not yet have the means to ensure that
the case of sustainable transport concepts such as these get their full and
fair hearing, when and where it is needed. (We can preach to the converted,
of course, and think that does the job, but it surely does not.) Sure there
are NGOs (and the best of these are indeed getting better and better),
consultants (but they have to sell their services and thus have apparent
vested interests), researchers and university types (who have their own
agenda), and a few other bits and pieces (including, for example, me and
maybe you) which are all potential parts of the solution process which is
needed to advance the sustainable transportation agenda. As are,
potentially, some of the international organizations such as the Bank, the
OECD and others... though truth to tell most of them have mixed agenda and
at you look close and hard at what they actually think about and do for the
most part, you will find that sustainable transportation is pretty far down
on their overall agenda.

All this leaves me with what I think is an interesting thought.  Who can
walk in to the office of the mayor and governor responsible for Chennai
(already quite a task to arrange), get them to sit down, listen hard and
come on board the sustainable transportation bandwagon once and for all --
and then help guide them to do what is needed and possible, when it is
needed and possible, without bringing the crowds out into the street and
getting them hung and/or thrown out of office for all their fine thoughts?

Guess I'll have to keep thinking about that one.

Eric Britton


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.
A. Rahman Paul BARTER
Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific (SUSTRAN)